Hunger is Weird

Eating when I'm hungry sounds easy, and it should be, but it's weird. All the articles and books I've read, they put hunger on a scale.

Typical Hunger Scale

Now, depending on which scale/article/book, they all recommend different numbers at which to eat and stop eating, but most of them, at least what I've seen for weight loss, they recommend eating at around 4, and stopping at around 6. It's way harder than it sounds. As someone who has always eaten around a schedule (usually regulated by breaks in work and school), it's baffling trying to listen to my body. I spend hours hanging around 4, and then it feels like I skip 3 all together and run head first in to 2. I feel like I've spend the last five hours carefully checking in with myself to see how I feel hunger-wise. I've been waiting to hit the magic "Fairly Hungry" stage. Suddenly I'm Ravenous.

I don't even like hotdogs and these look good.

I do okay most of the time with stopping at Full, but I occasionally over do it by a few bites. I'm currently reading "How to Have Your Cupcake and Your Skinny Jeans Too" by Josie Spinardi (I'll be putting up a review once I finish it), and she suggested a great technique to keep from over eating: Leave food on your plate. 1. This visually tells your body you don't need seconds, and 2. we (at least I) tend to over serve ourselves. Planning to leave  food on your plate means you have to check in with yourself as you get to the end of your meal: how many more bites do I need? How many bites are left? I check in at the halfway point and carve out a small portion of left overs. As my "will eat" pile dwindles, I start to consider how much of it I really need. If I'm truly hungry, I can always eat my leftovers, but I'm usually not. It's working really well for me, and my dogs are loving the leftovers.