Learning to Feed the Right Hunger ~
Lately, I have been thinking about hunger.
Not just hunger for food, but hunger that lives deeper than the stomach. Hunger for comfort, for safety, for soothing, for being filled when something inside feels empty. I know now that much of my eating was never about food alone; it was the inner child asking for something she did not know how to name.
For a long time, I carried messages from others about how I should eat. My last husband often told me I ate like a bird, that I did not eat enough, that I needed three meals a day. Slowly, I moved farther away from my own body’s signals and closer to someone else’s rules. In the first three years of that marriage, I gained around thirty pounds. In the final two years, another fifteen. That weight was not only physical.
Recently, I tried Zepbound for two months. I did lose a few pounds, but more than that, I hoped it would help reset my brain, quiet the noise, let me hear myself again. And it did!
Now I feel like I am free floating back toward my own natural rhythm of eating. Less about rules, less about pressure, more about listening. Eating when I am hungry. Stopping when I am satisfied. Knowing that I do not have to eat bunches to satisfy. Asking what I truly need before reaching for food.
A helpful article from Harvard Health, Struggling with Emotional Eating?, explains that many people use food for comfort during stress or emotional pain. It suggests pausing to recognize triggers and finding other ways to meet the real need beneath the urge to eat.
Another resource from Mayo Clinic, Weight Loss: Gain Control of Emotional Eating, discusses learning the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger, and choosing awareness over autopilot habits.
Nature does not overconsume. Birds eat what they need and then fly. Deer graze and move on. Rivers take only the shape the land allows.
I want that kind of relationship with nourishment.
Maybe healing is learning to feed the right hunger.
The child within me may still ask for comfort, but now I can offer more than food. I can offer care. I can offer truth. I can offer peace.
~ julie
If you feel so inclined, please reply with your thoughts.
Note: JM Lane is NOT a mental health professional, nor does she carry a license to practice medicine. Posts, blogs, and content are based on JM Lane’s personal experiences, perceptions, and reflections. By no means does any material convey what others should or should not do.
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