Do you eat when you're hungry or when the fullness fix wears off?

This is what it comes down to. Do you eat only when you are hungry, or do you eat when you are no longer full? Your answer to that questions will help you see if you are using food as fuel to get more energy or if you are using food for comfort.

Maybe you don't get what I mean. There is a difference between being hungry and no longer being full. You get full right when you've finished your meal (hopefully not overly full). You are satisfied at that point. Let's say you eat something every three hours. Between being full and the next three hours, you're not going to be very hungry, but you won't have that perfectly satisfied full feeling the entire time either. It will wane until you are hungry again.

So what I'm saying is that there is being completely satisfied and full, there is being neither full nor hungry, and there is being hungry. At which point you eat again indicates whether or not you have a healthy relationship with food.

Some people with overeating tendencies want to have that full feeling the whole day. That's how I used to be. I thought about food all the time. (What will I eat next to get full?) It was definitely a problem. To me, eating wasn't about giving myself the necessary energy to keep moving and thinking healthily. It was to help me feel full in other ways that really had nothing to do with food. I was also eating to fend off negative emotions like anxiety, stress, and fear.

So, what about you? Is food your fuel for energy or is it your fix for other things? If you are an emotional eater that relies on having that full feeling all day long, you may want to start reading my book at Tip # 9 How to Avoid Emotional Eating or Tip #2, Lower Your Stress Levels. There's nothing more liberating than to be around food that used to be your weakness and feel no emotional connection to it at all.