Are you really hungry?

An article came across my desk last week and I haven’t had a chance to read it until last night,  The trick to nipping late night Oreo nashing.  The article was written by Pamela Slim on Martha Beck’s Blog.

I was reading through this article and was struck by the following portion:

Switch your focus from your body to your brain

The real problem is that we have been obsessed with managing our bodies, when in fact, the attention needs to go to our brains.  Martha explains:

“People get fat because their brain’s calibration of the amount they need to eat, and the amount of intake they should store as calories, is altered by neural structure and its interface with the endocrine system.  The starved and frightened brain drives overeating and low metabolism.  The calm and secure brain drives a very different set of biological motivators and consequences. In other words, when your brain is fixed, you eat less and burn off excess as heat, whereas the “famine brain” caused by stress and hunger– including dieting — really does make you consume more and store more as fat.”

Sometimes we eat when we are physically hungry and sometimes when we are emotional starved.  Do you know the difference?  What does physical hunger feel like? How do you know your physically hungry? Physical   hunger may be  a sensation in your stomach, lightheadedness, tiredness.

 
I believe that when you are making good choices with your actions (eating and exercise) and your emotional health (your feelings and beliefs) are in a good place you can meet your goals.