Playing with Hunger

I read a little more in Breaking Free from Emotional Eating on hunger. Turns out I wasn't far off. You can't really say exactly what it feels like for a person to be hungry. It's something each person has to experience for themselves. Likewise for fullness. Everyone is going to feel different things when they are hungry or full.

Her suggestion was to rate the hunger/fullness experience when you decide to eat. When you decide it's time to consume, figure out on a scale of 1-10 how hungry/full you are and keep that along side the food log. While I had a hard time understanding her hunger rating system (1 being most hungry, 10 being least), I did buy into the concept. I decided a 1 to 10 rating based on fullness fit my mental model better. I know what it feels like to be stuffed and uncomfortablly full, i.e. a "10". I don't know that it makes much difference how the ratings expressed. So going forward my food logs will have a "fullness" factor, 10 being most full.

The author also suggested experimenting with hunger. What happens if you feel really hungry and don't eat? What feelings arise both mentally and physiologically? She describes her body feeling queasy and getting headaches when she's most hungry. I don't know that I've ever experienced that level although I do get a touch queasy when I believe myself to be more hungry than usual along with that pinched sensation. My guess is that I typically eat when I'm about a 5 on the fullness scale.