I strongly believe that all people are different. We deal with emotions in various ways. It has a lot to do with your personal experience, past history, emotional strength, and so on. So the way we experience hunger is also different. To be honest I am an angry hungry person. When I am late for a meal I almost always get irritated, angry, emotional, impatient, and very very hungry. But that is only my first feeling. At the beginning of hunger.

But why is it important to understand your hunger? It should be simple. If you are hungry you should eat. Not always. Not if you had your last meal only 30 minutes ago. There are different types of sensations that we often mistake for hunger. And that is why we need to learn to listen to our bodies and understand what is happening to them.

Are you an angry hungry person?

First of all, I would like to emphasize the importance of having regular, healthy meals. This article in no way promotes starving or fasting. This article is for individuals who experience hunger pangs shortly after eating a meal. If you are a woman, you will understand a little better than a man. We have all had days in our menstrual cycles when we feel like there is a black hole in our belly. Food just disappears inside, and you are still hungry, no matter how much you eat. And you really want to eat the greasiest, sweetest, and most unhealthy food there is. And if you don’t get it, you can’t stop thinking about it.

Maybe your blood sugar is low. Maybe you didn’t have a healthy snack, and now you find yourself craving more food, stuck in a cycle of eating and craving. And that feeling of a beast waking up inside you, ready to throw fire on everyone around you, is ready to go. So what to do? How to respond?

The answer will be a little difficult to do, but it will work. It’s mind over matter. Willpower. If you are at home, sit down and have a full glass of water. If you are in a car or at work, have some water. Wait. Wait another ten minutes. Try to get yourself busy with something other than contact with other human beings. Go to the toilet, fix your hair, makeup, and take a walk around the parking lot if you must, but give yourself those 10 minutes. The feeling will pass. It is the sensation of hunger that you are dealing with. You do not really need food if you just had lunch. Same as craving a dessert after lunch, even if you are full. We are creatures of habits, so are our bodies. If you always have a snack, you will crave a snack. Break that circle. And I promise you, if you just wait for another 10 to 20 minutes, have some water, and chill, the feeling will subside, and you will feel so much better about yourself.

Do you always eat at the same time?

If you do a little belly searching and try to figure out at what times you feel the most hungry most of the time will be the same each and every day. For some people, it happens in the late afternoon, and for some, late in the evening. It will depend on your lifestyle. What time do you wake up, and what time do you usually go to bed?

What I like to do is if I want to eat less for a day, I will switch up my meals. Postponing breakfast early in the morning for a couple of hours will do the trick. You can still have coffee, tea, or just a healthy juice shake. Just not the main meal. If it’s hard for you to do it during work days, try it during the weekend. If you postpone your breakfast for just 2 hours, it would help you cheat your hunger in the afternoon or evening. So come lunchtime, you won’t feel hungry. It is healthy to have an early meal and then just skip the late-night snack.

Sometimes I would have my last meal of the day by 3 or 4 pm. After that, if I still get hungry before going to bed, it’s not that bad that a handful of nuts or a piece of fruit can’t fix it. It’s some type of unintentional intermittent fasting because my next meal would be breakfast at 10 am, and that would give me almost 18 hours of the non-eating window. You would think that I would wake up super hungry, but that would be wrong. I actually wake up super hungry when I eat late.

Your hunger is a personal experience

When starting on your journey to get to know your hunger, keep in mind to always stay safe. I have seen people suddenly get low blood sugar levels because of irregular meal times. It can happen in seconds. Their bodies start to shake. They have cold sweats and a sudden loss of energy. That is nothing to be messing with. So please take this seriously.

I only recommend doing this to an average healthy person who has no history of health conditions that could put them in danger. Recognizing your hunger or cravings is for people who eat out of force of habit. We have all been stuck at home during COVID. Most of us have enjoyed trying new recipes and food, and now we are stuck in the same habits. If you have a problem where you always feel hungry and there is nothing in your medical history to indicate a serious problem, then go ahead and try. But if in any part of this exercise you feel unwell, have a snack.

All about this is to try to get to know your body and recognize the emotions that come with it. We don’t come to this earth with an instruction manual. Even when the new parents are handed their newborn child in the hospital, all the parents’ classes in the world can’t prepare them enough for taking care of it for the first time.

Getting to know yourself and how you really work is a never-ending journey. I mean, I’m learning new things about myself almost every single day. I’m getting older, not necessarily wiser, but somehow just listening and trying to understand where my body is going and what it went through makes it somehow better. So think and reflect. Don’t try to repair the damage because often it’s not possible. Don’t expect to look like you did 15 or 20 years ago. You are not the same person anymore. Just think about how your body can look and what you can do to help yourself on the way.

We are what we eat or go easy on yourself

I must have heard it hundreds of times. We are what we eat. But I find it wrong. The food we eat does not determine us. Not all people need to be skinny or fit or pack a lot of muscle to appreciate themselves. As I said in the beginning. We are all different. And there is a potential for change in all of us. Sometimes changes are for the better, but sometimes also for the worse.

When people ask me about dieting, healthy eating, or losing weight, I always ask them first what they want to do and why. I look at them as a whole person. Asking what is behind the motivation to reach their set goal. And then I tell them what works for me. Only me. Because, to be honest, I don’t really know what really works for you.

Sometimes I imagine it as people asking me for tools to fix their house. But I’m not an engineer or a builder to know what is wrong with it. I can handle your tools and send you from the roof to the basement, but that doesn’t mean the house will get fixed. And I believe that is what fitness influencers and online personal trainers are doing all the time. We don’t know you. You know you. Sometimes the problem could be emotional or personal, you could have a health condition, or maybe you just feel depressed. People are so busy taking money and promising results, but they don’t realize that they are only treating the symptoms. Until you, as the person, don’t deal with your problems, issues, and personal history, that actually makes you unhappy. That makes you feel that there is something wrong with you, and nobody else can say anything. And a way to do that is to stop, think, and feel the simple things that you are experiencing. Simple as hunger, so go easy on yourself. My experience in all these articles and the knowledge I have now is 90% from mistakes. From many tries and as many failures. But don’t give up. Give yourself a chance.