Honoring fullness:

We get many people who say I can’t seem to honor my fullness, I often go past being full and I just cannot seem to control myself! What is going on?

These people often are allowing all food, honoring their hunger and they are doing the work so what is going on? Why does this piece feel so difficult? 

There are a few reasons this could be happening and we will go through them today and chat about what you can do to take steps in the direction of being at ease with fullness and having it feel much more simple.

The top 3 reasons you might not feel like you can honor your fullness is:

 

Reason #1: We say this all the time but it is the sneakiest part of this work - mental restriction.

 

What does mental restriction sound like:

It's thoughts like:

 “oh i really shouldnt be eating bread again”  

“I’ll just try to be more intuitive tomorrow” 

“I shouldn’t be hungry already!”

All of these judgements can lead to overeating because your body reacts almost the same to mental restriction as it does to physical restriction. This is why people can continue to struggle even though they’re allowing “all the foods”.

So what can happen if you mentally restrict?

 

last suppers (body is still expecting to be restricted at some point)

Feeling more urgent with food (eating it all now - EVEN THOUGH you technically know you could eat more tomorrow)

Consistently overeating

 

How can you begin easing this?

 

Listen to your thoughts - do they contain shoulds? What are these shoulds about? Time (I really shouldn't have to eat for a few hours), types of food (I shouldn't be eating carbs again today), amounts (1 cookie is plenty, I shouldn't have eaten 3!!) or other rules?

These are then rules that you want to begin shifting even if they rule is just in your brain. If you think you SHOULD only eat one cookie that’s a rule AND ironically it’s more likely to lead you to eat more than one cookie every time because of the restriction. If you TRULY tuned in and said, I can eat as many cookies as I like, let’s start with 1 and see how I feel, if I want more I can have more. Sometimes maybe 3 is awesome, sometimes 1, sometimes maybe none! When true mental and physical permission is present you can then truly listen to your body and let your intuitive eating muscles get stronger!

Reason #2: Clean plate club

 

 

You might be familiar with the term and you might feel like a veteran member at this point. People can be a part of the clean plate club for various reasons:

 

They were always told to clear their plate as a kid and now they fear wasting food etc.

As dieters we often would plate what we were ALLOWED to have so of course we were going to eat it all, this is all we can have. Now as an UnDieter this tendency may be following you even though you are allowing more food now.

You may not be paying attention at all to how you’re feeling when eating and you use the plate being cleared as a signal that you’re done

 

It is FINE to clean your plate but if you find yourself with an empty plate and a stuffed stomach at every meal it’s absolutely something you can look into some more.

How to begin shifting this:

 

Dive into what the motivator is for you. Does your clearing of the plate come from childhood? Were you told to never waste food because other children were starving? Do you feel guilt if you throw food away or “waste” it by not eating it?

Are you still feeling a scarcity mindset around food and your body just eats whenever food is available because of this?

Are you using an empty plate as a signal that the meal is done?

 

Now that you’re more aware of why this is happening you can begin to question your thoughts around this.

Does it really help anyone if I eat food I don’t want? Will it create less waste? How can I save leftovers even if it’s small amounts? Would this be more enjoyable tomorrow when I am less stuffed?

Why do I feel like I can’t just finish this later? I could even eat it before bed if I want? - add thoughts of abun