Do you know how to play The Hunger Games?

If you want to feel better physically, feel more in control of your eating, have less stress around meals, and even loose weight you better learn how to play.

What are the rules of the Hunger Game?

We’ve all been there. 

Bad day at work = late night ice cream binge. 

Fight with your spouse = getting out your frustration on a big bag of chips.

Feeling unfulfilled and bored = loading up on comfort foods to the point of needing to open your pants. 

You get my point.

Rule number one of the Hunger Game is to know the difference between physical and emotional hunger. 

Sounds easy, right? I’m here to tell you that it is not easy for most people. 

It takes my clients a long time to learn the difference between their physical and emotional hunger… and then to learn what to do about it. 

Emotional hunger happens with both bad and good emotions. It comes knocking on our door because of the feelings we are experiencing. 

Sometimes we want to soothe or reward ourselves and other times we want to enhance the good feelings or celebrate something. 

Physical hunger is an actual physical sensation in the body. You may hear your stomach growl. You may feel like your blood sugar dropped or have low energy.

Why is this important? Great question.

Many people feel they are not always in control of their cravings or why they make certain food choices. They start eating a bag of chips and next thing they know, the bag is empty. 

Has that happened to you?

You may find yourself eating mindlessly, standing at the kitchen counter, or watching your favorite reality TV show. Shortly after, the bag is empty, and you say to yourself, “I wasn’t even hungry! I barely remember even eating the whole bag. Why did I do that?”

We want to learn to move away from feeding our emotions with food and move towards eating more mindfully. 

Rule number two is understanding if you are actually even hungry before you grab that jar of peanut butter and a spoon. 

Ideally, you can first confirm that you are indeed, actually physically hungry. 

Then, ask yourself how hungry are you? On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being starving, where do you fall?

We want to eat when we are at about a 7. Not starving and not eating when we don’t really need to yet. 

On the flip side… how full do you allow yourself to get? Do you feel like a double stuffed Oreo after eating or light and energized? 

We want to stop eating when are at about a 7 as well, 10 being super stuffed. 

The key here is mindfulness. 

If we shovel the food in, watching tv or multi-tasking, we are not giving our brain the time time to catch up with our stomach. You may think you are still hungry, but if you wait 10 minutes before getting seconds, you will most likely realize that you had enough. 

How can you win the Hunger Game? Glad you asked!

Ask yourself, am I actually physically hungry or am I about to feed my emotions.

• If you are physically hungry, where on the scale of 1 to 10 are you?

• Eat more mindfully by slowing down. See if you can be the last one to finish your meal.

• Chew more. I mean really chew more. You’ll digest better, take longer to eat and give your brain more time to catch up to your stomach.

• Check in with yourself during your meals to see where you are on the fullness scale.

• Start to notice if you have any habits around meals that may not be serving you and jot them down in a journal. For example, do you always want something sweet after dinner?

• Create new after meal rituals.

What do you do if you keep losing the Hunger Game?

First, don’t beat yourself up. It can take a lot of time and guidance to really tap into our bodies after years and years of ignoring the signals it sends.

Second, you’ll need to discover why you are emotionally eating, or overeating, or eating mindlessly.

Third, in my coaching practice, I work with clients to help them break down and understand their physical and emotional hunger, their food choices, their habits, and how to move forward in a sustainable way. 

If you think you are emotionally eating and can’t get a handle on it on your own, schedule a free chat with me to see

Once you break the cycle, you will feel better physically, feel more in control of your eating, have less stress around meals, and even loose weight.

So what do you think? Want to play?