You can ask yourself whether your body indeed needs fuel. External sources of false hunger, like appetite and craving triggers, are usually for something specific, something delicious.  You can ask yourself, “Am I so hungry that I’d eat steamed broccoli, brown rice and grilled chicken?” If you’re not actually physically hungry, chances are these won’t sound inviting. When you’re learning or relearning how to sense physical hunger, there’s a series of steps you can take, one at a time, to increase your awareness of what’s happening when you think you’re hungry. It will take practice. The practice can sometimes be tedious because the essence of practice is repetition. You will need to practice detecting your physical hunger again and again.  The very next time you reach for something to eat or have the thought that you’re hungry and need to seek out food, STOP. Pause for a minute before following through with the momentum of the moment and grabbing food. It helps in this moment to take a breath; one long, expansive breath. The breath alone can interrupt the mindless action of eating without really thinking about it.  What’s going on in your stomach? Are you having physical signs of … Continue reading Are You Hungry?