The Only "Dieting Tool" You'll Ever Need

This is the only "dieting tool" you'll ever need. Instead of relying on meal plans and the time on the clock, try using your hunger to tell you whether you need more food or not. 

The Hunger/Fullness Scale is a great tool to have in your toolbox! It brings back your Intuitive sense of trust to find satisfaction in a meal again. 

But because of our very loud diet culture and decades of ignoring our body's signals. they can sometimes be hard to hear. 

Think of your Hunger Scale as a personal code only you can unlock. It's hard to create a one-size-fits-all scale because everyone has different signals. These indicators tell you whether you need to eat more, less, or if you are satisfied. They are also measured by physical symptoms of hunger or fullness like dizziness, fogginess, and having trouble breathing when you've eaten too much. If you have a hard time deciphering between your hunger signals, you’re not alone. Most people who have lost these signals within themselves have been chronic dieters or meal plan followers for years.

No judgment, I was one of them. Dieting takes away the instinctive signals that tell us whether we need more food or not. This is why taking a break from dieting and food rules is so important because we are working to gain that trust back. You don't want to count and restrict for the rest of your life do you? This scale will help you eat normally again. Your relationship with food matters more than what you eat, and what you eat is just as critical as HOW you eat. 

Think of this scale as a spectrum of numbers 1-10. 1 is at your very HANGIREST and 10 is at your max, "I'm going to explode" fullness level. Mindfulness is acknowledging your personal hunger cues and staying as satisfied as you can throughout your day. Trust your body here and listen to what it’s trying to tell you. How satisfying is your meal? The goal of the fullness scale is to let yourself get hungry, but not to a point where you’re starving. Allow yourself to get full, but not to a point of distress. 

This scale will help you become more acquainted with your Hunger Signals and your body’s instinctive cues. This means, when the donuts come in at work, you have full permission to eat them, but check in with your hunger first or maybe eat half now and the other half for dessert tonight. Remember, you don't always have to eat the whole thing! The first step is to start recognizing when your hunger signals hit. The first few weeks into my journey, I had to write down my hunger every hour in order for me to start recognizing their subtle cues. (Feel free to steal this if you need to.) The second step is to act on them and start eating when you think you’re between a 3 and an 8.

HERE'S HOW TO USE IT

1)    Don’t wait until you’re at a 1 on the Fullness Scale to eat. There is a thing called low blood sugar that will hit us if we aren’t receiving enough nutrients. For most people, this can happen when you wait until you’re at a 1 on the hunger scale. When our bodies can’t produce enough glucose (an energy source like carbohydrates), it puts our minds in constant thought and search for food and can make us feel dizzy and lightheaded in the process. This is why when you get to that point of, “I’ll chew my arm off if I don’t eat soon,” our bodies start going into panic mode around finding food. (See, you're not obsessed with food or broken, it's just your body trying to keep you alive from starvation!) It doesn’t want slow-digesting brown rice or a fiber-rich avocado that will take longer to digest. It wants fast-digesting carbohydrates to replenish our blood sugar quickly with fast-digesting foods like ice cream, chocolate, sour patch kids, soda and salty chips, or crackers. Not that these foods are “bad” by any means, but if we would’ve eaten around a 3-4, then our bodies and minds wouldn’t be in panic mode to find food fast.

2)    Eat around a 3-5 on the Fullness Scale. This means eating around a 3-5 may keep you from wanting to eat an entire tub of ice cream later. (Again, there is NOTHING wrong with eating ice cream, but eat TO ENJOY IT and eat an amount that will make you feel good afterward.) How much you eat is totally dependent on when your next meal is, when the last time you ate was, how in touch with your body you are, and many other factors. Don’t be afraid to feel a little full. On the opposite end of that, don’t be afraid of hunger either. It’s ok to feel hungry but feeling ravenous is not in the answer either. The reason why you think you might be overeating at night is probably that you aren't getting in enough food at the beginning of the day. This is why it's important to let our bodies take the lead, not a diet plan that knows nothing about us.

3)    Stop eating between a 5-8 on the Fullness Scale. Again, this is all dependent upon you and how you want to feel after your meal. If you want to eat a larger meal because you know you won’t get the chance to eat for a longer period of time, then your goal would be to stop at an 8 if that feels good to you. If you know you want a snack between two larger meals, then stop at a 5-6. Stop at a place where you will feel comfortable and remember that it takes 20 minutes for your mind to catch up to your stomach. It might even be helpful to stop when you think you’re at a 5, then wait 20 minutes to see if you feel fuller afterward. Play around with this. Everyone is different and your signals are yours to own. Respect your fullness and remember that you can always have more later. Being done with your meal doesn’t mean you can't have more later! 

4)    Hunger is gradual and won’t instantly drop to a 1. I learned this one the hard way when I was checking in with my hunger, felt like I was at a solid 5 on the fullness scale, then almost 15 minutes later, I saw a commercial for pizza and immediately dropped down to a 1. I wanted that pizza so bad and we had some leftovers in the fridge! As I was putting a slice on the plate, I recognized that I wasn’t “hungry” anymore but ate it anyway because I had gone through the trouble of fixing it up. Sometimes the environment around us can play with our hunger signals. I call that, "food epigenetics," when our outside environment can play a role in our hunger. It’s real and it’s your choice to act on that or not. You are neither good nor bad for doing so, but there are consequences to each action. Weigh out those consequences and act on how you want to feel afterward. Maybe you just need a bite to satisfy that outside craving, or maybe you need the whole thing? Either way, it’s up to you! You are the boss now. Follow those cues!

5)    Don’t turn this into another diet. This isn’t meant to be another strict ruling that you HAVE to stay within the green or else you’ll have broken the food laws of balance and the food police will come to take you away. No, no, my friend. I still go outside the scale and eat at a 1 or over-indulge to a 9 at times. It’s rare, but it happens. Remember the 51% rule here. Do it more often than not and adjust from there.

6)   Eat without distraction. This one might not be easy at first. A slow meal isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Take this one slow and do the best you can. Some helpful tips to eat slow are: Setting your fork down between bites, eating with your non-dominant hand, taking a breath and/or a sip of water between bites, and simply looking at your food and appreciating how it is going to nourish and satisfy your body while being in the present moment. 

When you are chewing your food, think of the tastes you are experiencing. Is it sour, sweet, savory, or bitter? Is the temperature hot, cold, warm, or tepid? Chew your food slowly and A LOT! Chewing helps you absorb more nutrients, break down your food quicker, ease digestion, and is good for your teeth. Try eating your meal in no less than 20 minutes without the distraction of TV, your phone, or overthinking. You will be able to listen to your hunger signals better this way. If you’re having trouble slowing down at meals, try eating your food with chopsticks, a toddler utensil, or even with the opposite utensil (spoon instead of a fork).

Start listening to your body and what it’s trying to tell you ¼ and ½ way through your meal. If you’re a really fast eater like me (thanks retail and kids), try eating half of your meal then taking a break. No matter what hunger level I thought I was at after eating half my meal, I would stop eating and enjoy the company of my family (or more realistically, clean up the food being thrown on the floor by my toddler) so my stomach and brain could catch up to each other. (It takes 20 minutes for your brain and stomach to catch up to each other when eating.) After 20 minutes, I would reassess and either go back for more or wrap up my dinner until I was hungry again. Remember, this isn’t always going to be perfect, but more times than not, you can use these tools. 

Remember that this isn't set in stone, scribble some things out and make your own rules here. This is just a base to go off of until you can start hearing your personal signals again. HAVE FUN! Tag me on Instagram when you use it so I can share your story with my community!

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