cover of Are you hungry or do you just want to eat?

Are you hungry or do you just want to eat?

Are you hungry or do you just want to eat?

Beth Skinner Jasinski

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00:00-27:48

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The podcast discusses the difference between hunger and cravings. Hunger is a physical sensation when the stomach is empty and the body needs nourishment. Cravings, on the other hand, are emotional responses or desires for certain foods. Cravings can be triggered by positive associations with food or instant gratification. It is important to differentiate between the two and address the underlying needs causing cravings, such as fatigue or emotional support. Evaluating hunger levels using a hunger scale can help determine if one is truly hungry or just wanting to eat. By understanding and addressing these cravings, one can maintain a healthy weight and overall well-being. Hi, my name is Beth, and you are listening to the Canna Fitness and Nutrition Podcast, where we are hanging out at the intersection of fitness, nutrition, and cannabis. So today, I wanted to talk about a very important question. And this question, if you answer this question honestly, it will help you lose weight. Lose weight, maintain your weight, feel better, all of those things. And the question is, are you hungry, or do you just want to eat? Okay, that is the question. Because what I like to do is differentiate between the difference of hunger, physical hunger, and what we call cravings, or wanting to eat something. And I was inspired to talk about this. This is something I talk about a lot, but I had a client yesterday. I was chatting with a client, and they said that exact thing. They said, I realize that what I want to eat and what I need to eat are different. And I said, yes, absolutely. Once you figure that out, it is a game changer. Let me tell you. Because a lot of times, we just want to eat. And there are so many reasons for that, right? I mean, this could be a scenario, right? Where your day happened, end of the day, you've eaten meals, you've washed the dishes, you finally sit down, and you're not hungry. You ate meals today. You're not hungry, but you want something to eat. You want something. You want something. You start craving something. You want chips, or you want more sweets, or you want more food. You want some more of what you made for dinner. It was delicious, right? You want food. But are you actually hungry? And this happens a lot. Because a lot of people will tell me, a lot of clients will tell me that they are hungry, they're still hungry, or that they have a big appetite. And when I dig a little deeper, it turns out that they're not really hungry in their stomach because they've eaten, it's that they just want to eat. And there's a number of reasons for that, and I'll get into that. So there's a big difference. And when I talk about being hungry, I'm talking about physically your stomach is empty hunger. And I'm sure you know that feeling because we've all experienced hunger, right? If you haven't eaten for a while, your body starts to send signals to your brain that it needs more food, right? It's a natural biological reaction where you start to feel it in your stomach at first, typically. Typically, feeling your stomach, there might be a little rumbling. There might be some discomfort. There might be a lot of discomfort. Some people experience a lot of discomfort when they're hungry. There's rumbling. Sometimes there's noises, right? Because your body's trying to process, but there's nothing there to process. And so we are physically hungry. You have not eaten recently or enough to be satisfied and full so that your body can use that food to do what it needs to do. That's hunger. And when we want to eat, that's technically a craving, right? Now, overall, when you put all of that together, that's all called your appetite. So there are distinct differences in the terms. I'm not going to get too deep into that today. But I want to differentiate between physical hunger and cravings, wanting to eat. Now, cravings happen for a number of reasons. It can be an emotional response. And it can be a happy response or a sad response. A lot of people eat when they're sad or stressed or lonely or bored. But a lot of times, we crave when we're happy too because craving food is an emotional response, one. And a lot of times, if we've had a pleasant experience with food, this happens around the holidays a lot. So say that at Thanksgiving, your Aunt Sally always brings this wonderful pumpkin pie, right? And you have a great time, and you love Aunt Sally, and that's the time you see her and you enjoy this pie. Your brain remembers that good feeling, and your body craves not just the food associated with it. It craves the happiness from that and the joy that that brings you. It's an emotional response. And actually, technically, if you want to get really deep in the weeds, this goes back to evolutionarily where in hunter-gatherer days, imagine the cavemen, they had to have a way to remember where the food was. So for example, if they were out trying to gather berries, for example, and those berries were good, they liked those berries, they needed a way to remember where those berries were. So their body started to remember, and your brain creates positive associations with those berries. So as you can imagine, from that time, now we've evolved in that sometimes you're craving food for a happy reason. I mean, you ever crave going out for ice cream? Of course, right? Because that's a happy association. It's a happy memory. We do that when we're celebrating. We do it for fun. We do it on vacation, right? It brings back all those pleasant memories. So cravings aren't all bad. And emotional eating isn't just being sad and crying into a tub of ice cream, as one client once described. It's more than that. It's an emotional response, but it could be good or bad. So my real point is that a craving is when we want something, but we aren't actually hungry. It's an emotional response, and a lot of it is instant gratification. Now that's also evolved, because as a society, as you know, we are all about instant gratification, right? We get messages right to our phone. A light blinks, and we check it. The email ping, ping, goes off, and we immediately go see it. Everything right now in our society is instant gratification. So one of the reasons that we have a hard time when we want food is because we're so accustomed to immediate gratification, that we want it, we go get it. And we live in a food-abundant society as well, so we have plenty of food at our disposal. We are very fortunate, if you think about it, that we have pantries and refrigerators full of food that we can have at any minute. So if you've got leftovers, or if there's more from the delicious dinner you had, of course you want it, because it's right there, it's delicious, why wouldn't you want it? But what you have to keep asking yourself is, am I hungry, or do I just want this? And then through time and through training, you can train yourself to ask yourself that question, and then if the answer is no, I'm not hungry, I just want to eat, then teaching yourself how to stop that cycle and just say no, if you will. Just say no to the wanting, because it's just a want, it's a desire, it's a craving. You're not nourishing your body anymore. Hunger is biological, it is a natural response. You need food for your body to proceed with its energy levels. You need to sustain the functions of your body, you need to sustain your energy, you need energy to do the next thing. But cravings are simply a want. So, what do we do? I certainly would succumb to this, and I think when I didn't know as much about it, that was part of my problem, when I would just want food. For me, a lot of it was emotional. Emotional in not a great way. I was, instead of feeling and instead of attending to my needs, I was eating instead. Which is another thing, you're not attending to your actual needs. One reason that we crave is fatigue, because we're tired and your body is searching for energy, it's fooling you. It wants energy, but it's not hungry. So, one of the ways to overcome some of these cravings is to attend to your body's needs. So, what does your body need if it's tired? It needs rest. Your body needs rest. So, that means sleeping, taking a nap, laying down for a bit, giving yourself a chance to rest and unwind. A lot of times, a rest is disguised as a craving. And what's another thing it might need? It might be an emotional. Maybe you need to talk to a friend, or maybe you need a hug from your partner, or maybe you need to spend some time with an animal that you have. Pets can be great emotional support when we're tricked into thinking that we need food to fulfill that emotional need, when really we just need time with another person or a companionship. So, if you're tired, rest. If you need emotional support, get that through a friend or a therapist or a family member or a pet. Attending to your needs instead of just giving in to what the most immediate gratification would be, which would be food. We want that. But our brains trick us into thinking that food will solve all of our problems. And as we know, that's not true. And as we know, it's leading to our ever-expanding waistlines, and it's causing a lot of problems. And I know that if you're trying to maintain your weight or even lose weight, or you're just trying to be healthy in general, it can get really frustrating when you're constantly craving food, wanting to eat, but you're not really hungry. So, what do you do? The first step is to evaluate your hunger. And I use a – literally, it's called the hunger scale. I use a chart with my clients that's called the hunger scale, and I'd be happy to send it to you if you're interested. It is a scale from 1 to 10, and we use about 5 as the middle, kind of neutral. And then 0 to 5 is levels of hunger. And the 6 to 10 side is levels of fullness. And in this case, when we're talking about wanting to eat and having cravings and a big appetite, we look at the hunger side, and we look at how hungry are we, or are we hungry at all, right? Are we hungry? Is there an emptiness in your stomach, right? Is there a sensation that your stomach is empty and that it needs to be fueled? Is there a low energy, right? That's another signal. Is there fatigue? That can be a signal too. If it's coupled with hunger, it can be a signal. There's always hangry, right? We all know hangry, where you're so hungry that you're actually in a terrible mood and tend to bite people's heads off. I think that's the definition of hangry, is biting people's heads off because you're so hungry. And we use words like ravenous, right, where your stomach is empty. There's a growling that can happen. There's a churning that can happen. And like I said before, it can be uncomfortable for a lot of people to be hungry. So it can physically, sensation-wise, be uncomfortable in your stomach. So the first step to dealing with this is really to evaluate your hunger. And if you're not hungry, then you need to evaluate your needs. And again, needs look like, are you tired? Are you just tired? If you're not hungry but you are tired, you might just be tired, right? And maybe you need rest. Maybe you're bored. That's a need, right? Maybe you need something to do to occupy yourself, right? So maybe you need a book or a walk or to do something that entertains you, watch a movie, listen to music, things like that. Maybe you're bored. Another need, again, could be companionship. Maybe you're lonely. If you're lonely, call a friend, talk to a family member, play with a pet, socialize somehow, whatever is your particular brand of socializing. What are your needs, your emotional needs, not your hunger needs because we talked about that. So hunger needs, evaluate your emotional needs. Movement is a great way to beat cravings. Of course, I'm always pro-movement because sometimes it's boredom and sometimes it's just a great way to get your mind on something else is to go out for a walk, right? Go outside. Put on a coat and a hat because it's winter, but go outside and take a little walk around the block. You'd be surprised, even a 10-minute walk, you'll start thinking about other things and you'll stop thinking about the cravings because if you're not truly hungry, your mind will wander and you'll get past that feeling of wanting. Because if you're truly hungry and your stomach is empty and growling and you're hangry, the walk, you won't be able to stop thinking about it on a walk and you'll start to feel it more. So that's a good way to test it out. So move your body. Go for a walk outside. Go to the gym. Take a class. Put on your favorite yoga video. Whatever you like to do, move your body and you'll be surprised that those cravings go away. Drinking water. That's another need, too, that I didn't mention is sometimes we're just thirsty. So drinking, go get a big glass of water, drink that, and then evaluate your hunger and say, okay, I drank a big glass of water, I'm not really hungry at all. Or maybe you are. But evaluate that by drinking some water and see how that satisfies you and see if that helps quench the craving. Because a lot of times thirst is disguised as a craving. So drinking water helps. Distracting yourself. And, again, this is, again, part of meeting your emotional need or distracting yourself by movement. But other ways to distract yourself. And, again, it also goes with the boredom factor. But do you like to do puzzles? Do you like to read books? Do you like crosswords? Do you like Sudoku? Do you like mind games? Do you like to go to the movies? What do you enjoy doing? What's something that you could do that would distract you and get your mind off of what you're feeling, which is a craving? So even if it's not an emotional need or you're not bored, but something that would distract your mind. And I find that it needs to be something that involves your mind. So sometimes watching TV is not enough. Because watching TV or scrolling on a phone can be kind of mindless. And it's helpful if you're distracting yourself and trying to get your mind off of something. You need something that is going to engage your mind fully. So puzzles are great. Again, reading is great. So think along those lines in terms of how to distract yourself. And wait it out. Give yourself 10 minutes. You know, set a timer and say, okay, let me try reading a book for 10 minutes and see what happens. You know, 20 minutes. Give yourself a little bit of time and come back and then reevaluate. Because sometimes, again, sometimes we are hungry and you have to give yourself a little bit of time to assess that stomach hunger. Are you hungry in your stomach? And sometimes we have to give in and have something to eat in order to satisfy that. I will say that sometimes it is necessary to have a bite or two. If you're not hungry, to satisfy the craving or it just won't go away. But here's the thing that I like to recommend is think of a healthy substitution. Because the last thing we need to do if we're trying to watch our weight or stay in a certain shape or maintain a weight is to, just because we're craving brownies, to pull out the baking stuff and bake a whole tray and then eat them. What is something else, just because you're craving sweets, right? You don't need a whole tray of brownies. What about having a piece of fruit and satisfy your sweet craving that way? What are some healthy substitutions? Is there one, can you have just one? Are you able to do that? What are some healthy substitutions if you're a salty kind of person? Instead of opening a bag of chips, what are some other healthier salty options that you could have instead of a bag of chips? Popcorn is a nice light example. Would you be satisfied with some cut up vegetables and some dip? What's a healthy substitution? I think that can go a long way to satisfying cravings too. Sometimes the only thing that's going to cut it is food. If we're going to use food to satisfy that craving, we need to be very mindful of it. I watch out for certain things. Be careful with portions always because if it's just a craving and you're not actually hungry, then this might put you over your calorie budget for the day. Be mindful of your portions. Be careful with things like nuts. While they're a healthy snack, they're very dense so they can be highly caloric. Always portion out things like that. Be careful with sugar-free items. If you're a sweets person and you're tempted to handle a craving by finding some sugar-free version, be careful because they have a lot of chemicals and that can upset your stomach. I say that because I've had that happen. I used to try to manage cravings by just substituting all the time, but I would look for low-sugar, healthier options. The thing about low-sugar or sugar-free is probably more accurate, but a lot of those sugar-free items are filled with chemicals to help substitute the sugar. Those can be really harsh on your body if you're sensitive to them. You have to be really careful with portions. Again, sometimes the only thing that will do is to have a little bit of a snack. Always do what you can to satisfy your craving and always come back to that first, first question. Am I hungry or do I just want to eat? Because sometimes what I've trained myself to do and what I help train others to do is to ask yourself that question, be able to answer that question honestly, and then handle it from there. It becomes a skill. It really does. It's just like playing an instrument or learning how to play golf, for example, where there's technique. It's a technique. You have to ask yourself the question, honestly answer it, and then go from there. Find your steps that work for you. Evaluate your needs. Substitute water, distraction, move your body. Here's the other thing that I want to mention because this is a cannabis podcast. Cannabis increases our senses. It heightens our senses. What I've done and what others have told me that they do as well, which is remarkable, when they use cannabis, it allows them to be more sensitive to this question because cannabis, part of what it does is it heightens our senses and makes us more aware of what's going on inside of our bodies. If you're having a craving, if you're wanting to eat something and you're using cannabis, it allows our brains to slow down to first ask ourselves the question, are we hungry or do we just want to eat? Then it slows us down enough so that we're not just impulsively heading to the kitchen as soon as we want to eat because I find that's common too. You just impulsively go right to the kitchen as soon as you want something. The way cannabis does is it makes us more mindful. All that means is it makes us more conscious of what's going on inside. It's easier to tell if you're actually hungry or just wanting. It gives you what I call the pause. It allows you to take the pause. The pause is that moment where you decide, am I hungry or am I going to go get something to eat? It's that little pause. Because cannabis heightens our senses, it allows us to take that pause and it allows us to make a better decision. I find that we tend to be very impulsive when it comes to cravings, just personally and seeing this through my clients. As my one client put it today, a bag of chips happened. Yes, it did. Yes, it does. It does. Sometimes before we can even think about it, a bag of chips happens or a couple of cookies happened. That happens quickly. If we can take that pause, cannabis helps us be more mindful. It helps us slow down. It heightens our senses and makes us so much more aware of what's going on. I personally love cannabis for that because it makes me mindful. It makes me mindful of my emotions. It makes me mindful of where I am with my calorie budget. It allows me to take that pause, that minute, and just evaluate. What do I need? Do I need food right now or am I just wanting food? Then to take it the next step. What do I need? Do I just need something to do? Am I just bored? Then I can handle that in a different way. It's not food that I need, but you need to be able to take that pause. Again, cannabis can be a fantastic tool for that. When I say cannabis in this case, I'm talking about both CBD and THC because both of those do that for you. CBD is the non-psychoactive type of cannabis. It is the non-high, but it still makes you mindful. It interacts with our brain chemistry such that it allows us to focus more and it allows us to heighten our senses and be more mindful. THC does the same thing. Specifically, what they're finding is in small quantities. Small doses of THC can allow us to be more mindful. It can allow us to zone in, I call it. Zoning in on how you're feeling, what's going on. Again, am I bored? Do I just need something to do with myself? Do I need someone to talk to right now? Do I need some rest? Some types of cannabis, some types of THC, I should say, do increase your appetite. Always be aware of that. That is something, when you get more specific into THC, you have to be careful what type you're using. Again, I can help you with that. But going back to CBD, that doesn't create the munchies. It doesn't interact with your brain that way. It just makes you more mindful and allows you to think through what you're going to do better. That is it. That is my advice. That is the question to answer. If you're looking to lose weight or you're just trying to maintain your weight or be healthy and be more fit and you find yourself with a lot of cravings and you find yourself with what we call big appetite or you find yourself wanting to eat a lot, stop and ask yourself. Just try starting with the question, am I hungry or do I just want to eat? Okay. That is all from me for today. Thank you so much for listening. Please, please share this with your friends, especially if you know anybody that's interested in fitness, nutrition, or cannabis, or all three. Please share. That means a lot to me. Thank you for listening. If you have any questions or would like any of the resources I offered, please feel free to reach out. I am at, my new email is Beth at Cannafitnessnutrition.com. The website is Cannafitnessnutrition.com. I am on Instagram, which I changed also to rebrand. I am Beth Cannafitnessnutrition. I look forward to talking to you again soon. Also, let me know if you have anything you'd like me to cover. Have a great day.