3 “No-duh!” things you can do to manage hunger that actually work

I'm about to tell you how to manage your hunger pangs. These tactics are useless unless you understand one fact about life and your body.

A hunger pang will not kill you and isn't actually negative at all.

By chiseling this fact on your stomach you can start to reframe the feeling of being hungry. Historically, hunger signals have been a sign to start looking for food or starvation was coming.

Today we have the opposite problem of our prehistoric ancestors. There is too much food! ⅓ of all food is actually lost or wasted!

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This is why it's so easy to get fat! This being the case, we need to reorient our relationship with hunger cues by recognizing that they are leftover from a time when food was scarce.

Chances are higher that you die from eating too much rather than too little.

That being the case let's get into 3 things that can help you control your relationship with hunger. After all, if we just give in to every urge, our bodies have we are no better than those sex-crazed bonobos.

Nothing wrong with meat. It's the sauces and glazes that cause people to overeat.

(Photo by Paul Hermann on Unsplash)

Choose high-satiety foods

These are foods that actually make you feel full. A great rule of thumb is to stick to foods on the outside edge of the grocery store like veggies, fruits, meat, and less processed dairy products. The closer you get to the middle of the store, the more processed things tend to get.

The more processed something is the less it tends to make us feel full. You can think of processing as the same as pre-digesting in many cases. These foods are designed to make you want to keep eating more of them by not spending a lot of time in your digestive tract.

High-satiety foods like potatoes, lean meats, and whole fruits and veggies tend to make themselves at home in your tummy for much longer. This means that 250 calories of steak or baked potato feel like more food to your body than 250 calories of a hostess product or chips shaped like triangles.

Rule of thumb: Eat mostly high-protein (lean meat) and high-fiber (whole fruits and veggies) foods. Limit intake of high-sugar, fat, salt (the stuff in packages in the middle of the store).

Only buy single serving sizes and keep them out of the house.

(Photo by Mohammad Sanaei on Unsplash)

Be wary of what you let in the house

You can't control the world around you, but you can control your space. In order to make full use of this keep foods that trigger you to eat a lot out of the house plain and simple. Don't buy them with the intention of bringing them home.

Many people get the munchies late at night when most stores are closed, or they are already in their pajamas. Chances of you going out at this time for some shitty junk food is slim. You'll have to make do with what's in the house.

This means you can binge on healthy high-satiety foods, like mentioned above. Or you can forego the binge all together.

A tall glass of water is actually all it usually takes to quell the hunger rumbles sometimes. Next time you think you're hungry simply have some water and wait 20 minutes. If you're still hungry go for the food. If not, go on with your life and stop thinking about food.

Best practices: Make your living space one that cultivates good habits, only keep foods, snacks, and drinks that reflect the person you want to be.

Choose the least tempting way home.

(Photo by William Krause on Unsplash)

Drive somewhere else

Our brains play a very active role in how we perceive hunger. You might not be hungry at all but all of a sudden you walk by that great smelling burger joint or see that add for a fresh donut. Boom! Your mouth is watering, and your stomach feels like it's trying to crawl out of your body like that scene in Alien.

Simple solution: Change your route so that you don't pass that establishment or ad. There's always another way home even if it's further, do what you need to in order to win.

You can control the plane but not the weather. Accept it and move on.

(Photo by Byron Sterk on Unsplash)

The world isn't going to change for you

By controlling what you can and accepting that which you can't control, you can start to take control of your hunger pangs.

• Choose high-satiety foods first, if you still have room after then have the low satiety foods.
• Control what you allow in your home. You are the keeper of your space, take that position seriously.
• Change your route. A true hard target never takes the same route twice anyway. Make yourself more survivable and less likely to give into cravings by changing your path.

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