Hi Friends! Here we are again with another WIAW in this month of focusing on Intuitive Eating. This week is about learning to stop when you are 80% full. The Okinawons in Japan, one of only 5 ares of the world where there is a larger proportion of centurions (people living over 100) have a term for this, it's called Hara Hachi Bu. In case your curious, there is only one Blue Zone in the US, located in Loma Linda California where I went to grad school, so that's how I found out about it.
Anyways, as I mentioned in yesterdays intuitive eating post part 3, as a member of the “clear your plate” club, this is sometimes really hard for me. I also tend to eat small portions throughout the day, or eat big meals to fill me up when I know I won’t be able to snack. With those types of meals I usually finish the whole thing, not really tapping into when I’m 80% full. I find I get a better chance to practice this when I eat out, which just so happens I did yesterday!
8:00AM Post Walk with Nala super processed breakfast of UCAN and Quest Bar. The mornings have been moving really fast the last week or so and I haven’t had time to make whole foods based breakfast options. I try and make up for it throughout the rest of the day though! I worked for an hour on the blog, social media and tackling my inbox before heading to the gym. No picture, totally forgot I was planning on recording my food!
9:30AM ½ banana with earth balance coconut peanut butter
My workout kind of sucked because my back was bothering me, I was scheduled to do the metabolic meltdown workout but ended up changing it and nixing some of the cardio.
11:15AM Greek Nonfat Yogurt with 1 spoonful of chocolate PB2 & stevia drops. I usually like the 2% but the 0% was on sale 😉
12:30PM This actually filled me up way more than I thought so I wasn’t hungry before leaving to meet with my client. I poured a cup of homemade iced coffee in a recycled Starbucks cup (I save them when I get tea or plain black coffee) to take with me.
2:15PM I finished meeting with my client and hit up the Whole Foods salad bar for lunch and then stayed there to work at a standing up table until around 4:30pm.
My 80% full point was about here (see picture below), the point at which I’m comfortably full but there is still food left. Always a hard spot for me but since I was starting this post I tried to be mindful of it and save the rest to snack on right before I left to go back home and change/let pup out.
5:25PM ate a piece of ham before I left to teach a group fitness class
and two handfuls of lilly's stevia dark chocolate chips
7:40PM After I walked pup I wasn’t that hungry so I finished off some siggi’s drinkable yogurt and ate some green beans. No picture of the sad green beans on there own, I just couldn’t bring myself to take the picture. I know dinner of champs right!?!? I think I was likely not that hungry because of the late lunch so whatever, it all balances out in the end.
Do you notice your hunger fluctuation from day to day? I definitely do, I could eat a lot one day, little the next, normal another day it just depends on stress, sleep, exercise etc but as long as I trust my body and treat it right it all balances out in the end!
Recent WIAW Posts:
I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday! Linking up with peas and crayons today, if you like seeing what other people eat definitely check out the link up!
Sarah @ BucketListTummy says
My hunger definitely fluctuates throughout the day. Your WF salad bar lunch looks alot like mine when I eat out! I loveee the creaminess of 2% Fage.
Aubrey says
Upon seeing the name of this post I have to admit I was a little apprehensive because I do not subscribe to wholly intuitive eating a) because of having unreliable hunger cues and b) having a schedule that fluctuates a lot. HOWEVER, upon reading it I can really see the principles of intuitive eating working well for you. You clearly know your body and how to listen to it in order to get proper nutrition FOR YOU. So many people seem to use intuitive eating as a guise for restricting what they eat by falling into the habit of always leaving a certain amount of food even when they are still hungry but this post is a great illustration of intuitive eating working.
Kelli Shallal MPH RD says
It sounds like you know your body well too!
Ali Ronan says
I like the idea of eating to 80% full, but I always feel awful about wasting food. Definitely some deep conditioning from childhood. I had no idea Siggi's made drinkable yogurt. I tried my first Siggi's recently and was shocked by how tart it was. I kinda liked it though so I'm wondering if the drinakable version would be as zingy.
Kelli Shallal MPH RD says
I think it has a bit more sugar per serving 15g vs 7g so it is a little less tart! I'm totally with you on the throwing food away, I've gotten really good to be okay with putting tiny amounts of left overs in the fridge. Like 1/4 a cup of brown rice goes in the fridge and in a salad the next day. It seems ridiculous to me sometimes but I know it's the right thing!
Melanie says
I love that you point out how hunger can vary from day to day! That's why it's so important to listen to our bodies. Great post!
Kelli Shallal MPH RD says
True! When I was calorie counting I would get super freaked out about what I ate day to day, it had to be a certain number, it was exhausting!
Kaleigh @Lively Table says
I'm a member of the clean your plate club, too! But I find I feel so much better when I'm being mindful and stip when I'm moderately full. Little reminders like this are helpful! 🙂
Victoria says
I tell my clients about the Japanese saying all the time, too! Love these intuitive eating styled WIAW posts, keep it up!