The Physical and Symbolic Hunger Flow Chart Guide

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1 The Physical and Symbolic Hunger Flow Chart Guide We eat for many reasons: energy and nutritional needs; emotional needs - we want a hug; stress release - crunching away and swallowing our anger; or because we are getting our excitement and entertainment from food when we haven t built enough fun into our life. Boredom Sadness To numb by overeating And we restrict our food for all the same reasons Even people who do not have eating problems eat for non-physical hunger reasons from time to time. They just don t feel guilty and frustrated about it and then try to numb out that guilt and frustration with yet more eating or eating-restriction. That is what you are here to learn to not depend upon food behaviors on a daily basis as an internal psychic organizational tool for emotions, thoughts or circumstances that are beyond your experience and resources to handle differently in those specific moments. I know you would if you could. We are here to do the food and body work as Bloom, Kogel and Zaphirolopoulous describe in Eating Problems (pg83). I agree whole-heartedly with their belief that buried beneath the symptomology of all eating problems are the dynamics of compulsive eating: a lack of entitlement about eating prohibition against knowing and using physiological signals an absence of internal structure that is self-soothing Whoa. That was me 18 years ago! My eating disorder started when I was 16 years old and lasted until ten years ago, when I was 24. Even though every eating problem is different, the core need of the eating problem revolves around these three struggles. It applies especially, but isn t necessarily restricted to anorexia and bulimia, as well as compulsive eating and chronic dieting. The lack of control surrounding restrictiveness and the obsessive thoughts regarding not eating, or eating and not keeping it down, bely the compulsiveness of all eating problems. 1

2 Therefore, all people struggling with eating disorders - anorexia, bulimia, compulsive eating, deprivation-driven eating, binge eating and chronic dieters - NEED to be guided towards learning hunger and satiety and becoming their own experts regarding food choice. Without this, recovery will hinge on the ups and downs of life and not lasting, internal transformation. This is the goal of the The Physical and Symbolic Hunger Flow Chart. It is designed to help you distinguish between your physical and nutritional needs for food, and your symbolic hunger and fullness. It is also a starting place for our exploration into the function of disordered eating of all kinds how come we don t eat what we want, eat too little or too much and; why it has felt safe on some level, though painful overall, to not listen to our body s need for fuel. Knowing the function of dieting, compulsive over/under-eating, deprivation-driven eating, anorexia and bulimia in our lives can lead to an opportunity to live more authentically. This means more freedom, more choice and ultimately you will get your real needs and desires met. And if that wasn t exciting enough, knowing your hungers and limits for food will translate to learning to respond differently in other areas of your life. Like I always say: What s on your plate mirrors your life. Let s start with tuning into your signals of hunger and satiety. This is a process of becoming more attuned to body-mind signals, a skill that you will hone in clarity over time and will provide rich rewards of information about your body. The first requirement is that you are eating enough for your energy requirements. If you are still watching your food in any way (and watching your food includes trying to eat healthy ) or consciously restricting your eating habits, you may not be able to feel your signals very well. That s okay. I suggest that you continue to increase your food intake according to the plan designed by you and your nutrition therapist (or trusted source that helps you feel safe in increasing your food). This step is important so that you can: Re-nourish your body and restore body health, food-restriction is traumatic for the body; Increase your metabolism; Improve focus to do intuitive eating; Allow your weight to restore to a place where your body is not so shut down and therefore can give you accurate hunger and satiety signals again. The further your food and weight is away from your set-point, the more difficult it is to have accurate signals of hunger and satiety. 2

3 But you will get there! And, even though you are still restricting to a lesser degree and not far from your set-point, you may still be able to perceive signals accurately, even if the signals show you are pushing yourself to get/stay too hungry it s okay, you are so close! If you have been eating enough but your eating has been chaotic, you will be able to feel your signals more quickly, but you will still need to make the conscious decision to give yourself permission to eat in a more organized way. I don t necessarily mean planning the what and when of what you eat every day, but being prepared with enough food so as not to get to hungry, making it hard not to over-eat. Let s get started. For some guidelines of how much and when to eat, we need a tool. How about exploring my Hunger and Satiety Scale? It is a scale from 0-10, 0 being most hungry; 10 being most full. More Descriptions of Hunger and Fullness Please note that I do not consider the following list to be completely comprehensive; it is an organic tool that I am constantly improving and updating. Should you, in your experience as an Intuitive Eater, feel that you have something to add or share, please me at tracybrownrd@gmail.com. At a: 0 You are pretty much past hungry. Your body is dipping into stored resources that will need to be replenished later. Your body may slow metabolism and digestion. The need to over-compensate, leading to overeating or binge-eating, is natural if our bodies reach this point. If you have been restricting your food intake or living with anorexia, sometimes you make efforts to numb this hunger. In general, your energy is so low you can barely move around and may be lethargic, with a lackluster mood and a low desire to enjoy things, having little interest or focus. Headaches and almost flu-like symptoms are possible. Your body and mind are anxious. 1 - You are too hungry. Your preoccupation with food is paramount. It becomes very difficult for you to make food decisions beyond eating what is convenient your decision will be based on what is obtainable in the fastest way, and on obtaining the highest quantity. You may have a head-ache and feel shaky, tired, and irritable. Your body and mind are anxious. 3

4 2 - You are very preoccupied with food. If you come home from work or school the first thing you will want to do before anything else is eat and there would have to be a REAL GOOD REASON why wouldn t eat first. If you are cooking, you probably snack as you cook. When eating out, it is hard not to want to eat the entire bread basket, etc and it is difficult for you to socially connect to your fellow diners until after you have eaten a bit. A minority of people may get a headache at this point. Your body and mind are anxious. 3 - You have a strong urge to eat but you are comfortable. You have the ability to be discerning about your food choices. You can comfortably wait 30 min while food is prepared without snacking. This is usually the best time for you to start eating. 4 - You experience a subtle, but present, hunger. At this point you first have thoughts of food. You could wait an hour without any physical discomfort. You are in a good position to eat especially should a meal not be available in an hour. 5 - You are neutral. Unless you are not preoccupied, you may not notice. You could describe this as a pass through place. You will be getting a bit hungry within an hour of feeling this neutrality. 6 - You can feel food in your stomach and your hunger is gone. Although you are not feeling hunger, you may not feel satisfied, depending on your previous day s food intake. If you stop at a 6 you will be hungry in 1.5 to 2 hours. 7 - You are feeling quite satisfied. Especially if your food choice exactly matched both your nutrition and appetite needs. You re not quite all the way full, but you could physically do almost anything. You will be hungry in 3-4 hours. 4

5 8 - You experience a comfortable fullness with a gentle pressure. Thoughts of food are gone if you have eaten what you really wanted. You have a full belly. Your last 2-3 bites did not taste as good as when you began eating and your interest in food has waned. If you stop here, you will be hungry in 5-6 hours. * 9 - You are uncomfortable. It may feel like your stomach is pushed up your esophagus. If you were attuned to your body s signals, during the last several bites you could feel the food becoming less tasty but you may have chosen to keep going anyway. You will not be hungry for 7-9 hours. Your body is overwhelmed and your mind may be anxious.* 10 - You are so full that you feel nauseous and sick. Indigestion is certain and you may be in pain. You will not be hungry for more than 9 hours. Your body and mind are consumed with discomfort.* Notes If you have been restricting your food intake and you are underweight, you may feel like you are on 8 or more after eating a very small quantity of food because of slowed digestion, resulting from a slowing of your metabolism during periods of starvation. You may have to feel these levels of fullness to restore your metabolism to normal. After your body has been restored to health you will be able to eat larger quantities of food and not feel as full. Whether you have been restricting or not, if you have disordered eating and get to 8-10, it is important to realize this fullness will pass; wait out the discomfort as best you can. If you are struggling to do this, it is important to seek guidance to help you through it. And to use the following: Tools Decoding Tool Use to decipher physical and/or symbolic/emotional hunger. Hunger and Satiety Scale Choose what level you are at prior to eating and again when you finished eating. Food Journal Record your hunger and fullness, food, time and mood, food beliefs, thoughts, feelings and body feedback. 5

6 Guideposts to Eating Intuitively There are many helpful strategies we can use to decipher which food will work when we are choosing to eat from either body hunger or symbolic hunger. Let s start with the following: On the Hunger/Satiety Scale, rate your hunger from ) If you are 0-4, you are hungry and have an energy-based/nutritional need for food. 2) If you are 5-10, you may be symbolically hungry (or you may need to eat out of convenience; you can discern that too.) Imagine you have no nutrition knowledge (i.e. what s a calorie?). Ask yourself, with no judgment: If I could have anything in the world right now, what would it be? 1) Visualize the food - what food does your mind-body settle on that seems to match? 2) What colors, shapes, textures, temperatures and aromas appeal to you? 3) Do you need something filling, light, substantial? Recall the last time you had this food and your experience while eating it, and what you felt when you finished. 1) How did it feel in your body? What were the sensations? Did it feel just right? Uncomfortable? 2) Did this amount leave you feeling energized and alert? 3) If it did not feel right, how much could you have eaten to avoid an uncomfortable feeling? Would you have eaten more? Or less? 4) Mentally make an adjustment in your mind of that food. Even if that adjustment may not have worked, maybe you need to ask your body if it needed a different food. Finally, ask your body: How is this food, in this amount, going to nourish my body in the next hour? In the next two hours? 1) After eating, take note of any sensations, uncomfortable or not. Ask yourself: Am I feeling pressure, experiencing thoughts of food, wishing I had more, feeling the effects of indigestion? 2) Remember that amount of food and how it matches with your symptoms, and how long the effects lasted. This information, using past experience, will guide you in future decisions about eating. Choose the food you want from what is available, that has the qualities you believe will most satisfy your hunger, either physically or symbolically. 1) Eat with full permission. Your body will not want too much of anything, but it needs enough. 2) Eat consciously - limit distractions as best you can 3) If you have the resources, go out and get what you are really hungering for and keep ample food available at home, at work and when traveling. 6

7 If you are restricting your food intake, putting off your hunger or if you are experiencing symbolic hunger, do your best to eat with courage, compassion, curiosity and non-judgment. Allowing acceptance of the situation will help you to be clear about how you want to feel, and will allow room for intrinsic changes. Hang in there Being this aware may feel hyper-vigilant at the beginning. Some clients even ask me what the difference is between worrying about food and weight, and doing these food journals, sitting with feelings and trying to decipher hunger and fullness? There is a HUGE difference! Worry about eating the wrong or right food; too much or too little food; how much we weigh; or what they think about our size or food choices is a preoccupation based outside of ourselves. One, not of making decisions based on internal need but rather, on what we think will give us the external validation that we think will make us feel secure and acceptable. But it is so conditional and leads to constant anxiety. And it will never end unless you decide to choose a different way of living with food and your body. As you first begin this process, you will find you will need to pay a lot of attention, but it won t always be this way, because you won t always consciously need to and that s the point. Normal intuitive eating takes some focus, but to be competent at it, like anything else, we have to practice and take time to decode, check in and food journal in order to really KNOW OURSELVES! And soon you will. You will know your body and what foods work best because you have spent the time watching/feeling/listening. You will know when a cookie is just a cookie vs. avoiding it because of fat feelings or the belief that it s bad for you; or eating 20 because I gotta have them. You will be confident around food because you can have it when you want and come to know other ways of self-care besides restricting and over-eating. WHAT FREEDOM! ************ I hope you enjoyed this guide and more importantly, my intent was for you to have tools to assist in your journey towards peace with food and weight. Whether positive or negative, I would like to receive your feedback either way and I won t take issue with it, promise. Check back at for more resources relating to intuitive eating, recovery from eating disorders and food and weight concerns, as well as exercise compulsion and resistance. Guideposts to Eating Intuitively Tracy Brown,RD,LD/N tracybrownrd.com or