I am having issues feeling my fullness.
I only feel full when I am too full after a meal (not comfortable).
When I ask myself, “How does my fullness feel during meals?” I can’t really identify any difference in my body.
Any advice or exercise I can do to connect with my fullness? Thanks
ANSWER
Hello!
This is a very frequent question and we have lots of resources for you!
First, I want to start by letting you know that this is totally normal. That experience about difficulty feeling your fullness at first. Nothing has gone wrong!
For years, maybe even decades, you have not allowed yourself to feel full and when you did, you likely were overeating/ binge post dieting. Right now your body is trying to reignite the feeling of fullness.
Next, I want you to visualize your fullness like the “pilot light” on a gas stove, it’s burning but the dial is off.
With patience & self-compassion, you will get better at being attuned to your body signals. Now, one thing that happens very often is that women are “afraid” of overeating so they harbor every unproductive thought letting themselves experience fullness.
Then, Be sure that you have cleaned your thoughts about fullness via self-coaching and neutralized fullness in your thoughts. This is the huge part of the play: Is your body trusting you that you will NEVER AGAIN restrict food?
Lastly, Our body wisdom has to rebuild trust towards us as well…. We play yo-yo with them for so long that your body may still be thinking that you will restrict again so it doesn’t take a chance and retrain signals of fullness so you eat in preparation for the next starvation period.
Fullness requires us to feel full.
Here are exercises for fullness:
1. Go back to the Lesson 3 worksheet and rework your hunger and fullness scale. Experiment with eating a few meals and play with your fullness. You will need to experiment with eating intentionally past fullness so you can feel what fullness feels like in your body.
2. Pick a day and meal to experiment with. Make sure you have lots of time available and you are in good mood. Come into the meal at a good hunger level 5-6.
3. Place a regular amount of food on your plate and then had 50% more.
4. Sit down and commit to eating consciously and mindfully. Using the audio from lesson 3, eat 25% of your meal. Stop feeling your body, pay attention to your thoughts and emotions. Fullness is not always physical, for some, it can be via thoughts and emotions. This is how your scale 7 feels. Take notes.
5. Eat again another 25% of your plate… Stop feeling your body, pay attention to your thoughts and emotions. Fullness is not always physical, for some, it can be via thoughts and emotions. This is how your scale 8 feels. Take notes.
6. Continue these cycles of eating and stop until you hit 9 on the fullness scale and you can’t eat… Now eating consciously should take at least 10-15 minutes!
I would also recommend you to listen to the private podcast #20 Q&A: I NEVER FEEL HUNGRY & I DON’T FEEL FULL UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE & #28-Q&A: EATING PAST FULLNESS & LINK BETWEEN CONFIDENCE AT WORK & BODY IMAGE where Stephanie answered questions about fullness.
Also in Lesson 6 of Peaceful Stephanie has recorded short videos about the top 20 questions with intuitive eating. The videos about “being afraid of the pendulum swing” and “Once I start eating.. I can’t stop” might be good for you also.
Go out and try this and report back!
I only feel full when I am too full after a meal (not comfortable).
When I ask myself, “How does my fullness feel during meals?” I can’t really identify any difference in my body.
Any advice or exercise I can do to connect with my fullness? Thanks
ANSWER
Hello!
This is a very frequent question and we have lots of resources for you!
First, I want to start by letting you know that this is totally normal. That experience about difficulty feeling your fullness at first. Nothing has gone wrong!
For years, maybe even decades, you have not allowed yourself to feel full and when you did, you likely were overeating/ binge post dieting. Right now your body is trying to reignite the feeling of fullness.
Next, I want you to visualize your fullness like the “pilot light” on a gas stove, it’s burning but the dial is off.
With patience & self-compassion, you will get better at being attuned to your body signals. Now, one thing that happens very often is that women are “afraid” of overeating so they harbor every unproductive thought letting themselves experience fullness.
Then, Be sure that you have cleaned your thoughts about fullness via self-coaching and neutralized fullness in your thoughts. This is the huge part of the play: Is your body trusting you that you will NEVER AGAIN restrict food?
Lastly, Our body wisdom has to rebuild trust towards us as well…. We play yo-yo with them for so long that your body may still be thinking that you will restrict again so it doesn’t take a chance and retrain signals of fullness so you eat in preparation for the next starvation period.
Fullness requires us to feel full.
Here are exercises for fullness:
1. Go back to the Lesson 3 worksheet and rework your hunger and fullness scale. Experiment with eating a few meals and play with your fullness. You will need to experiment with eating intentionally past fullness so you can feel what fullness feels like in your body.
2. Pick a day and meal to experiment with. Make sure you have lots of time available and you are in good mood. Come into the meal at a good hunger level 5-6.
3. Place a regular amount of food on your plate and then had 50% more.
4. Sit down and commit to eating consciously and mindfully. Using the audio from lesson 3, eat 25% of your meal. Stop feeling your body, pay attention to your thoughts and emotions. Fullness is not always physical, for some, it can be via thoughts and emotions. This is how your scale 7 feels. Take notes.
5. Eat again another 25% of your plate… Stop feeling your body, pay attention to your thoughts and emotions. Fullness is not always physical, for some, it can be via thoughts and emotions. This is how your scale 8 feels. Take notes.
6. Continue these cycles of eating and stop until you hit 9 on the fullness scale and you can’t eat… Now eating consciously should take at least 10-15 minutes!
I would also recommend you to listen to the private podcast #20 Q&A: I NEVER FEEL HUNGRY & I DON’T FEEL FULL UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE & #28-Q&A: EATING PAST FULLNESS & LINK BETWEEN CONFIDENCE AT WORK & BODY IMAGE where Stephanie answered questions about fullness.
Also in Lesson 6 of Peaceful Stephanie has recorded short videos about the top 20 questions with intuitive eating. The videos about “being afraid of the pendulum swing” and “Once I start eating.. I can’t stop” might be good for you also.
Go out and try this and report back!