What Are You Hungry For?

Hunger.

To me, there are two distinct types of hunger: physical hunger and emotional hunger. We know when we’re physically hungry because our stomachs growl and gurgle. Maybe we get a little headache and maybe we feel weak and shaky. And then, if we don’t eat soon, we might begin to feel nauseated, dizzy, and faint. These physical symptoms of hunger are good, because they show us that our bodies need food. Food is good! Food keeps us alive!

Emotional hunger can be a little harder to recognize.

I remember coming home from work one day, feeling frazzled and stressed, and walking straight to the refrigerator. I felt angry about something that had occurred at my job, and so of course, I wanted to eat. It didn’t matter that I had eaten at work, and that I had eaten in the car on my way home. I still headed for the refrigerator, opened it up, and scanned the shelves for something--anything--that sounded good to me. And as I was standing in front of the refrigerator, a light bulb went on. I realized that I was not physically hungry. I was emotionally hungry. I felt angry, stressed, irritated, and resentful, and I was dealing with those negative feelings through food.

“What I want is not in the refrigerator,” I said to myself. I closed the refrigerator door.

That was my turning point. What I wanted was not food. What I wanted, deep in my heart, was a sense of calm, comfort, peace, contentment, and resolution, none of which could be found in bingeing. I realized, in that moment, that I had been confusing physical hunger with emotional hunger.

So, the next time you’re thinking about food, ask yourself one question. “Am I physically hungry or emotionally hungry?”

If you’re physically hungry, eat.

If you’re emotionally hungry, know that no food on the planet will satisfy you.



Next up: “Those Last Few Pounds”