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Hungry? Full?
One of the most important parts of recovery from an eating disorder is learning to eat in response to your body. This means eating when you are hungry and stopping when you feel full. It sounds like a simple concept. However, when you have been eating in response to external stimuli and signals (numbing or soothing feelings, fear or gaining weight, body dissatisfaction) for so long, the concept of feeling hungry and full can quickly feel pretty confusing.
The role of therapy in eating disorder recovery is to provide a new outlet for all those other reasons you have been eating, not eating, or purging. For example, if you binge to alleviate stress or anxiety, therapy provides a safe place to talk about that stress and anxiety while also teaching new ways to cope. Therefore, the need to eat is replaced with new ways of coping. You are then free to listen to your body and respond to its internal signals.
Take a few moments and try to think about what hunger feels like for you. Does your stomach growl? Do you get a slight headache? Do you feel a little dizzy? These are your body’s ways of saying “I need fuel.”
Now, think about what feeling full feels like. The easiest way to describe fullness (and the place when you may want to stop eating) is to think about feeling satisfied. When you feel satisfied, no longer hungry but not uncomfortably stuffed (that Thanksgiving full feeling) it is time to stop eating.
Our bodies are wise. They won’t lead us astray. If we truly listen to what they need and want we will end up at a healthy weight that is right for our very own body. Try listening to your body today, I bet it has a lot to tell you!
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