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Daily Eats, Food Freedom, Hormones

Should You Eat If You’re Not Hungry?

October 8, 2014 By Robyn 25 Comments

Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full. You’ve probably heard that a million times over. It sounds simple enough. Kids do an excellent job at this and it seems that as adults we lose this innate ability to simply eat when we’re hungry and stop when we’re full.

I think this rule definitely applies if you’re at a place where your hunger cues can be trusted. And what I mean by that is you’re at a place where you haven’t been restricting calories, you eat breakfast upon waking, and you don’t go hours without something to eat. Essentially, you’re at a place where your metabolism is running like it should and your hunger and stress hormones are reliable.

But even if that’s the case, there are certainly times when you might eat something because your body needs it. Like after a workout or because your friend wants to get ice cream or because a co-worker or classmate brought in baked goods or whatever. There are times when we don’t have growling hunger pangs, but we still eat. Because we eat for pleasure + satisfaction + experiences too. Maybe its because it just tastes good, or maybe because our body needs it. Either way, sometimes eating when you’re not hungry is okay. And a part of healthy eating!

Tuesday mornings are my calmer days when I don’t have class until 1 [!!!!] so I typically wake up and get some homework done, usually have a Nutshell client, and then go a run before getting ready to head to campus. I cherish these mornings before the craziness of full clinical days on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I wake up, drink some coffee while working and then make a bowl of pumpkin oatmeal with apples and raisins. Yesterday I topped my bowl with a crumbled banana muffin and peanut butter. The muffin makes it taste like bread pudding- so good. I’m almost always hungry right when I wake up, and yesterday morning was no different.

Post run, I wasn’t starving but knew I need something before I ate lunch a couple hours later. I chugged down a green smoothie as I was getting ready for class. This was 1 frozen banana, 1/2 scoop of Skoop, frozen organic spinach, 1 tablespoon flaxseed and 1 cup of unsweetened TJs coconut milk.

My hunger is typically strongest in the morning (if yours is too, that’s a good thing!) and I tend to get hungry quite frequently so lunch was shortly after the smoothie, which was eaten right when I got to class. (I’m going to nerd out right now…in pathophysiology we’re learning about the biology of cancer and I’m fascinated like crazy.) Lunch was a spinach salad with red pepper + roasted green beans and carrots + nutritional yeast with a dressing made with 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar and 1 teaspoon olive oil. Plus Beanitos chips, an apple and a couple PB chocolate chip cookies.

After class I wasn’t terribly hungry but I wasn’t “full.” It had been a few hours and I knew I needed to eat something. Before a Nutshell appt with a local client, I grabbed a decaf latte with almond milk and ate a few energy balls while I did a little work before the appt.

Then when I got home I was kind of hungry, but knowing I walked a bit more than normal today I knew I needed a little something and noshed a slice of marbled banana bread with PB before dinner. Partially because I was kind of hungry and partially because I eat a loaf of this stuff almost every week and it’s awesome.

But by dinner time, I was really hungry and ate one of my favorite quick and easy meals. I simply sautéed peppers + onions + mushrooms in coconut oil, stir in a can of black beans and season with cumin and chili powder to taste. Then you just throw the bean mixture over a sweet potato and top with salsa and avocado! I ate this with some sautéed kale on the side because you can never have enough veg.

Or enough dessert. But really.

I’m sometimes hungry for a nighttime snack and sometimes not, but I know my body typically needs an snack at night to make sure I’m eating enough and because I love night time snacks and suggahhh. Last night I wasn’t really hungry, but I still had half this hunk of raw fudge and 1/2 chocolate chip cookie I picked up at this little vegan bakery. And washed it down with a cup of almond milk!

It’s WIAW, so tell us what you had for breakfast. We wanna hear!


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Filed Under: Daily Eats, Food Freedom, Hormones Tagged With: healthy balance, metabolism, wiaw

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A non-diet dietitian and nurse practitioner helping women find peace with food, accept their natural body size and heal from hormonal issues and period problems.

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