Is it Physical Craving - or a Mental One?

As we head into the weekend, take a moment, right now, to notice how your stomach feels. Your chest. Your core.

This is where we feel hunger.

For so long we've been feeling it only with our heads - more specifically, the mental part of addiction.

When the benign feelings of hunger hit our brain, food addiction bangs the drums of fear, panic, and urgency.

It makes hunger intolerable.

It says DANGER DANGER - CHANGE THIS FEELING IMMEDIATELY!!

But in the body, some healthy hunger is perfectly safe. It comes in waves. It tells us that the body is finished digesting. That's all. We can choose how to respond to that signal from a place of non-urgency, calm, and safety.

Even when you're eating "food sober" and your hunger becomes normal, gentle, and more legible, this is something we still need to practice. Not because your hunger actually hurts, physically, - but because it can still be a challenge to let go of the mental habit of hunger panic.

Ask yourself: what does the weekend look like when I eat in response to true body hunger instead of mental hunger?