BEAT YOUR HUNGER.
FIGHT CRAVINGS.
DEFEAT YOUR APPETITE.
STAY FULL ALL DAY.
Why do we treat hunger as a dragon to be slayed?
Hunger is a physiological mechanism for our species’ SURVIVAL. Do we devise ways to stymie other biological normalcies like breathing or peeing? Wouldn’t that be absurd? That’s what the diet culture industry does: it preys on your insecurities, vulnerabilities, and our endemic weight stigma to convince you that you shouldn’t be hungry and if you are – HAVE SOME SELF CONTROL and BLUNT that sensation, right? Because “hunger is all in your mind”, right? SUPPRESS THAT APPETITE, YOU HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO, right?
After years of study (MS in Dietetics and Nutrition, years as inpatient hospital RDs and years in private practice) we are here to announce that we have discovered the holy secret to “fighting” hunger, though. We will divulge it here now, but ONLY if you promise to heed it… are you sitting down? Do you have your Notes app open?
The coveted, precious, evidence-based strategy to combat this beast- once and for all – FOREVER…
….EAT. FOOD. WITH YOUR TEETH (and your brain and your heart doing some air traffic control so you EAT FOOD THAT YOU LOVE.)
The simple, unsexy solution to the diet culture demons clawing at you to ravage your ravenousness is to FEED YOURSELF (and #feedyouressence, while you’re at it.)
If you’re hungry (and distinguishing and assigning levels to hunger is a delicate craft that we seek to teach you), you need to eat. You need to eat something DELICIOUS. You need to eat something SATIATING to your body and your mind (we say BRAIN AND BELLY). Your food choice shouldn’t be something to STAVE OFF hunger as if it were a petulant toddler tugging at your pants, your food choice should be a glorious, gracious YAY moment where you appreciate the physical ability to eat and the cognitive ability to decide what, where, how much, and when.
Sound farcical? It’s not. THIS IS INTUITIVE EATING. If you’re reading this like – Le duh, I eat when I’m hungry – dig deeper. Is WHAT you’re eating a factor of a voice of a diet imposing food rules, or are you uninhibited and free from the diet chatter in your head?
Time to stop treating hunger like a disease. Time to eat. Time to savor and enjoy and relish your food. Because if you know us Essence RDs, you know that NOBODY is as excited about food as we are and you should be, too!