The Only Scale You'll Ever Need
About a 3-minute Read
If you have seen any of my recent posts on Facebook or LinkedIn (you have, haven’t you?), you’ll have noticed that I’ve been talking a lot about Intuitive Eating. So, let me ask you: Have you been tuning in to your body while you’re eating?! How is it going!? (By the way, it’s OK if you haven’t, but I’d like to challenge you to try.) Now that I’ve talked about the thinking and feelings behind Intuitive Eating, let’s talk about a great tool that will help you actually DO IT. It’s simple - and you know how much I like simple!
We already talked about how intuitive eating is all about learning to tap into your body’s own cues, but if it has been a while since you’ve tuned in to them, that can take a little practice. And right now when stress is higher than normal, it’s even more important to tune into your body’s signals. You want to ensure you are eating for the right reasons. Emotional eating, bored eating, stress eating, and mindless eating are all more likely to happen when life throws us a curveball, as it has with COVID-19.
To help you practice this, I’ve got a Hunger Scale that might be a useful tool for you. It’s adapted from one that’s used by the Derbyshire Healthy Futures Service in England. It helps you rate, from 1 to 10, how you’re feeling on the hunger/fullness scale
Most people feel best when they stick within the 3-6 range.
Here’s the scale:
You’re beyond hungry. You feel absolutely ravenous, might feel light-headed or headachey, and your body is weak.
Uncomfortably hungry (or “hangry”). You’re grouchy and might feel a little tired.
You want to eat and your stomach feels empty.
You are thinking about food and starting to feel hungry.
You’ve eaten enough food to stop the hungry feeling, and your mood is good.
You’re satisfied and feeling full.
Your body is full but your mind wants to eat more, so you take a few extra bites.
After taking a few “extra” bites, you begin not to feel as well. You begin to regret your decision. You know you should probably stop eating.
You keep eating, and with even more food, you feel bloated, tired, and uncomfortable.
You STILL continue to eat. You might be sweating, your heart pounding, and you feel miserable.
One of the things I like about this scale is that it’s so relatable. I definitely have been everywhere on that scale at one point or another. Have you? (It’s OK, you can be honest - no judgment. We’re just out of practice.)
Here’s why it matters ...
When you get too hungry, it sets you up to overeat. And when you overeat, you feel tired, sick, and tempted to skip meals. It can easily turn into a yo-yo cycle.
Finding your sweet spot is a big part of intuitive eating.
It might take a little practice, so be patient with yourself. Our bodies are intelligent and will help us understand what they want and need; we just have to re-learn how to listen to the signals it sends.
How hungry do you let yourself get before you eat – and how “full” do you feel before you stop? It can take some retraining to live within the 3-6 range, but as with most things, the effort you put into it will eventually yield a big payoff. And aren’t you worth it? (HINT: Yes, you are!)
Have a health of a day,
Juli
P.S. As we are stocking up on foods with a longer shelf-life to get through mandated social distancing and even home isolation, you’ll want to make the healthiest choices possible. To assist you with that, I’ve created a new eBook about reading food labels. It’s free, and it will help you make the best choices when it comes to packaged foods. Just enter your information below and it’s yours!