Hunger-Body-Mind Connection Assessment
When your body is hungry, it tries to get your attention in a variety of ways, from mood and energy changes to increased thoughts about food. The longer you wait to nourish your body, the more intense the experiences will be. Chronic dieting or going through cycles of over-eating followed by under-eating, can skew your hunger and fullness cues. This means that you might only feel hungry when you are over-hungry. This type of hunger is sometimes called ‘primal hunger’ and it often leads to over-eating and choosing foods that are the most calorie-dense, resulting in feelings of guilt and restriction afterwards.
Here are some different ways that you may experience signs of hunger. Over time you may notice that your body is more sensitive to more subtle levels of hunger and satiety, but knowing and re-learning what those signs are can be very helpful.
Stomach
A variety of sensations including rumbling, gurgling, gnawing, or emptiness. While this is a common way of experiencing hunger, there are many people who do not experience hunger signs in their stomach
Throat & Oesophagus
Dull ache, gnawing
Head
Cloudy thinking, light-headedness, and headache, difficulty focusing and concentrating. Experiencing more thoughts about food and eating.
Energy
Waning, perhaps even to the point of sleepiness. There can be dullness and even apathy towards doing anything
Mood
Irritability and crankiness. Perhaps you have to work harder to refrain from snapping, even though you don’t present irritable to the others
Numbness
Overall lethargy
Getting to know your hunger.
To get in touch with the nuances of your hunger and fullness, try to check in with your body many times throughout the day. A handy way to do this is by using a rating scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is painful hunger and 10 is painful fullness. There is no right or wrong number, this is merely a method that helps you listen and become attuned to your hunger and fullness cues. The following chart gives you qualitative descriptions of the 0 to 10 scale in more detail.
Over-hungry
0 Painfully hungry. This is ‘primal hunger’, which is very intense and urgent
1 Ravenous and irritable. Anxious to eat
2 Very hungry. Looking forward to a hearty meal or snack
3 Hungry and ready to eat, but without urgency. It’s a ‘polite’ hunger
Normal Eating Range
4 Subtly hungry, slightly empty
5 Neutral. Neither hungry nor full
6 Beginning to feel emerging fullness
7 Comfortable fullness. You feel satisfied & content
Over-full
8 A little too full. This doesn’t feel pleasant, but it has not quite emerged into an unpleasant experience
9 Very full, too full. You feel uncomfortable, as if you need to unbutton your trousers or remove your belt
10 Painfully full, stuffed. You may feel nauseous
Hunger discovery assessment
Use the Hunger Discovery Scale journal to keep track of your hunger rating, the quality of your hunger, and the foods eaten for a meal or snack. Do it for 5-7 days and record a usual day below so that we can explore this during your next appointment.
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Monika is sharp, attentive, and uniquely supportive. I worked with her for six solid months and have seen real breakthroughs in my body image perception and relationship with food. I feel capable of trusting myself and less driven by shame or anxiety. There IS freedom and joy when it comes to eating and nourishing our bodies, and Monika is an excellent guide to getting there. I truly could not recommend her more.
Working with Monika has been the best decision I made this year! I have PCOS and an underactive thyroid and had been struggling to lose weight for nearly a decade. I had two early miscarriages in late 2021 and early 2022 and had not been able to fall pregnant since. Since working with Monika, I now have a deeper understanding of how to support my body, my cycles are getting more regular and I'm losing weight more consistently. I am so much confident in my body too and I know what to focus on going forwards! The support and accountability Monika provides is incredible and I highly recommend her services.
Working with Monika is one of the best investments I could made in myself. I contacted her because I was experiencing stomach pains and was feeling low and desperate. After years of yo-yo dieting and binge eating Monika has helped me to understand how to nourish my body and eat healthily. I feel so much happier and in control now and have the knowledge I need to maintain a healthy way of eating. Thank you so much Monika!
I decided to go ahead with Monikas PCOS programme after lots of consideration and I'm glad I did! Monika has been great to work with and has approached everything with the sensitivity I haven't been able to get from GPs, whose only solution for me was to "lose weight". With the onslaught of info found online, it's hard to stay motivated to do anything, especially when it all seems like it's unachievable unless I flip my whole life around, but right from the beginning, Monika set achievable goals and took things step by step, so I didn't feel overwhelmed. Towards the end of the programme, I noticed that my period had come 10 days early than usual which it hasn't done for many years, and I even managed to lose 2 kgs and stay there! Monika really helped me take a closer look at my eating habits and how my stress was also affecting things, but I know that even though I may momentarily have a couple bad weeks, I know exactly what I need to do to get back on track and since I've already done it once, I know I can do it again!
