Phase 2: Starting Your Shift
What is the issue?
As you set sail, you'll soon encounter one of the most formidable forces at sea: your appetite. Like an iceberg looming on the horizon, the human appetite system is far more complex and vast than what meets the eye. Many sailors before you have underestimated its power, leading to shipwrecks and detours.
But don't worry. You're now wise to the horizon and you're about to become even more connected to what is happening across the whole iceberg, not just what you can see. By understanding the true nature of your appetite, you'll be better equipped to navigate these waters and stay on course towards your Life Weight.
What do you think?
Before we dive deeper, take a moment to reflect on your own experiences with appetite. How would you describe your relationship with eating? Have you ever felt at the mercy of your appetite or found yourself eating for various reasons beyond physical nourishment? Have you noticed how cultural expectations or social situations influence your eating habits? Jot down your thoughts in your Captain's Log. These reflections will serve as a valuable reference point as we explore the intricate workings of your appetite system.
What else would be good to know?
To better understand how your body's internal systems work together to regulate your appetite, let's take a closer look at your gut - the engine room of your ship.
The diagram below illustrates the key components of your digestive system and how they relate to appetite regulation.
Pay special attention to:
The Gut-Brain Axis: Notice how the vagus nerve connects your gut to your brain. This communication pathway plays a crucial role in appetite regulation.
Hormones: See how leptin (the fullness signal) and ghrelin (the hunger signal) are produced in different parts of your digestive system.
The Microbiome: Your gut's crew, the microbiome, also plays a significant role in appetite regulation.
Understanding this system is key to navigating your appetite icebergs!
Now that we've explored the inner workings of your ship's engine room, let's look at how these internal processes manifest in your day-to-day experiences with hunger and wanting.
Your appetite system is a marvel of evolution, developed over millennia to ensure our survival. Like a sophisticated navigation system, it operates in three dimensions: hunger, wanting, and cultural pressure. Understanding these dimensions is crucial.
Hunger: This is your body's way of signaling a need for nourishment. It can be physical (like a growling stomach), emotional (like feeling irritable) or cognitive (like having a lot of food related thoughts).
Wanting: This dimension is about anticipation and desire and can be driven by both physical needs (craving specific sensations in the mouth), emotional factors (seeking comfort or pleasure or relief) or cognitive cues (rationalizing eating when not hungry).
Cultural Pressure: This often-overlooked dimension shapes our perception of when and why we should eat. It's like the prevailing winds that can push us off course if we're not aware of them. The culture includes how you've internalized past dieting rules, how you eat in response to images of yourself or others, trends in popular nutrition, expectations of you at different stages of your life (i.e. pregnancy) and many more.
Let's peek below the surface of this appetite iceberg:
Types of Appetite Cues:
Physical cues: These can relate to both hunger and wanting, like a growling stomach, light-headedness, or salivating at the sight of food
Emotional cues: These can also signal both hunger and wanting, and include feelings like stress, boredom, or happiness influencing your desire to eat.
Cognitive cues: These can be influenced by all three dimensions and include thoughts about food, calorie counting, or meal planning.
Hormonal Regulation: Your body's internal organs, much like the various parts of a ship, work together to regulate your appetite. The liver, gut, pancreas, and fat tissue communicate with your brain through hormones.
Two key players are:
Ghrelin: Often associated with hunger, it typically rises before meals and falls after eating.
Leptin: This hormone is involved in long-term energy balance and can influence both hunger and wanting.
Cultural and Environmental Factors: Just as the sea is influenced by winds and currents, your appetite is affected by external forces. Diet culture, social norms, and food availability all exert pressure on your eating behaviors, often telling you when you should eat or what you should want, regardless of your body's actual needs.
Activity 1:
Hunger, Wanting and Eating Environment
Let's start building your awareness of the three dimensions of appetite using the diagram below. We'll use the "Hunger, Wanting and Culture" visual diagram to help you identify and categorize your own appetite experiences in the next Lesson using an appetite inventory. This activity will help you distinguish between the various aspects of hunger, wanting, and cultural influences on your eating habits, giving you a comprehensive view of your appetite landscape.
As you examine the diagram, you'll see a grid with hunger and fullness on one axis, and wanting and satisfaction on the other, all surrounded by the pressure that culture exerts over eating.
This diagram illustrates the three-dimensional nature of appetite we discussed earlier. Let's break it down:
The horizontal axis represents Hunger to Fullness, ranging from 0 (starving) to 10 (physically unwell from fullness).
The vertical axis represents Wanting to Satisfied, ranging from 0 (intense wanting) to 10 (no wanting, no desire for exciting foods).
The entire grid is surrounded by Culture, representing the constant influence of external factors on our eating behaviours. These make it very challenging to remain Above Water and read the appetite.
When someone is in a Blue Mind state and has practiced reflecting on their eating experiences, their eating arc often follows a particular pattern through our Hunger, Wanting and Culture diagram. This isn't an "ideal" to strive for, but rather an example of how eating can unfold when we're more aware and connected to our body's signals.
Typically, the experience starts in the upper left quadrant — hungry and wanting. As eating begins, there's a move towards the lower left quadrant, still hungry but becoming more satisfied as food is enjoyed. The arc then transitions into the lower right quadrant, approaching fullness and feeling satisfied. Often, the experience concludes in this area — full and satisfied. This arc represents a balanced, aware eating experience that responds to the body's needs and the desire for enjoyment.
However, eating experiences can and do vary widely. Big eating, for instance, occurs when a significant amount of time is spent in the upper right quadrant — full and wanting. In these instances, physical hunger has been satisfied, but eating continues, driven by wanting or other factors. This might happen due to stress, distraction, or cultural influences.
Recognizing where we are in this diagram during our eating experiences isn't about judgment or achieving a "perfect" arc. Instead, it's a tool for building awareness and understanding our unique patterns. This awareness can help us make more conscious choices about our eating, leading to a more balanced and satisfying relationship with food over time.
Remember, every eating experience is an opportunity for learning and self-discovery on your journey towards your Life Weight. There's no single "right" way to eat — the goal is to develop a approach that works best for you.
How do I apply this right now? How do I explore this more?
As you consider the three dimensions of the appetite, consider how your own eating experiences might be plotted on this grid. Are there times when you feel hungry but not wanting, or wanting but not hungry? How does cultural pressure influence where you end up on this grid? For example, do you feel pressured to eat certain foods on certain holidays because that is just what people do? Like pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving? Do you want to eat more of something at times just because it’s part of a beautiful shared experience you’re having with people who are important to you?
Understanding this three-dimensional nature of appetite is the first step in developing appetite literacy – the ability to read and interpret these various signals and pressures. This skill takes time and practice but is foundational to your Shift.
Over the next day, whenever you feel the urge to eat or are about to eat, pause and refer to the diagram. Plot your current state on the grid, considering both your level of hunger/fullness (0-10) and your level of wanting/satisfaction (0-10). You can do this in your Ship’s Manifest to best see the patterns that emerge over the coming weeks.
Reflect on any cultural or environmental pressures that might be influencing your urge to eat. Are you eating because it's "lunch time," or because others around you are eating?
Note your observations in your Captain's Log, including the time, your position on the grid, any cultural influences you identified, and additional thoughts or feelings.
This activity will help you start recognizing the different factors influencing your appetite across all three dimensions, laying the groundwork for developing your appetite literacy skills.
Now that we've explored the complex nature of appetite, let's dive deeper into identifying specific instances of "Big Eating" — times when eating continues past physical fullness and into wanting
How do I bring it all together?
Understanding your appetite is like getting to know the sea you're sailing on. It's vast, complex, and sometimes unpredictable, but with knowledge and practice, you can learn to navigate it skillfully. Remember, your appetite isn't your enemy – it's a sophisticated system designed to keep you alive and thriving. By recognizing its three-dimensional nature – hunger, wanting, and cultural pressure – you're taking the first step towards working with your appetite rather than against it.
You may stop reading the lesson and do the activity now or wait until the end of the lesson to do the activity in sequence.
Once you complete the lessons, the activities appear on their own pages so you can find them and repeat them anytime.
Activity 2:
Identifying Times for Big Eating
Every Big Eating experience is just an opportunity to learn. This activity will help you recognize patterns in your eating behaviours, particularly instances where eating continues past the point of physical fullness.
This activity is a guided reflection you can come back to in times of big eating or anytime you like.
How will I know if this is making a difference? How do I start noticing the changes?
As you become more aware of the three dimensions of your appetite, you might notice:
A clearer understanding of the various factors influencing your desire to eat
Increased awareness of how your environment and social situations affect your appetite
More instances of above water eating as you start to question whether your urge to eat is coming from hunger, wanting, or cultural pressure
A sense of empowerment as you recognize the various factors influencing your food choices
What is next?
In our next lesson, we'll delve deeper into becoming appetite literate, giving you more tools to navigate your appetite effectively. Keep practicing your awareness of hunger, wanting, and cultural influences – this awareness is the foundation upon which we'll build your appetite literacy skills.
Remember, every skilled sailor was once a novice. Be patient with yourself as you learn to recognize these different dimensions of your appetite. Your journey to understanding your appetite is a crucial part of your overall voyage to lasting health and well-being. By understanding the complex interplay of hunger, wanting, and cultural pressure, you're already on your way to making more informed choices and steering steadily towards your Life Weight.