IE Principle #2: Honor Your Hunger
How Many Times Have You Ignored Your Hunger? 🤔
How many times have you felt that gnawing hunger in your stomach but intentionally stopped yourself from eating? Maybe it was because you were on a diet, felt like you ate “too much” the day before and needed to “make up” for it, or were just plain scared of gaining weight from eating. Whatever the reason, denying your hunger is a slippery slope—and one that diet culture encourages.
What Does It Mean to Honor Your Hunger?
Honoring your hunger means respecting your body’s natural signals and nourishing it with food when it tells you it’s time to eat. It’s about listening to what your body is asking for and trusting that it knows what it needs to function at its best. Your body is incredibly intelligent—it knows when it needs energy, and that’s exactly what hunger is: your body’s way of signaling it needs fuel.
Diets Teach Us to Distrust Our Hunger
Unfortunately, diets often teach us to distrust our hunger cues. They tell us that eating is something to be carefully controlled, restricted, or even feared. Diet culture creates the belief that hunger is something to be suppressed, not honored. But here’s the thing: your body doesn’t know you’re on a diet. It doesn’t understand that you’re trying to eat less intentionally—it simply knows it’s not getting the energy and nutrients it needs.
When you deprive yourself of food, your body reacts. It may quiet down at first, but over time, it will become louder and louder, signaling that it needs nourishment. This is why restrictive dieting often leads to intense cravings and eventually overeating or bingeing. The more you deny your hunger, the stronger the cravings become, making it harder to stop when you finally do eat.
The Impact of Ignoring Hunger
Ignoring your hunger doesn’t just affect your physical body—it takes a mental toll, too. When you suppress hunger, you spend more time thinking about food, feeling anxious about eating, and stressing over when or what you’re allowed to eat next. It becomes an exhausting mental battle, and you may start to view food as the enemy instead of something that sustains and nourishes you.
On the flip side, honoring your hunger brings freedom. You allow yourself to eat when your body tells you it’s time, without guilt or shame. You start to notice the subtleties of your hunger cues and recognize that hunger isn’t something to fear—it’s your body’s natural way of taking care of itself.
Why Honoring Your Hunger is Essential for Your Health
When you honor your hunger, you’re not just fueling your body—you’re building trust with it. You’re acknowledging that your body is on your side, working with you, not against you. This trust is crucial for a healthy relationship with food and with yourself. It also helps regulate your energy levels, improve your mood, and support overall well-being.
When you give your body what it needs, you’re preventing the intense hunger that often leads to overeating later. You’re keeping your blood sugar levels steady, maintaining focus, and giving yourself the energy to go about your day without feeling fatigued or irritable.
How to Start Honoring Your Hunger
Honoring your hunger may feel strange at first, especially if you’ve spent years following diets that taught you to ignore or suppress it. But the first step is simple: start tuning into your body’s signals. Notice the subtle signs of hunger—maybe it’s a slight growling in your stomach, feeling low on energy, or getting irritable. Don’t wait until you’re ravenous to eat; respond to these early cues.
If you’ve been dieting for a long time, it may take time to recognize your body’s signals again. Be patient with yourself. Over time, you’ll rebuild the trust that diet culture tried to take away.
Trust Your Body and Honor Your Hunger
Your body is designed to keep you going, and one of the ways it does that is through hunger. Ignoring hunger only leads to imbalance, frustration, and often overeating. So instead of fighting against your body’s natural needs, choose to respect it. Listen when it tells you it’s hungry, and give it the nourishment it deserves.
Remember, honoring your hunger isn’t about giving in to every whim or craving—it's about being attuned to your body’s true needs and giving it the fuel to function optimally.
If you’re struggling to trust your hunger or are unsure how to reconnect with your body’s signals, I’m here to help! Together, we can work on building a healthier, more trusting relationship with food and your body.
Reach out today if you need support on your intuitive eating journey! 😌
Also, check out my online course, The Path to Food Freedom, where we dive deeper into topics like honoring your hunger, building body trust, and learning how to develop a more peaceful relationship with food. This course will give you the tools and knowledge you need to fully embrace intuitive eating and find freedom from the endless cycle of dieting.
You have made yourself feel an overwhelming sense of guilt around food for long enough! It is time to get rid of the guilt you feel around food, let go of the fad diets and gimmicks that are holding you back, and create sustainable habits with food that leave you feeling confident and in control of your life!
