The Search for Satisfaction When It Comes to Eating

“By tuning in to my body to listen for hunger and fullness cues and what I’m truly in the mood for, I cut out all the external noise telling me what I should and shouldn’t eat and allow for greater satisfaction with eating.”- RD Kara Lydon, as quoted by Reader’s Digest

Did any particular part of this quote stand out to you? Like, big time?? The words “satisfaction with eating” carry a huge WOW factor for me. Can you imagine feeling truly satisfied after each snack/meal? Not longing for more of this, less of that, something salty, something sweet…so many of us are guilty of thinking about our next feeding as soon as we finish the current meal. Or even worse, DURING the current meal!

In a quest to truly satisfy ourselves with food, it’s important to analyze the purpose of food. Food is not meant to be an emotional crutch, a fix for loneliness, or anything more than fuel. Sure, it’s important to enjoy your food. I believe this whole-heartedly. But the enjoyment factor is secondary to food’s primary role in fueling our bodies to perform a wide variety of tasks. Food CAN NOT successfully solve an emotion crisis. Food CAN NOT successfully fill the void of a human (loneliness). But food CAN enable you to have prime mental clarity at work. Food CAN sustain you through a long, busy day. Food CAN carry you through a marathon, a baseball game or a swim meet. If we tune out today’s social media and cultural vibe that paints food in an emotional light to focus on our internal cues of hunger, satiety (fullness), energy, fatigue, brain power, etc., we grant ourselves the opportunity to be truly satisfied with our food as we realize it serving its intended purpose. Here’s an example:

WRONG: Sally is going through a horribly messy break-up, which she has been taught warrants consumption of a pint of Ben & Jerry’s. She consumes the ice cream to make herself feel better but upon reaching the bottom of the pint she realizes that the whirlwind of emotion is still there…the messy break-up is not resolved. The ice cream does not satisfy here, because it has not served the purpose to which Sally assigned it.

RIGHT: Jim has noticed himself becoming very lethargic throughout the day. After consuming a sausage biscuit for breakfast and fried chicken for lunch, he finds himself fighting to raise his eyelids come 3pm. These feelings of fatigue and reduced mental capacity are not conducive to optimizing his performance at work. Upon identifying his feelings of lethargy and brain fog, Jim turns to food as hopeful fix. He consumes whole wheat toast with eggs and avocado for breakfast, followed by a whole wheat grilled chicken wrap with tons of veggies for lunch. He even throws in a Greek yogurt with berries and almonds between breakfast and lunch, followed by a protein shake come 3pm. Low and behold, not only does Jim feel wide awake and hyper-focused, he feels satisfied with the foods he has consumed as they successfully served their purpose.

So, please be fair to both food and to yourself. Don’t rely on food to fill purposes that it is not intended to serve. Instead, appreciate the many benefits that food has to offer by recognizing them as such. You may be surprised at how much satisfaction this can bring!