I’m back, and ready to dig into some of my favorite topics this fall.
Learning how to tune in to what your body and your brain are communicating might be one of the most valuable parts of your health journey. We are so trained to rely on external information, like social media influencers, your apple watch, the scale, calorie calculators, and more, that sometimes we don’t even know where to begin. Yes, these tools can be helpful but your body has some pretty smart built in signals and sometimes we forget to listen to those first.
As you work towards eating in a way that brings you health and vitality, there are THREE things to pay attention to. In fact, these three aspects alone are enough for many of you to start eating in a way that fuels your body and helps you feel your best physically, while also fueling your heart and soul. No doubt, this process takes way more work and attention for you than for me to just tell you what to eat - but that’s why it works! And yes, there are nuances and special circumstances that might require you to layer on more structure and tools, but focusing on these three things can often be all the information you need to build a plan for yourself.
So what are they?
1. Satisfaction
2. Satiation
3. Energy
Remember, the goal is to find meals that fill ALL three aspects, not just one or another.
Satisfaction
We all know that for most of us, the only eating plan that you will stick to is one that you enjoy. When we find pleasure in our meals, we are less likely to reach for more and eat between meals, and more likely to stick with our plan.
Do you ever finish a meal and just feel like you’re not quite finished. You’ve eaten what you planned to eat, but you want more. Sometimes it’s obvious and other times you can’t figure out what else you need or want. This to me, means you are missing the element of satisfaction.
By Satisfaction, I mean, did that meal bring you pleasure and leave you feeling content? I do not mean that it was the most mind-blowing meal ever. But, are you content at the end of your meal? Did you enjoy that meal? Remember satisfaction likely looks different for each of us so this might take some work to figure out what and how much helps you feel satisfied. Your emotional and mental needs are just as important as your physical needs and there are ways to eat that meet both. You can please your taste buds AND eat for health.
Satisfaction isn’t always gained simply by eating more. Here are some other things to pay attention to and explore as it relates to satisfaction:
1. Flavor - Seems kind of silly to say, but sometimes we eat things that we don’t like because we think we should, and it usually leaves us feeling unsatisfied. Add spices or sauces, adjust ingredients, or choose something different if you don’t enjoy the flavors of your meal.
2. Presentation - Believe it or not, making the meal look appealing helps you feel more satisfied by it. This might simply entail putting your take out or frozen meal on a plate, arranging food on a tray or board, or using fresh herbs or other garnishes.
3. Texture - If you’re someone who loves texture, consider making sure that you have a variety of textures in your meals and snacks by using both raw and cooked fruits and veggies, and adding things like chopped nuts, and seeds, or having crackers or chips on the side.
4. The Environment that you are eating in - Maybe like me, you get overwhelmed by loud or chaotic surroundings and need to find environments that help regulate your nervous system in order to feel satisfied by a meal, like going outside or even eating alone or with a good book. Or, maybe, you get energized by music or having people around and need to find ways to work music or eating with friends and family into your meals more often.
5. Amounts of each macronutrient (Protein, Fat & Carbs) - This is probably the most variable from person to person, and one that you will have to explore. I find that many of my clients notice improved satisfaction by adding a little bit more fat to their meals. Or, if you are someone who has been restricting carbohydrates you might play around with adding just a little bit of carbs to your meals.
6. Lastly, the amount of new food versus familiar flavors - This might vary for you from meal to meal or day to day. Sometimes you might need more familiar or comfort foods than usual and other times you will want to lean into more creative or innovative flavors to find satisfaction.
Satiation
Many of us have been encouraged over the years to eat every two hours. While this is helpful if you have high demands from exercise / stress, or extremely unstable blood sugar, I find that most of us benefit by going a little longer between meals.
When we focus on meals, rather than lots of small snacks /nibbling throughout the day, we tend to build more balanced plates, better stabilize our blood sugar, and can think about food less.
What’s more, eating less frequently in the day allows your digestive system’s rhythmic motility waves, the Migrating Motor Complex (MMC), to kick in and keep things moving. When we eat (or when we experience stress), these waves are temporarily halted and your digestive motility slows back down. Your MMC is not only critical for moving food and pathogens along, but is part of a more extensive interconnected system involving your gut, brain, and nervous system.
So, our second goal is satiation. There is NO exact number that is going to work for everyone, but I often encourage clients to look for meals that help keep them full for 3-5 hours.
Remember, your job is to be curious and explore. You might not find any single meal that keeps you full for 5 hours, or your eating times might need to be dictated by work or life some days. Simply compare one meal to the next and notice how well and for how long they keep you full. Take note of the patterns you see and build meals around what you find.
Keep in mind, especially for you ladies and more intense exercisers, that what satiates you one day might not be the same as another day. You will hopefully find some trends, but will likely have to adjust based on how much or how intensely you exercised and where you are in your cycle.
Some things I want you to pay attention to and play around with as it relates to Satiation are:
1. Total amount of food - You might be surprised to find that many of my clients are under-eating for their needs. If you can’t figure out satiation, start by consuming just a little more of anything already in your meal.
2. Amounts of each macronutrient (Protein, Fat & Carbs) - Just like satisfaction, different food groups will affect your satiation differently. For many of us, protein is especially satiating. And high fiber carbohydrates can certainly help keep you full as well by slowing down digestive motility. However, fat is actually the macronutrient that gets absorbed the slowest and so tends to have the biggest effect on satiation.
3. Types of food - Beyond simply paying attention to macronutrients, you might want to dig deeper and compare different foods within those groups. For example, some people find that animal protein/fat fills them up more efficiently than plant protein/fat. Maybe you notice that potatoes satiate you better than bread. I am not advocating you only ever eat these foods, but try to think of each food individually and see if you can tell a difference in how they affect satiation.
4. Breathing - This is a hard one to believe, but one of the best ways you can support satiation is by focusing on breathing before meals. Calming down your nervous system with breath work helps to activate your parasympathetic nervous system, increase blood flow to the stomach, and support digestive function. This means you maximize absorption and stay full longer. Breathing also helps you better recognize satiety cues. Practice taking just 3-5 deep breaths before you eat, and see if it doesn’t help you feel even more satiated. *Bonus points if you can breathe in the smells as you are cooking which contributes even more to satiation.
5. Chewing - After you’ve taken a few deep breaths, don’t forget to chew your food! We’ve all heard it before, and it’s not just a hoax. Believe it or not, chewing actually helps stimulate the release of brain and digestive chemicals that help increase satiation. You don’t have to obsess over this one, but try to avoid inhaling your food, and practice spending more time on each bite. This is especially true for you mamas who love to multitask while eating.
Energy
I find that more than anything, my clients just want to feel good. More than losing weight, better labs, or any other health indicators, most of us want to feel good. Yes, if you feel satisfied by your meal you will likely reach for that meal again, and if you are satiated you will not need to nibble all day. But, what will really make you want to go back to variations of that meal time and time again, is whether or not it leaves you feeling your best.
So, the third aspect I want you to explore is what we will call ‘Energy.’ By ENERGY I mean, do you feel better after eating your meal than you did before?
- Do you feel energized, and like you just got a boost from your meal? Or, do you feel sluggish, tired, or ready for a nap?
- Does your stomach and digestive tract feel settled and happy? Or, does it feel upset, bloating, burning, or rumbly?
- Does your brain feel clear and focused? Or, do you feel foggy, distracted, or anxious.
- Does your body feel calm and restored? Or, do you notice a racing heart, shakiness, or a drop in body temperature?
And NO, I do not expect you to ALWAYS choose foods that leave you feeling amazing - that’s where balance comes in! But, it can be so helpful to know what foods and combinations leave you feeling your best, physically and mentally so that you can prioritize those in meals most of the time.
Start exploring which meals leave you feeling better and which ones leave you feeling off. Be curious. And most importantly, try to stay focused on which foods DO make you feel your best rather than obsessing over which ones drag you down. Adopt an abundance mindset by filling your plate and meals with those foods first.
No question, there are times you might choose to eat something that doesn’t make you feel your best - and that’s important to do sometimes! But I want you to explore and know what it is that really helps you feel your best and aim to include more and more of those foods in your week.
To be clear, this aspect is probably the most individualistic of the lot. In other words, what makes YOU feel great, might not be the same thing that makes ME feel great. And no doubt, this is going to be highly dependent on immune & gut health.
But, here are some things I want you to consider as you explore what meals leave you feeling your best:
1. Amounts of Macronutrients and Types of Foods. Just like Satisfaction and Satiation, the amount of different food groups in your meal might matter. It might not be that any one food is causing issues, but that too much of the same kinds of foods can be an issue. For example, some of my clients notice that having TOO many raw vegetables in a meal can be hard to digest all at once. Or maybe you notice that having more carbohydrates than anything else leaves you feeling sluggish and tired. Again it doesn’t mean you can’t eat these foods, you might just want to play around with how much you have at any meal.
2. Frequency, or how often you eat that food. Our bodies are smart! Your stomach and pancreas will down regulate how much digestive enzymes and HCL you produce if these are not needed for you to break down your typical meals. So, if you eat a meal with ingredients that you have not had in a while, it’s possible that it might make you feel a bit off. Instead, if you are introducing new foods go super slow so that your body can adjust!
3. Individual Foods. While pursuing food sensitivities can be a slippery slope to disordered eating, there are absolutely some foods that make some of you feel worse. And again, it’s essential that you do some good gut work before you rule out any food, but it’s worth paying attention to whether single foods or ingredients do seem to affect you differently.
4. And lastly, pay attention to the amount of Processing and Additives in food as well as the Quality. How our food is raised and treated in the fields and the factories matters! Generally, whole, real, minimally processed foods make most of us feel our best. To be clear, these are NOT bad foods, and we eat processed foods EVERY DAY. But it’s worth paying attention to whether the foods in their whole form bother you in the same way you notice when you have a meal with the more processed or manipulated version.
So many of you have spent years thinking about what to eat. And you continue to get different information from every health expert out there, myself included. But YOU are the only one that can figure out the right plan for you. I will continue to give you the best nutrition advice and research I have, but you have to do the hard work to make it yours. The right plan is going to meet all of your needs, both physical and emotional, and we can’t view these things separately.
When you use this method, you will start to recognize that most (although maybe not all!) foods will fit into your plan but maybe in different amounts or at different times. Instead of removing food after food, consider what you could ADD to your plate to find Satisfaction, Satiation, and Energy. You can start to play around with timing, relative portions, and types of foods rather than ruling foods in or out.
And remember, the goal is to find meals and snacks that fulfill ALL THREE of these elements. If you notice a meal doesn’t hit the spot for any one factor, start adjusting. This isn’t easy work, and most of us want a quick fix. But this is the work that will serve you for the rest of life.
Start to pay attention to how food makes you feel. Even if you don’t feel amazing after your meal, you can still learn something. As you notice meals that do not hit the spot, here are some things you could adjust and try:
- Add more of any or all of what you are eating
- Have more of any one particular part of your meal
- Try replacing one food for another in the same food group
- Use different combinations of foods
- Try that same meal at a different time of day
- Add texture, flavors, or culinary creativity
- Make sure you have something that brings you joy on your plate
- Adjust where, when, or with whom you eat your meal
It might change from day to day, but you will start to see some trends. You will start to put together a plan that is based on what your body is telling you rather than what anyone else dictates. And that is our goal!
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