If only our stomach could speak!

How much easier it would be to maintain a healthy weight! It would be simple. Your stomach would say “feed me” then it would pronounce “Stop thanks, I’m full” and we would obey.

Unfortunately, our stomach has to pass its message through the brain. There’s a time lapse between the stomach telling the brain and our response. Sometimes we go too long without food and over ride the signal to eat. Sometimes (let’s face it, quite often!) we over ride the signal to stop eating because we are enjoying it so much. Think Sunday lunch, think how full you are afterwards but how you still manage to fit in some apple crumble!

We have spent so many years over riding the signals it’s difficult to know when we are truly hungry and when we are truly full.

Maybe you were brought up being told to “eat all of your dinner or you won’t get any pudding!” or “eat it all – there are starving children in Africa who don’t have any food” All of these things contributed to your signals being confused.

The placing of chocolate bars at the check-outs in newsagents & supermarkets is a great example of how we can be lured into emotional eating. You went in for a newspaper, you weren’t hungry when you went in, but once your eyes feasted on the chocolate, you suddenly decided you really needed a snack!