Discover the satisfaction factor
This is the fifth post in a 10-part series looking at the principles of Intuitive Eating. The previous post in this series was on challenging your inner food critic. ‘Discover the Satisfaction Factor’ is one of my favourite principles of Intuitive Eating as it’s all about making pleasure and enjoyment part of the eating experience again! In our pursuit of health, we’ve gotten so hung up on the nutritional value of food, we’ve forgotten that eating is also supposed to be pleasurable and satisfying! Our brains are actually wired to register pleasure when we eat. We’re designed this way to ensure we continue to seek out food and survive. If we weren’t, we would never have survived as a species.
I’m not saying nutrition isn’t important, clearly it is. I am saying though, that the nutritional value of a food or meal is not the ONLY thing that matters when it comes to eating. When it comes to eating, pleasure is actually essential. Our brain is constantly monitoring every eating experience to see if we have reached a certain level of pleasure. When we reach the “sweet spot”, which is the point at which we are feeling both satisfied and comfortably full, our brain registers that’s time to stop eating.
Feeling full and feeling satisfied are not the same
Feeling “full” is often confused with feeling “satisfied”. But satisfaction is not the same as feeling “full”. It’s possible to feel full without feeling satisfied. Consider this example. You are out to dinner and after looking at the menu you choose a meal of grilled salmon, rice and sautéed vegetables because that’s what you think you “should” be eating. But what you really feel like eating is lasagne. After eating the salmon meal, you may feel physically full, but you probably won’t feel satisfied because you didn’t eat what you really wanted to eat or felt like eating which was the lasagne.
This is the problem with following food rules. When we choose foods we don’t really want because we think we “should” eat them, we’re left with the feeling that our needs are unmet and this leaves us feeling unsatisfied. And when our eating experiences are not satisfying, this can drive us to continue seeking out a more satisfying experience. How many times have eaten a rice cake when you wanted some potato chips or bread? And how many rice cakes and other foods did you eat attempting to get the same satisfaction that a handful of potato chips would have given you? How many times have you eaten a “diet” dessert when you wanted “the real deal”? How many “diet” desserts did you eat and did they leave you feeling satisfied? To be truly satisfying, a meal or a snack needs to include foods we enjoy eating and that feel good in our body. When we aren’t satisfied, we tend to eat more food or fantasise about the food(s) we really want in search of that feeling of satisfaction – even when we are no longer hungry.
This is why it’s important to know not just which foods help us feel full and sustain us until our next meal or snack, but also which foods bring us pleasure and satisfaction as well. If you’ve been dieting for a while or are used to following food rules, you may find it difficult to figure out what foods are most satisfying to you. This is because food rules taught you to ignore what you actually want to eat. But with some practice, it’s possible to work out which foods give you the most pleasure, making it easier to enjoy your food and eat in a way that makes you feel good.
How can I make eating more satisfying?
If you’re finding it difficult to know which foods give you the most pleasure when eating, try these tips to start making your mealtimes more enjoyable again!
Give yourself permission to enjoy eating
The more pleasure your eating experience brings the more satisfied and content you will feel. And the more satisfied you feel, the easier it is to not think about food and get on with your day!
Ask yourself what you really want to eat
Consider all the different qualities of food. Think flavours, textures, aromas, temperature and appearance. Do you want something savoury, sweet, salty, bitter, smoky, bitter, tart, spicy or bland? Perhaps something crunchy, smooth, creamy, fluid? Maybe it’s winter and you feel like something warm like a soup, a curry or casserole. Or summer and you feel like something cool and refreshing like a salad, fruit or icecream.
Eat when you are gently hungry
Eating when you are gently hungry, will maximise the satisfaction your eating experience brings. If you eat when you are not hungry, your eating experience will be less satisfying than when you are gently hungry. If you eat when you are ravenously hungry, you will likely feel the need to eat so quickly, you mightn’t taste the food AND you may easily eat past the point of comfortable fullness – also not a satisfying experience!
Savour your food
Savour your food by really giving yourself the gift of time to really enjoy it, free from distraction and sitting down at a table to eat, rather than eating when walking, driving, scrolling or standing in the kitchen. If you barely notice that you ate, you won’t be satisfied even if you are physically full.
Don’t settle
Have you ever tasted something that looked really good, but didn’t live up to expectations in terms of taste? You don’t have to finish what you started if you’re not getting the satisfaction you wanted. Do you have a favourite brand of foods you like to eat? Choosing to eat these when you feel like them will maximise the satisfaction you feel.
There’s an important caveat to this tip: if you experience food insecurity, leaving or throwing out food understandably might not be an option.
Check in during your meal
When you’re eating, check in with yourself at different points during the meal by asking yourself whether the food still tastes as good as it did when you started eating. If it doesn’t, it could be that you are starting to feel satisfied or are perhaps already satisfied.
Stay realistic
Life being what it is, there will be times when you don’t have the option to eat exactly what you want or in an environment that favours enjoyment and satisfaction. When this happens, remember that Intuitive Eating, unlike diets, does not demand perfection. Sometimes it’s just about eating to take care of your hunger and not much else and that’s OK!
Work on the other principles of Intuitive Eating
Increasing the enjoyment and satisfaction you get from eating, will mean working on the other principles of Intuitive Eating. Here are just a couple of examples why this is important. If you still believe that chocolate is “bad” and feel “bad” for eating it then it will be very difficult to experience any sort of pleasure from eating it. This is why it’s so important to work on the principle challenging your inner food critic. If you eat when you’re not hungry, your eating experience is likely to be less satisfying than when you are gently or moderately hungry. And if you eat when you are ravenously hungry, you will likely feel the need to eat so quickly you mightn’t taste the food – also not a satisfying experience! This is also one reason why working on honouring your hunger is important.
Short and sweet
Knowing what you like to eat and believing that you have the right to enjoy food are key factors in a lifetime of enjoyable eating for health and wellbeing. It also stops you from eating more food in search of the satisfaction you need or fantasising about the food(s) you want, which is what happens when you don’t let yourself have the food you really want.
You will gain the most satisfaction from your food when you eat when you’re gently hungry, take the time to consider what you really want to eat, do your best to meet those food preferences given what’s available, and then eating in a relaxing, enjoyable atmosphere.
Ready to take the next step? Contact me and request a complimentary call to find out more about Intuitive Eating and how it can help you truly nourish yourself – body, mind and soul.
