Food Noise: Are You Really Hungry?
Let me ask you a question.
How often do you think about food when you aren't actually hungry?
Maybe you just finished dinner, but you're already thinking about dessert. You're watching television and suddenly you want something salty. You walk into the kitchen, see a bag of cookies, and before you know it, you're reaching for one.
Your stomach wasn't asking for food. Your brain was.
There's a term being used more and more to describe this experience: food noise.
Food noise is that mental chatter about eating—the cravings, thoughts, temptations, and constant conversations we can have with ourselves about food.
What am I going to eat next?
Maybe I'll just have a little something.
I shouldn't eat that.
Well, I already blew my diet today, so I'll start again tomorrow.
Sound familiar?
For years, we've been told that controlling our weight is simply a matter of willpower: Eat less. Exercise more. Have some discipline.
But it's much more complicated than that.
As a personal trainer and behavior change specialist, I'm particularly interested in why we do what we do.
Sometimes we eat because we're hungry. But sometimes we eat because we're bored, stressed, tired, celebrating, watching television, or simply because food is sitting in front of us.
And if we're going to change our eating habits, we first have to recognize what's triggering them. In today's episode, we're going to look at what food noise is, why it happens, and five practical ways you can begin turning down the volume naturally.
And I want you to remember one thought as we get started:
A craving is a signal. It isn't a command.
You have a choice about what happens next.
So the next time you find yourself standing in front of the refrigerator, ask yourself one simple question:
Am I really hungry—or is this food noise?
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