Below is an excerpt from Nourishing Connections for October 2004 . Hunger refers to true physiological hunger. Those of us who are chronic dieters have learned to ignore our hunger, for fear of eating too much...so much so that many have lost the ability to recognize true hunger and fullness and with that the ability to eat like a normal person.
Even if you are on a diet, count calories, .....whatever method you use to monitor your weight, you can benefit from practicing eating when hungry, stopping when full. Paying attention to those sensations can go a long way toward helping us get a handle on eating well and give us an edge that will benefit our efforts to maintain our desired weight. Succeeding at that is the true test of whether a method works.
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Nourishing Reflections October 2004
"When you restrict food intake, you must ignore physical hunger. This works—for a while. The longer you restrict and/or the more often your try to restrict, the more difficult it becomes. Sooner or later, hunger will break through, and when it does, it can be quite loud and scary.
However, when you take care of your hunger, your hunger takes care of you. In fact, the simple act of eating when hungry is a profound act of self-care. Eating when hungry signals the ability to listen to and take care of your needs.
Not eating when hungry, on the other hand, creates a constant state of confusion and chaos within the body. Initially, this confusion and chaos can be quite subtle and easy to ignore. Eventually the effort required to ignore hunger becomes all-consuming. Not eating when hungry signals that needs will not be met, that you will not be taken care of. Not eating perpetuates a lack of safety that actually permeates other areas of your life.
Consider an infant who is not fed when she/he is hungry. The child does not feel safe. This core lack of safety occurs in adults when they experience unresolved hunger on a frequent basis. If a child or infant—or prisoner—is not fed when hungry, it is called abuse. If a woman or fat person does the same thing, it is called dieting. " Copied.