⁉️Question: Are you ready for a Top Tip for Plus Size Weight Loss for Women over 40 without diets⁉️

In part one of this series of the tips and tricks for plus size weight loss for women over 40 without being held hostage by restrictive diets we talked about honoring our hunger.

Today I want to share the 2nd key tip for finally being able to stop the battle of binge eating AND finally stop the weight loss resistance that has plagued you for the last 20 years.

?Honor Your Fullness?

Three years ago, I found myself in a hard, scary place. My mother had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. The following months was a full of her treatments and struggle, and for me the realization that I wanted to be healthier. Not just lose weight, but find true health.

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This thought sent me on the path of searching for what was holding me back. What was stopping my weight loss? After all, I have been on a diet for over 20 years. I got curious. I wanted to know what was slowing down my health and making me feel like every meal and food experience was a battle. I felt like my relationship with food was chaotic at best.

I went through a stage of supplements, clean eating, keto dieting (again), intuitive eating, gut health, yoga, meditation, and so much more. What I found was true health was not just weight loss, but being healthy in body, mind and spirit.

But, how could I get healthy in “Body” when all the world famous diets that the experts recommended never worked much less lasted?

What I found was I was created in such a fantastic way that my body was crying out and trying to tell me what it needed. I just had to learn to listen. So I began my step into the world of gentle nutrition, intuitive eating and mindful living.

What does honoring your fullness have to do with weight loss?

When I wasn’t honoring my hunger, I was consistently over eating. It didn’t matter if I was eating clean, juicing my veggies or only taking in 1200 calories. I could over eat on kale and carrots and still not feel satisfied.

After I stopped dieting, I started listening to all the signals and cues my body was giving me. I embraced my hunger and fullness. It was key to hear what my body was saying. Read part one here Plus Size Weight Loss Tips Without Dieting, Part 1 about honoring your hunger if you missed it.

Our body is equipped to know when you have had enough food. By changing your eating habits, listening to your body you can feel in control again.

Understanding fullness helps reduce the temptation to overeat. Restricting food and dieting often leaves us feeling hungry and deprived, which can have negative effects on our mood and motivation to stick to healthy eating goals. Is it possible to control how much we eat, without feeling hungry all the time? YES!

Finding satisfaction comes when the feeling of fullness and the suppression of hunger for a period of time after a meal is accomplished. The comfortable fullness sensation can play an important role in controlling how much we eat. If we feel really full or ‘satiated’ after a meal then hunger is likely to be suppressed for longer.

If we do not feel satiated after a meal, then we are likely to get hungry again more quickly and may be tempted to snack between meals or binge eat at the next meal. So, if we can understand how our body is communicating we can enhance these feelings of satiety to help to control how much we eat.

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Why Satisfaction in a meal makes a difference.

Listen to your Body!

Pay attention to how your stomach feels when you are hungry and then to how it feels after drinking a glass of water. The empty sensation should fade slightly within a couple minutes of drinking the water.

Likewise when you eat, focus on how your stomach feels through the entire meal. Eat slow so you have time to notice what is happening in your body. Chew your food, sit your fork down, and breathe. As you become full, the empty feeling will be replaced with a gentle pressure. It should feel comfortable. As soon as you feel the pressure in your stomach, stop eating. You should still feel light and energetic with this gentle pressure. If you are unsure. Give yourself a few minutes. After all, it takes 20 minutes for the body to signal the brain that you are full. That’s why having a 20 min. meals is a win win for healthy weight loss.

Tips to increase satisfaction with your meals.

I believe God meant for us to enjoy our meals. He designed our bodies to find satisfaction and pleasure in our food.

We have been taught in a world of busy, on the go living to eat quickly and that food is simply fuel. Yes, it is fuel, but it can be so much more as well.

When we go into our meals in a mindful, present state we will have a higher rate of satiety compared to wolfing down a meal while watching TV. You know what I’m talking about… eating so quickly with your mind distracted to the point that you look down and don’t even know where the food went. You don’t remember eating the entire meal.

Using our five senses can increase the satisfaction that you find in a meal. This happens because our body’s senses take in information such as: the texture of the the roasted potatoes, the aroma of a cup of cinnamon coffee, the sound of soft music playing, a flicker of a candle centerpiece, or the simple sweetness of a berry. When our body receives these sensory inputs they send the brain messages to communicate satisfaction. That is why taking the time to be present in a meal and letting yourself absorb with your five sense what is happening around you can make a difference.

Think about it.

That is why you can go out to dinner with friends or family, at a favorite restaurant, eat less that you would at home and still feel content. It was the emotions that came with friendship and conversation along with the aesthetics of the restaurant. It was the presentation of the food from the chef along with the combinations of flavors and aromas. It all adds up for increasing the satisfaction of the meal.

How to Know When Your Stomach Is Full & When to Stop Eating⁉️

So the first step to break this habit is to recognize fullness earlier. This was so hard for me. After years of diets, deprivation, fasting, bingeing etc… I had lost the intuition when it came to understanding my body’s clues. I didn’t notice when I was full. It was constant visualization and practicing recognizing the signals before I consistently found success.

But, with a little bit of grace, patience and observation, I finally began to intuitively take in how my body was communicating with me.

Here are the main fullness signals I noticed for myself (or for my plus size, over 40 private clients):

a comfortable full feeling (a light pressure in the stomach)
comfortably breathing
content feeling
taste of food changes slightly
food looks less appealing

Healthy Mind – Body – Spirit Tip: I had such a hard time learning my fullness. I had over eaten for 30 years and establishing a new habit takes time. (63 days according to Caroline Leaf, author of “Switch on Your Brain”) But today how did I get there? Even after I would wake up and consciously plan, “Today I’m going to take my time on my eating today. I will have long 20-minute meals.” bla bla bla. It would still go out the window. Even with good intentions, I would find myself just standing in the kitchen, standing and eating, as opposed to even walking to the table to sit for a meal. So how did I break the habit? I started with taking those deep breaths, calming myself, getting my mind right. Then I would picture myself eating my meals at the table that day. I started simple like that. Simply not standing over the sink eating, but sitting down. Read more about using visualization to make new habits here.

⚖️Hunger Scale

Once I knew my fullness signals, I began to make those signals work for me.

I like to use a fullness scale to help me solidify this in my mind. 1 is just starving, 10 is Thanksgiving Day Stuffed.

As as plus size woman, I found it key for my weight loss and to prevent bingeing to start to plan for food when I was at a 2 on the hunger scale.

So I strongly encourage you to begin planning to eat when you are at a 1 or 2 on the hunger scale. If you wait till you are at a 7, 8, or 9 to plan to eat, you’re more likely to eat faster, make poorer food choices, and keep eating past the “satisfied” point.

Then I like to plan to stop eating when at a 7 on the scale. Think of it as about 70% full.

Remember the goal here is not perfection but to learn to listen to your body. It is made perfectly and it wants to tell you what it needs. Teach yourself to appreciate hunger signals as a natural part of life, as a sign that you’re a healthy intuitive eater. AND teach yourself to celebrate the subtle fullness signals that your body offers you.

And my final tip…get the hand out for extra help!

If you enjoyed this post and want to dive deeper, I invite you to download your free copy of “How to Lose Weight when Nothing Else is Working” . This is specifically about having a 20 minute meal, listen to the hunger signals and more. You don’t have to fight this battle alone anymore.

Bonus:

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As a health coach, I help you reduce and manage your stress more effectively by helping you change your mindset and behavior (and by extension, improve your life). If you would like a complimentary 1 time coaching call to help you:

Uncover what’s been stopping your plus size weight loss, slowing you down or keeping you from having the body you want
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Discover which foods and lifestyle habits are bringing your body down…and what to do about it
Get crystal clear on a step-by-step plan to create plus size weight loss when your over 40 in 90 days or less

This is just for curvy plus size woman that feel trapped by food and are ready to stop dieting and to finally feel free from the struggle with food. Click here! Lasting Habit Change is possible.