Are You Eating Because You’re Hungry?

We learn to recognize certain cues or triggers from our bodies which prompt us to eat. But are those cues really hunger cues, or are they something else?

We like to assume that we eat because we are hungry, however many women, especially career-driven women, eat due to other cues or triggers. These include emotional (negative and positive), social, and environmental cues.

I’m going to define each of the cues and then teach you the 3 steps to recognize these cues and regain control.

Finally, I’ll share specific solutions that you can use for each of the categories of cues. That way, you can get the results you want, without having to rely on willpower.

Hunger Cues

An excellent reason to eat is because you are hungry! This is the purpose of eating.

Our brain receives communication from our body that it needs more calories or nutrients. It in turn starts sending physical signals to make you aware that it needs food.

This is obviously very important for survival therefore we want to be able to recognize these signals and act upon them.

Hunger cues (or symptoms) typically include the following:

Stomach growling

Headache

Shakiness

Low energy/fatigue

Nausea

Irritation

While you don’t have to experience all of these, if you have two or more, you’re most likely hungry. You’re probably already able to name at least two or three symptoms you usually have.

Emotional Cues

These other cues are often emotional cues, including negative emotions such as stress, anxiety and boredom.

However, they also include positive emotions such as satisfaction and celebration (for a job well done!).  

Emotional cues for eating are very common. Career-driven women especially experience these cues due to work pressure, which can result in negative emotions.

However, our desire to set and attain goals can lead to positive emotional cues, such as a feeling of accomplishment or pride. I’ll talk about this more in a bit.

• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habit and Weight Loss Tips

Social Cues

There is still another common reason why career-driven women may be eating, and that is social cues.

An example of a social cue would be everyone in the office having a slice of birthday cake celebrating a colleague’s birthday. Or even the office staff going out to lunch to celebrate a retirement.

Although you have control over if you do or don’t participate, oftentimes feelings of guilt guide your actions.

There may even be times when you don’t have the option. This would include taking an important client out to dinner or going to a conference that includes a lunch or dinner.

Environmental Cues

There are also environmental cues, such as food in the workplace environment that is visible.

 If you work with women who like to bake, this may include delicious banana nut bread. Sometimes clients may even thank your staff by sending a platter of cookies.

These are not inherently “bad”, but the sight and aroma of these may prompt you to eat a cookie or slice of bread when you aren’t even hungry. Done frequently, this will become a habit.

How to Regain Control – 3 Easy Steps

Knowing the different cues is only helpful if you are able to discern which cues are prompting you to eat. Therefore, I want to talk about how you can recognize which cues are prompting you and empower you to gain control over them.

Step 1 – Each time you eat during your day, immediately write down what cued you to eat. Was it something internal like hunger, anxiety, frustration, boredom, or accomplishment?

Or was it something external like the sight of donuts in the conference room or your boss asking you to go out to lunch with her?

Step 2 – Decide which cues you want to keep as reasons to eat and which cues you don’t. This is important because certain cues may be in your best interest, while others may not serve you at all.

Cues such as hunger, going out to eat with your boss, and eating a piece of dark chocolate in celebration of reaching a big goal are cues that may be important to you.

Or maybe not, but I’m willing to bet that at the very least the hunger cue is important to you, as it should be!

Step 3 – Use one (or some) of the following solutions to make sure your cues are serving you in the best way possible.

Meaning, make sure you are in control of why and what you are eating, so that you can reach your health goals, and still enjoy eating while not feeling guilty.

The Hunger Solution

I know the obvious answer is to eat, but I recommend planning ahead of time. This helps to prevent you from eating something you know you shouldn’t be.

Planning ahead of time includes packing your lunch for work and including enough healthy snacks to get you through the day.

I used to make the mistake of bringing only a small lunch to work a 10-hour day. Then when I started feeling my hunger symptoms, would be more likely eat unhealthy foods.

I would head to the hospital cafeteria to buy a bagel with cream cheese, or munch on the peanut M&Ms my co-worker always had on her desk.

This eventually led to weight gain and once I was aware of what I was doing, I started packing more healthy snacks to go along with my lunch, which was easy enough.

I’m telling you, this makes all the difference.

The Emotion Solution

The main idea of the emotional eating solution is to come up with an alternative action ahead of time.

It is important to stick with the same alternative action, to help turn it into a habit. The more you do the action in the same context (time, place, situation), the more likely it is to become a habit.

Some ideas for alternative actions that are very effective are:

Stress or anxiety – Close your eyes (if possible) and take 5-10 long deep breaths. Ideally, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

Anger or frustration – Step away from your desk, the person, the situation, etc. Removing yourself briefly helps to separate you from “it.”

Boredom or lack of energy – Move and hydrate.

Moving, such as stretching or going for a short walk, even if it is to a far away bathroom, helps with circulation and energy.

Water is required by our body to convert calories into energy, and it also improves circulation. It’s a double win.

• Read this too: Best Morning Foods to Boost Your Workday Energy
• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habit and Weight Loss Tips

Celebration or accomplishment – Make a commitment to allowing yourself a certain type or amount of food as a reward.

For example, decide ahead of time if it will be a small scoop of ice cream later that night, or four pieces of cheese on crackers. Get very specific, as this is extremely important when it comes to intention.

The Social Solution

What I want to teach about the solution to social cues, is that you can still be social, without eating the foods you know you shouldn’t be eating.

If you are thinking that people are going to think you’re odd or not being “fun,” then I invite you to answer the following:

If they do think these thoughts (which most likely they aren’t), does it really matter?

What are you making it mean about you if someone is having one of those thoughts?

Remember this, someone else’s thoughts do not define who you are.

The Environmental Solution

This one can be a little tricky in a less controlled environment such as a workplace. At home, you can have better control about what food you have and where it is located.

Regardless, here are a few ideas for work:

1. Avoid going into spaces where you know there is usually food you don’t want to be eating
2. Pack your own lunch and snacks, so you don’t go to your work cafeteria or the café down the road
3. Consider picking a certain circumstance that you will treat yourself.

For example, if your colleague Cindy is an excellent baker and usually bakes something once a month for the office, then allow yourself one of Cindy’s home-baked goodies once a month.

This worked well for me when I was working as a Physician Assistant. There were always baked goods and treats by the coffeemaker.

However, I only allowed myself one if it was baked by one of the Physical Therapists I worked with who was an excellent baker. It became a real treat and I started ignoring anything else that was there.

• Read this too: Sugar Addiction and How to Stop the Cycle

Final Note

The first step to change is always awareness of your thoughts and feelings. These will always precede your actions.

You may want to keep certain things the way they are, and you may want to change others. The key is to be intentional and think about what you want your results to be, and from there, which actions you need to take.

The key to proceeding with the actions that will support your results, is being intentional with your thoughts.