No one wants to hear or think about being overweight or even obese. These are ugly words yet a growing problem in our society. We hear all the time about the obesity epidemic in our society and how even our children are suffering from excess weight that is limiting their lives. The more I see these stories and look at my own family’s health I have to ask if food and physical eating are really the problem? There’s no question our food system has dangers in it with the number of recalls occurring on almost every corner of our table, but is that really causing us to be fat? Is it the commercials showing endless food commercials during prime watching times? Is it our own lifestyle or laziness? Is it all of this and more?
While overeating can be a serious condition and physical problem I think the bigger issue for the majority of us is that sometimes being overweight isn’t the result of feeding our body too much but rather feeding our souls too little. We are surrounded by food all the time! It is associated with our entertainment, activities and relationships. Food is the comfy place where we can be consoled, soothed and fulfilled well beyond our physical hunger. Ice cream and Netflix are the go-to for break-ups. Gummy fruit snacks are the grabbed for snack to reward kids for playing 45 minutes of a sport. Book clubs have trays of food and wine to enjoy while we talk. Football tailgating is the ultimate food fest that can even overshadow the game. We have literally aligned food to every occasion, activity and reason you can imagine.
As a result, we often find ourselves constantly surrounded by and thinking about food and eating even when we don’t realize it. We organize our schedules and lives around what we will get to eat next. We are eating out of pleasure, feelings, culture, event or activity, obligation, and expectation. None of that has to do with the physical reason to eat. Over time, we forget what it means to be physically hungry as our appetites are triggered by our hormones and feelings rather than our true physical hunger.
I’ll Give You an Apple or Orange
One of the ways I work through my emotional eating is by saying if I’m hungry I’m going to eat an apple or orange. These fruits are good, healthy, filling and wonderful so if I am really hungry they should fulfill that need and are a good snack choice. They’re convenient, portable and really no one has an excuse not to eat these types of fruits.
The reason I limit my choice to an apple or orange is because I’m using that fruit to call myself out on my own hunger lie. My hunger lie isn’t always that I am hungry but rather I am bored, sad, stressed, thirsty, tired, upset, or a dozen other feelings that have nothing to do with physical hunger. I am crisscrossing the hunger signals and not responding to something my body, mind, spirit or soul needs. I’m replacing what I actually need to deal with or do with food. The hard to admit part – I do it all the time too.
So I had to get tough with myself and still honor my rebellious nature by allowing a choice but limiting what that choice included. Instead of ignoring it and reaching for mindless snacks like chips or whatever is in the pantry I offer myself an apple or an orange. I still get to choose but it has to be one or the other or nothing at all.
Sometimes I ate the apple.
Sometimes I ate the orange.
Most of the time I don’t eat either because I wanted something other than that as my choice. Some salt, chocolate, something cold like ice cream, something greasy. When that happens, I know my truth and true reason for that supposed hunger. It means I really wasn’t “hungry” but rather was looking for a distraction. I need to put on my big girl pants that are a little too snug and start looking at what I am trying to be distracted from.
Being surrounded by food all the time has enabled us to easily hide our emotions and feelings deep in food and believe we are just fitting in. It’s easier with a plate in our hands to socialize and find meaningful ways to communicate with another person. We’re not really hungry but someone went through all this effort to prepare treats and it would be rude not to try some. I’m having a bad day so I need some serious carbs to make it better. I’m bored, stressed, tired, dreading something or just wanting to check out so I’m going to nibble on some chocolate, cereal or whatever else I can get my hands on. I went all day without eating because of demands on my time and now I’m starving picking up whatever I can that’s fast and easy. We all do this sometimes and sometimes there are legitimate reasons it happens. However, it’s when this type of action becomes repetitive or is a habit and we do it without even a second thought that it can overtake our rationale when it comes to eating and cause the weight problems we can’t seem to get rid of afterwards.
My Apple and Orange Tricks
When I do eat the apple or orange I like to put one drop of OnGuard mixed on the fruit after I’ve cut it. It gives it a nice flavor that not only enhances what I’m eating but adds in a little immunity boost. I like the taste and realized that sometimes we can also eat mindlessly when we are starting to come down with a bug or illness. As the bug starts to build up our bodies are trying to get in a few extra calories to prepare for dealing with that illness. OnGuard can help with by supporting your cells with some healthy immune support so you’re fighting off illness continually.
Hormonal Hunger Interruptions
There are times we just crave a big juicy greasy cheeseburger with chili cheese fries and extra everything. Or maybe it’s the big ice cream tub loaded with candies and goodies that puts you over the edge. Are the big over sized bag of chips that are extra salty and covered in fake cheese your thing? My personal favorite is a big plate of pancakes with real butter and lots syrup. These trigger foods are often associated with what is occurring with our hormones. We just want certain foods and flavors when this happen and it can seem an insatiable pain until we get it. The problem is afterwards we feel terrible. Our stomachs are upset, we are bloated, we gained 5 pounds and so on.
Women and men both go through hormone changes but women most notably have this occurring at a rapid pace every month. We also all face continual stress in varying degrees in our lives that works through our adrenals and further hinders and impacts how our hormonal system operates. All of this combined can drive our stomach’s reactions resulting in us thinking we are hungry or that we need a certain type of food in response to the changes they are going through.
When you have this many systems in your own body fighting you for a chocolate donut it can be near impossible to not drive into the bakery. Amy at Dragonspit Apothecary
It can take a long time to align your hormones or even realize what is causing your diet to go out the window when you get these cravings. They are strong and can seem it takes super hero strength to overcome. Like everything in our body, hormones are intertwined with everything else that is going on in our body so it can be really hard to pinpoint if it is a hormonal hunger or something else. Maybe we are lacking a vitamin, maybe it’s a deficiency in something else, maybe we’re getting sick. Usually cravings are hormonal but don’t just assume that. Get to know your signals so can rule them out and get to the bottom of your cravings.
A good way to look at this is to think about hormonal hunger like a weakened immune system. When we are coming down with a bug our bodies are just trying to reach out for anything to get our immune system what it needs to deliver relief, prepare to fight off the bug and help us get well again. When we have a food craving as a result of our hormones we are hearing our body call out that something is missing or isn’t aligned and working like it should. Our system is overwhelmed and we start to crave things our body is saying we need like salt, sugar and carbs to ease that call for help.
I believe the best way to deal with hormonal hunger is to detox our hormones, adrenals and digestive systems and get them aligned with our health needs so we reduce these triggering moments. These three systems are connected to everything in our body so by cleaning them out we have a good chance at getting to the root cause of what drives our cravings.
Cleansing does include cleaning up what we eat but first it means supporting our body with a natural supportive cleanse so it can be equipped to handle diet changes. We want to cleanse our cells and give them a chance to heal from the continual stress we’ve put on them. If we only change our food we’re going to end up with further stress and a complicated reason we can’t lose weight.
There are numerous cleanses and detoxes available but a lot of these not only strip away the bad but also the good that our bodies need to naturally support a healthier lifestyle. We see the results of that in the way of diarrhea, constipation, stomach pains and other unpleasant things. Since I’m trying to help my body and not make things worse I wanted a cleanse that wouldn’t have those side effects. Seriously, who has time for that anyway?
I’ve used the doTERRA GX Assist, DigestZen and TerraZyme as my cleanse periodically for the past year and it works really well without the side effects. It’s a 10 to 14 day cleanse that is easy to fit into any lifestyle and enables you to focus on meaningful changes without side effects.
A consistent high quality whole food supplement system, like the doTERRA Life Long Vitality, DDR Prime and the doTERRA Women’s Phytoestrogen and Bone Nutrients can take the progress made from the cleanse and support further changes to help. These supplements work to give our cells what they need to optimally perform, use energy and regenerate into new cells. When we have optimal cell functions are hormones are supported and able to not be as easily triggered.
These supplements are 100% natural and provide what our bodies need in a consistent, renewable way so our bodies can do what they already know how to do. We are just giving them the right tools through these supplements to perform those functions and strengthen them for higher performance.
The good news is we can control those cravings and get strong about our relationship with food. Once we have the cravings under control through aligned hormones we can really start to influence the messages our body produces when something isn’t aligned anymore and we can proactively deal with it versus turning into a stark raving chocolate maniac in our stretchy pants.
Interested in more?
Knowing what our bodies are saying can be confusing when it comes to feeling hunger. Getting to the root of that though can offer many of us some much desired progress on our health goals. For many of us that root is often associated with our emotions or hormones and by making changes there we can increase our opportunity for successful health goals.
If you have questions about the products described in this post or are interested in getting them to try yourself please reach out. The doTERRA Life Long Vitality supplements come with a 30 day money back guarantee so there’s nothing to lose except feeling better!
amyk@dragonspitapothecary.com
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