The Hunger Scale | EP.10

This show is about freedom. Freedom from your constant struggle with food and letting the size of your thighs determine your worth. Join me weekly for no whole fat, unfiltered girlfriend kind of conversations that will inspire, teach and empower you. As we tune into our own body's wisdom and tune out of the diet industry lives, we can live our most radiant, pleasurable and fulfilled lives. My name is Chanci Dawn. I'm a non diet nutritionist embodiment and mindset coach. But most importantly, I'm a woman on a mission to grow a deeply connected and conscious relationship with food and my body. And I'm here inviting you to do the same. Let's go.

Hello, you beautiful soul. Welcome to today's show. I am so happy you're here. And I have a horrible spring cold. Oh my goodness, it just hit me. And I can sound I feel like I'm sounding really, really nasally I'm not sure if you hear that. But yes, I have a cold and my body wants to go to bed. So this is a very interesting thing for me because I sat down to do this podcast. And everything in me is like, I just want to go lay down with a cup of tea and binge watch a show. But I have to get this done. So I'm like how. So I sat down. I'm like, How do I honor my body and what I need and listen to her and still get this done, right? Because we're living in a world where sometimes we have to do what we've got to do, even if we don't feel like it. So I'm like, okay, Chanci, how can I serve you today. So I got some coziest socks on I could find, I made myself a cup of elderberry teen and super yummy and good for colds. And I'm just being really gentle to myself here. And I think that this is a really happy sort of medium place, right? I'm getting done what I need to and I'm also really honoring my body's need to be cozy and have tea and to rest. And then as soon as I'm done this, I'm definitely crawling right into bed. But who knows, maybe by that time, I will actually feel like going out for a walk in nature. And I'm actually looking out the window right now. And it's beautiful outside. So yes, maybe this podcast will invigorate me we will see. But anyways, I hope this day finds you doing well. Whatever you're doing right now, I just encourage you to take a deep breath. And just to sink into your body sensations. Just notice what's going on there for you right now. Are you feeling anything that you need to pay attention to? That perhaps you didn't recognize before you stopped? So taking these little timeouts throughout your day? To just ask your body? How are you doing to ask her? Is there anything that you need? Is there anything I can serve you in? What would feel like pleasure to you right now?

Yeah, so this is a beautiful practice. And for me, my body was like, I'm just in a lot of gratitude for this hot tea. So that's awesome. Okie dokie, my friend. So today, what I'm wanting to do is teach you a tool, a really, really valuable tool that you can put into that toolbox that we are building together. So remember, I'm not sure if you've heard the past episodes. And if you haven't, go back and listen to them. Because it's really, really especially important that you get the foundation, okay, of B It tastes like freedom program down pat. So there's four, four pillars of embodied eating that I want you to go back to visit if you haven't already, and then come back and listen to the show. Okay, so in this with these pillars, what we're doing is we are we have this beautiful, sparkly, fun toolbox. And we're going to put all of these tools, all of these resources in this box that you can pull out and use to help build this beautiful relationship that you are with your body. So today's tool that I'm wanting to teach you is called the hunger scale. So I learned this tool 13 years ago when I first trained to be a weight loss coach. And I really liked it because it was the first time I started actually paying attention to how my body was feeling and really like Oh, interesting. Like she is showing me all of these cues right? But here's a warning. When I did This back 13 years ago, it was for weight loss, right? This was the main focus. So when you're using this tool, it's really important to not slip in to making it a hunger and fullness diet. We're not paying attention just so that we can like, start eat when we're hungry, stop when we're false so that we can be, you know, whittling away down to nothing. So this is what I really want to caution you against. And it's also really normal. If you have been a dieter, right. If this is something that you do is follow these programs and look outside of yourself, then this actually, it's really normal to slip into this like hunger fullness, diet mentality. So again, awareness is such an important thing become aware, really pay attention to the thoughts you're having, when you're using this tool, and really get curious as to why with tons of compassion, okay, so we're going back to our obviously back to our pillars here, but curiosity, tons of compassion, and what we're wanting to use this tool for, okay? It's not to diet. It's not for like, again, like this big, hunger, fullness, weight loss stuff, what it is for, and why I love it is because it helps you get in touch with you. And when you're following your body's cues. And when you're understanding that she is really, really wise, and she is wanting to speak to you, she was wanting to show you how much she needs in order to feel awesome. And she also wants to tell you when to stop. And when you stop when you stop eating. When your body is showing you that is where the magic happens, because that's when all of our stuff comes up. Right? If we're not eating to buffer away, our emotions are for not eating, right, because we're so disconnected from our if we're eating sorry, if we're eating because we're so disconnected from our bodies, cues, then when we learn to listen to our cues, all of our patterns will start emerging. Okay, so we'll talk about that a bit more in a second. So let's actually look at the scale itself. If you go to your show notes, you can find a link there that'll take you to your own hunger scale that I've created for you to print off, so it's in the show notes, or you could just go to chancy don.com forward slash hunger scale. Okay, so print your own off so that you have it for reference, I really highly recommend you do that because a visual is really important for learning. Okay. Now look at your scale. And if you don't have it, look at in your mind's eye. So it goes from negative 10 all the way to positive 10. Okay, negative 10, negative nine, negative eight, all the way to zero, and then again, 1-234-567-8910. So, negative 10 is like you're starving to death, this is the ultimate you are literally starving. Now positive 10 Is that opposite, right? You will have eaten yourself to death. Okay? So it's like absolute extremes on either end. And what we want to focus on is the twos. So negative two, negative one, zero, positive one, positive two. So when we look at our cues that our body is showing us about hunger and fullness, we're going to focus on these twos and keep it really simple. So zero is neutral. Zero is for me, zero just feels like I'm not hungry. I'm not fall. It's just very neutral. It's just there. I'm not thinking about food, there's nothing really there's no charge there for me. So as we are working through the scale, I really encourage you to be tuning in to your working memory tune into your body how you feel right now, and really start to investigate by getting curious what your body feels at these different places on the hunger scale. Okay, so neutral. How do you feel neutral? Okay, now let's go negative first. So negative one is when you're going to just start thinking about food and little peckish as they would say, for me, negative one feels like just like a little twinge of hunger. It's not like a growl. It's definitely not anything intense. It's just this little twinge and perhaps, say if someone's like barbecuing in my cul de sac, that barbecue will Start to taste, or smell pretty darn good.

And I'm like, Yeah, my body would like some food soon. So what does your body feel like at negative one, get curious start to pay attention to this. And as you pay more attention and get more curious, you're gonna start noticing things that you didn't know were there before. And it's such a fun process getting to know your body like this, and she loves it. If you're finding that you've been disconnected for so long, and this quite often happens in dieting, it's so so common, disconnected, our bodies actually start they, it's almost like they just have this faint, faint whisper, it's still there. But it's so small. And this is what we get to learn how to tune into and start honoring. And as you do, your body will start to communicate more and more and more with you. And on the flip side, if you have sort of gone to the place where you just eat all the time, right, if you're binging a lot, and this is also very common dieting behavior, as we've talked about before, when your body is feeling restricted, when you're feeling deprived, that will lead to overeating, that leads to a binge. This is why dieting can be so freakin dangerous case. So if you find that this is the pattern you're in, you might not actually feel hungry, because you don't give your body enough time in between meals to actually get there. So this again, is part of learning and honoring her, okay. And if you are finding that your cues are not there, if you're finding that either you're not really like ever feeling hungry, right, or you're kind of like I don't even know what a negative one, negative two is, and so forth. This is where we actually want to start serving your body by eating on a schedule. Okay, don't freak out. I know a lot of this can feel very counterintuitive, okay to this embodied eating process. But these are little tools that we need to do. These are little self honoring things that we get to do in order in order to waken our body up and start to learn how to listen to her. So what I would encourage if you don't have these tools, if you've been a dieter for so long, number one, compassion, please honey coat, compassion yourself all over that you've done nothing wrong. And now you know what to do. And you're going to wake yourself up, this is an exciting time. So if this is what you're experiencing, we want to start incorporating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Okay, and perhaps some snacks in between. every body is different, some people's bodies really thrive on grazing, some people's bodies really just need three meals a day, you are going to again, as you tune in, learn more and more and more about what you need you as an individual, eat a satisfying meal that nourishes you, and gives you pleasure, and then wait and see what your body starts to feel. Usually around every three to four hours, our body is like

hmm. So notice this and start paying like massive attention to these cues. And also, here's another little caution. This is hyper awareness. And when you've been in the diet cycle for so long, sometimes this can also start to feel like that, okay, because when we're dieting, we're super obsessed, right, we're counting the calories, we're like checking the time to see when we can and are fast or whatever is going on. So that obsession can feel very similar to this hyper awareness. But the end result is so different. When you're dieting this hyper obsession, okay? leads to more hyper obsession, it never ends. But this hyper awareness of tuning into your cues, right, maybe eating on the schedule to start to wake in your cues to show your body that you can trust her that you are going to honor her you are going to feed her this hyper awareness ultimately leads to freedom where you're not thinking about food all the time when your body and you are in just total sync. So it might feel the same in the beginning but the end result is totally different. Okay? So really just get super grounded in that because that is such awesome news. Freedom is on its way back to the hunger scale. Okay, so negative one is when you want to start thinking about how What do I want to eat? This is when you should start preparing your food if you're having to prepare a meal, okay, negative two is when you're actually hungry. This is when Yes, you need to eat. This is the time your body is ready to be fueled. So how does negative two feel in your body? For me, I actually start to feel a little bit, not like super lightheaded that goes into a negative three category, but almost there, I start to get kind of kind of like Gurry. Okay. And so again, pay attention to your own hunger cues and see what your body is showing you. So negative two is when you want to eat. When we don't eat at negative two, when we let ourselves go into negative three, negative four, where maybe we're like super low blood sugar, we're getting really like hangry. Right? Maybe your stomach is growling like crazy. Sometimes, these cues aren't even there, but maybe you're you just feel irritated. Right? Low blood sugar does that you're just like, so frustrated, you're in the kitchen and you're frustrated at your kids. Okay, so this is the issue when we go past negative two. This is when we start to often over eat case, or, or we choose foods that really do not serve us, right? Because this is where our brain that primal brain goes, you have to eat right? Now, she starts freaking out and she will drive you to do so. So in self service, this is why we want to go negative one and negative two, this is gentle. This is honoring messaged me on Instagram, if you have any questions about this, okay, okie dokie. So let's look at the positive numbers. Now. Positive one is when you're starting to feel full and satisfied, you're not there yet, but you're going to be there soon. So start to tune into this. And one of the things that is really kind of interesting at this time, is if you stop eating, and you just pay attention to what your body is doing. Okay, this is a really good tip to help you figure out where that number or that positive one is. So if you're at this positive one, and you stop eating, sometimes like say, five minutes later, when the food is all made it to your stomach, you are going to be at a positive to where you are full and you are satisfied. So this is sometimes where we can eat more fuel than we need. And please no beating yourself up over this because that is normal. And if again, if you are not aware of these cues, it's going to take time to figure it out. No problem there, give yourself time because you are so worth it. So positive one, get curious, what does this feel like in your body. And positive two is where you are full and you are satisfied. You've had enough your body has had enough fuel. And if you've been eating also for satisfaction and pleasure, you're like, Oh yeah, that was amazing. So good.

This is where the magic happens. Because this is the point where all of your stuff is gonna come up any emotions that you've been buffering, right, like darling, through eating, those will start to bubble up. Any patterns that you have, will start to surface, any habit to all of these things that you've been conditioned to do. For example, you must finish your whole plate, right or if you're out at a restaurant, don't waste this food, it's wasting this money. So all of these different thoughts are going to come up. And this is a time for great awareness. This is a time when you really get to dig in and get to know yourself better. And it can often feel like kind of scary, it can often feel heavy and that's why it's really really really important to have support. So get a friend have her listen to this podcast and do this together. Right you keep connected to me in the fall join the program I'm launching, you need community and support because you are not an island and you deserve the support that you need. Okey dokey. Well, there you go. There is the hunger scale. Now take that, put it in your toolbox and carry that around with you to be able to use whenever you need to. Please do this is one of the number one tools that I use with my clients to really help them tune into their body's cues and start to waken those cues up your body law wants to talk to you, she has so much wisdom. And this is a really cool way that you can start to listen. Awesome. So one more thing, my friend, if we're not already connected on Instagram, please go over there and follow me and send me a private message, introduce yourself. I'm loving getting to know all of my new listeners. It's really, really fun. And I really want to know you. So don't be shy, head on over at the embodied nutritionist and drop message me let's get to know each other. One more ask if I may. We're always told only do one ask. But I'm going to do too because I break the rules. So I would love it if you would head over to iTunes and leave me a review and rate the show that really helps other people find it. So that would be beautiful. Thank you so much. You are amazing. As always, keep doing this work. keep tuning in, keep building this relationship because you are so worth it. See you next time. Bye bye.