#9 – The Body & Belonging Reset (Part 2): Can You Trust Your Hunger Again?

I've got a question for you. When was the last time you felt hungry and didn't immediately judge yourself for it? Maybe you grabbed a protein bar because you were supposed to. Maybe you grabbed another coffee instead. Maybe you told yourself, I'll eat after I get one more thing done. Or maybe you become so disconnected from your body that you honestly don't know whether you're hungry at all. If If that's you, today's episode is going to feel like a deep breath because hunger isn't your enemy. It's one of the ways your body was designed to care for you. Hello, my friends. Welcome back to Body and Belonging, where we break free from food guilt, calm down the food noise, and rediscover joy at the table. I'm Jamie, a registered dietitian, and each week we explore the deeper reasons why we struggle with food and why we have such a hard time feeling like we belong in our bodies. I blend gentle nutrition with nervous system awareness, and I teach you biblically rooted health principles to move you away from dieting and restriction and into care and nourishment. So grab a seat at the table and let's dive in. This is part 2 of our Body and Belonging Reset. Last week, we talked about how our relationship with food begins with our beliefs, not just our behaviors. And today we're talking about one of the most misunderstood parts of eating well: hunger. Not emotional eating, not meal plans, not macros, just hunger. Can you listen to your body instead of fearing it? Because if we can't recognize or trust one of our body's most basic signals, it's really difficult to build a peaceful relationship with food. So somewhere along the way, many of us learned that feeling hungry was either something to avoid or ignore. Maybe you were praised for being good and waiting for your meal as a kid. Not bad, but— Repeated messages get ingrained and sometimes have unintended consequences. Maybe you got in the habit of skipping lunch and your body just quit giving you a hunger signal at that time because you weren't listening to it. Maybe dieting taught you that ignoring your hunger was a sign of really good discipline, and eventually hunger stopped feeling like information and it started feeling like failure. Maybe you didn't eat good enough at the previous meal. Maybe you didn't get enough protein at the last meal. Maybe you waited too long to eat. Maybe you didn't prepare well enough. But the immediate feeling that followed the hunger was guilt or shame or frustration or failure. But here's the truth: hunger isn't a character flaw. It's communication. Your body isn't betraying you. It's talking to you. Now, one of my favorite examples of this is watching little kids eat. When they're hungry, everybody knows it. When they're full, they're done. And when they don't like something, they're not subtle. They haven't yet learned all the rules that adults carry around food. Now, obviously, as parents, we still need to provide structure and guide food choices and encourage curiosity. But children do remind us of something important, that we were created with internal signals that, under supportive conditions, can help guide our eating. The question is, what happened? For many, dieting, busy schedules, stress, food rules, and shame slowly taught you to ignore those signals. You stopped listening, and your body gets quieter. When you quit listening. Another part of this conversation, and this is something I've learned since I first taught this material several years ago, was our nervous system matters. When we're constantly rushing, when we're living in survival mode, eating in the car, answering emails over lunch, our bodies don't always send or receive hunger or fullness cues as clearly. Also, if there's any neurodivergence or ADHD, Those bodies often don't notice hunger until you're absolutely starving. Other times, stress will leave you feeling like you're hungry all day long. Neither response means your body is broken. It means your body is doing the best it can under the circumstances. A question I get all the time is, how do I know if I'm actually hungry? So I have a simple framework for you. Physical hunger usually builds gradually. You often notice it in your stomach or in your energy. Most foods sound appealing. A sandwich? Sure. Soup? Okay. Leftovers? That'll do. A craving is different. It's usually specific. It's, I need something crunchy and I need it now, or I want an ice cream, or I need chocolate. And sometimes a craving happens In addition to you being generally hungry and those foods sound good, other times your brain is specifically looking for that craving to meet a desire. Maybe it's a desire for comfort or for stimulation or for celebration or distraction or stress relief. Neither is something to judge. It's simply different experiences that invite you to respond with different types of care. A simple tool that you can put into practice in the week ahead is a hunger scale, not because you're going to follow it perfectly, not because Not because every meal has to start at a 3 and end at a 7. I'll explain in a moment, but because it teaches awareness. So think of a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being so hungry, you're nauseous, you don't feel good, you waited way too long to eat, there's zero energy, and you're hangry. That's a 1 on the hunger scale. Now think of a 10. 10 is after Thanksgiving, stuffed to the gills, also sleepy, also maybe a little nauseous, also not feeling good, but it is obvious that you ate too much. Mm-hmm. Maybe your belly is distended, maybe you're feeling some heartburn. These are cues that your body gives you that you ate too much. So that's the hunger scale, and it's a very simple tool that you can use for awareness of where am I at right now on the scale. Maybe you're ravenous, maybe you're pleasantly satisfied, maybe you're eating simply because the clock says it's lunch break. There's no grade, it's just a tool for curiosity, and curiosity is always more helpful than criticism. Side note, it's also a great tool for kids because, like I mentioned earlier, when kids want something, they want it now. And using this hunger scale of, okay, where are you at on the scale, can help cultivate their awareness. And as our kids get older, we want there to be more of the principle behind the rule instead of the food rule. We want the principle behind the mealtimes and less about the exact mealtimes. We want to cultivate independence with food. We want to cultivate food freedom. And using this tool for your kids and for yourself helps build that awareness. So in the week ahead, before one meal each day, I want you to pause for 5 seconds and ask yourself 2 questions. One, how hungry am I? Think about where you're at on that scale. And 2, what does my body need right now? Notice I didn't ask, well, what should I eat? No, we're practicing listening before solving. And that's a skill that grows with time. Our verse for today is Psalms 139:14. It says, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. This includes the systems that God designed inside our bodies, our hunger, our fullness, our taste buds, our ability to enjoy a shared meal. These aren't obstacles to overcome. They're gifts to steward with wisdom. And as we learn to pay attention instead of constantly fighting our bodies, we're practicing something actually deeply biblical: stewardship rooted in trust instead of fear. So today's episode wasn't about eating perfectly. It was about learning to pay attention. One thing I know is that healing rarely begins with a dramatic change. it usually begins with noticing. So next time we're going to talk about one of my favorite topics, which is mindfulness. And before you tune out because that sounds trendy or intimidating, let me reassure you, this isn't about emptying your mind. It's about being fully present to the gifts God has already placed in front of you. I'll see you then. If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to hear from you. Send me a message on Instagram. I am @dietitianjamie, and tell me what's one thing you've noticed about hunger this week that surprised you. The goal isn't perfection, it's awareness. And every small moment of awareness is another step towards peace at the table. Also, if you have a friend in mind who wrestles with her relationship with food, would you send her this episode? I know there are so many women longing for this message, and you can help it get into the right hands.