Today you will learn about why you should eat only when you’re truly hungry and review the recipes we’ve provided so far.
Eat only when you’re truly hungry
Diabetics often ask us questions like, “What should I eat? How often should I eat? What time should I eat? How much should I eat?” Various experts give contradictory answers to these questions, which can often be confusing, but these are not questions for the intellect—they are instinctive. What, how, when, why, and how much you eat is often a habit you have acquired from family and social conditioning and busy modern schedules. You may eat for many reasons other than the only good reason: physical hunger. Hunger is a natural sign from the body that it needs nutrition. Eating when you are hungry leads to health, and eating without hunger creates disease. If the thought of eating raw carrots and cucumber is pleasant, then you are hungry. Watch this video by Nandini Gulati to learn about hunger awareness and how to tell when you’re truly hungry.
Key Points
- Think about what signals your body gives you when you are hungry.
- Ask yourself, “On a scale of 1–10, how hungry or full am I?” Before eating, you can just ask yourself, “Am I hungry?”
- Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are comfortably full, but not over-full!
Today and in the coming days, practice eating only when you are truly hungry and notice when you tend to overeat. Your body can become your best teacher and guide if you learn how to listen to it.
Today you are at the midway point in your journey. Go back and review the recipes that we have already shared. Make something that you did not get a chance to try yet or create your own dish based on the principles we’ve provided. Remember to make your food delicious!
Sonal Shah loved food. It was comfort, time pass. It filled in all the gaps. She could not leave food on her plate. But now she is able to assess her hunger. She is able to choose how much to eat and when, and can stop when she is 80% full.
“When I am 80% full I am now able to say that I am done. I feel good about that.”
Super Size Me
Documentary director Morgan Spurlock features as the guinea pig in this film about the fast food industry. Inspired by America’s obesity epidemic, he goes on a diet of McDonald’s three times a day for thirty days straight in order to examine the effects of fast food consumption on the body and mind. The effects of the trial are harrowing: His body mass increases by 13%, his cholesterol levels skyrocket, fat accumulates in his liver, and he experiences mood swings and loss of libido. Super Size Me will completely change the way you think about eating and living.
