Ask ‘what else am I hungry for’An integral part of understanding your cues is getting curious about them. Elizabeth suggests asking what else you might be hungry for?

Let’s say it’s breakfast time and you’re craving cake.

“You intuitively know that eating cake for breakfast wouldn’t actually be the most aligned for your health,” says Elizabeth. “Then you get curious and say, ‘okay, well, if we go a little deeper into this craving, what is it that I’m actually hungry for?'”

This could be any number of things, like:

love

comfort

community

acceptance

rest

validation

pleasure

intimacy

The more you ask, listen, and stay with the craving, the more likely you are to get an answer.

Keep the food you crave in the house

It may fly in the face of everything you’ve ever heard about eating healthy, but Elizabeth suggests keeping the foods you crave available in the house. This helps to reinforce the idea that food isn’t such a big deal.

“The cravings can feel really intense when you’re limiting them because you’re only allowed to eat dessert on the weekend,” says Elizabeth. “You’re going to be craving that dessert Monday through Friday until the weekend comes.”

Instead, have a little bit of what you’re desiring any time throughout the week.

“When you’re allowing yourself to eat what you want to eat, the cravings no longer seem that special,” Elizabeth says.

Tips for enjoying your food

Roth outlines several tips for truly being present and enjoying your food.

1. Eat when you are hungry.

2. Eat sitting down in a calm environment. This does not include the car.

3. Eat without distractions. Distractions include radio, television, newspapers, books, intense or anxiety-producing conversations, or music.

4. Eat what your body wants.

5. Eat until you are satisfied.

6. Eat (with the intention of being) in full view of others.

7. Eat with enjoyment, gusto, and pleasure.

Doing these can help you truly experience the pleasure of eating, as well as take away any sense of the shamefulness or specialness of food.

Takeaway

“When we give up dieting, we take back something we were often too young to know we had given away: our own voice,” writes Roth.

By listening to your cravings and treating them with curiOSity, respect, and trust, you can begin to reclaim that voice.