It’s normal to overeat some during holiday meals. But don’t let that spiral into an unhelpful pattern!

Join me as I reveal strategies to help you uncover the sense of ‘satisfaction’ when it comes to eating. It took me decades to discover what people meant by “Eat until you’re satisfied, not full.” In this episode, I give several different ways to help you identify Satisfied.

This is a great episode to go with the one before: HM279 FREE Hypnosis for Mindful Eating. https://www.drlizhypnosis.com/episode279

About Dr. Liz

Winner of numerous awards including Top 100 Moms in Business, Dr. Liz provides psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, and hypnosis to people wanting a fast, easy way to transform all around the world. She has a PhD in Clinical Psychology, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) and has special certification in Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy. Specialty areas include Anxiety, Insomnia, and Deeper Emotional Healing.

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Do you have Chronic Insomnia? Find out more about Dr. Liz’s Better Sleep Program at https://bit.ly/sleepbetterfeelbetter

Search episodes at the Podcast Page http://bit.ly/HM-podcast

Help yourself with Hypnosis Downloads by Dr. Liz! http://bit.ly/HypnosisMP3Downloads

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A problem shared is a problem halved. In person and online hypnosis and CBT for healing and transformation. Schedule your free consultation at https://www.drlizhypnosis.com.

Listened to in over 140 countries, Hypnotize Me is the podcast about hypnosis, transformation, and healing. Certified hypnotherapist and Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Dr. Liz Bonet, discusses hypnosis and interviews professionals doing transformational work

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Transcript

Welcome. I’m Dr Liz, an entrepreneur, speaker, podcaster, mom and wife. This podcast is about hypnosis, but also about all kinds of ways to help you live your fullest life, to heal, transform, to play the long game and go after the joy. You can see more about me at drlizhypnosis.com. Hop over there to get a free hypnosis file to decrease fear and anxiety, or one to increase emotional stability. They’re there just for you. I hope you enjoy the podcast as much as I do. Peace.

Music . . . 

I didn’t air this episode in 2021 when I recorded it. It is full of really good tips about how to find satisfied. Now I’m no longer a part of the membership that I’ve referenced, because I began to feel like what they are recommending for me was not just unsustainable, it was actually unhealthy.

When I wasn’t losing weight, they just recommended that I continue to cut my intake to the point where I felt like not only is this not sustainable, it’s not even meeting my basic protein needs that are recommended for my age. And they did that without even really asking about any other health problems or anything else going on. So I eventually left that membership, but I still believe that Corinne has some genius to her. Absolutely, and in general, the membership has helped thousands of women. You just really have to make that decision for yourself. All right, let’s jump in.

Fairy Wand Sound . . . 

Hi everyone. Dr Liz here, I’m happy to come to you from the loft in my home recording. Now, I didn’t plan this episode, but I thought you know what I’ll offer it as a bonus to the free hypnosis for mindful eating that just aired. It is a replay, so perhaps you’ve heard that one before. I’ve put a much shorter intro on it so that people would get right to the hypnosis file.

The way I defined mindful eating in that episode is in one word –  listening. And one sentence – Mindful eating is listening to your body, so that you only eat when you are hungry and you stop at satisfied.

And then it occurred to me that a lot of people have a really hard time identifying satisfied, myself included, in fact, I don’t think I really identified satisfied until this year 2021. It took me months of trying, like active trying, to do this. I have to attribute this search to Corinne Crabtree, who runs the no BS woman tribe. It’s like 10,000 women she runs the podcast Losing 100 Pounds with Corinne Crabtree. She lost 100 pounds and that is her specialty area, and I listened to her free podcast for months until a membership opened and then I joined her membership.

Now I had already lost my weight of 55 pounds, but since I work with overeaters, in particular, with binge eaters, I wanted to go into her membership to get all the tools that she offers to learn from her, to learn from the other women and as well as to help myself. I really wanted to be able to open up my eating a little bit more. I was very low carb when I joined, so I try to keep my net carbs under 50 net carbs a day and they still remain there, because that, honestly, is what feels best to me, because I do have a Hashimoto’s autoimmune disorder and eating that way helped my A1C come out of the pre-diabetic range, so it’s low now it’s like a 5.3. I like keeping my A1C low so that I never have to go on diabetes medication. It helps me maintain my weight loss and that was actually another reason I joined her membership is that she has all kinds of tools for maintenance once you do hit your goal weight. So and originally I wanted to lose another 10 to 20 pounds. That didn’t happen, but that’s okay. I’m really happy with the weight I am now.

But the active process of finding satisfied was, I think, the biggest benefit I got from her community. I mean, there’s a lot of benefits, but that’s probably the biggest one, and it took me four or five months of really working on it before I was like this is it. This is what satisfied feels like. This is not full, this is not stuffed, this is not under-eating. That sometimes becomes a problem too – not for me, but for some people. But this is what satisfied feels like.

So I’m going to give you a couple of tips here about how to find satisfied, because it is big.

In the mindful eating world we look at the hunger fullness scale. Usually it ranges from zero to 10 or one to 10, something like that. But in the mindful eating world I haven’t found anyone who really teaches you how to find it. So I’m going to share what worked for me with you.

The Pause

So first I began cutting my food in half and just pausing. So I didn’t cut it in half and, like you know, I’m only going to eat half my food. No, not me. It was like I’m going to cut my food in half and just pause halfway through and check in with where I am.

Do I feel like I need a couple more bites? Am I really hungry or do I feel like, no, really, this is satisfied. So that’s the first thing I did and that was really, really helpful.

Now it wasn’t easy. Sometimes I forgot. In fact I’m concentrating on that this week it’s the first week of November and I forgot yesterday at dinner to cut my food in half and pause. But I remembered at lunch and I remembered at breakfast. So that’s the first thing I did.

And when I say pause, I mean I looked at the clock and waited five to 10 minutes before I continued. So that’s what I mean by pause.

Even if I was out eating in a restaurant, I would pause. I would physically cut the food in half, because you know they serve like huge portions in restaurants. Anyway, I’ve physically cut the portion in half. And then when I got to half, I would just pause and I would make conversation with my husband, I would ask him questions. Sometimes I would cover it with a napkin, but usually I don’t cover with a napkin until I’m actually done with the meal, but sometimes I would do that and then again I would check in and sometimes I’d finish the meal like I expected to and sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes I truly was satisfied. So that’s what I mean by pause. Some people even set a timer to do that.

Two Plates

Another method you can use is to literally put on half. Put half of what you would normally eat on a separate plate. This is more for if you’re at home. Put it on a separate plate and then take that first half and go and eat it and again pause and then come back to it. If you’re truly still hungry, come back to that second plate and say, okay, now I can cut this portion in half and do this again.

And what this does is you keep checking in with where am I satisfied?

Bite by Bite

Another method is, once you do think you’re at satisfied, you can eat one bite more and just do a gentle pause here again a quick one. Like I’m going to eat one bite more and then I’m going to check in again, and then one bite more and check in again. So you go bite by bite until you really find satisfied. And once you begin doing this on a regular basis this check in then you will find it eventually. I mean, most people do.

Stop and Check In

A fourth method is to stop just slightly before you think you’re satisfied, like you’re eating along. You’re eating along and then you get to a bite where you’re like, okay, it’s approaching, here, I’m pretty sure I’m creeping up on it. So you stop there and then you check in. So that’s not like separating your food or anything, it’s not cutting in half, it’s not pausing at half, it’s just really tuning in and listening and saying, okay, I’m making a commitment to myself that I’m going to pause right before I think I’m going to hit satisfied. And then you check in and you wait a little bit and then you say, nope, I think I could eat another bite or two bites more, and then you keep going like that. So it really is about experimentation.

The Big Sigh

For some people they find that they let out a big sigh when they’re close to full or satisfied. Remember, full is not really satisfied. Satisfied comes before full and actually I have found through this process that full doesn’t feel great to me. Satisfied feels really good, full feels like lower energy. I don’t want to do much, I just want to sit around after I eat. Versus satisfied feels like okay, I have energy to keep going to do what I need to do during the day, like food as fuel feels like satisfied to me versus full. So you do have to play around with this some and know that satisfied evolves. So typically as people lose weight, it takes less food to get to satisfied.

Leave Two Bites

Another way to approach this is to see how long you feel satisfied after you eat. Or you might substitute the word in there, satiated, meaning like okay, I don’t need to eat anymore. I don’t feel like I need to eat anymore. Now some people decide to just leave two bites behind Period. They make it a rule for the day or the week. They try it out and they may discover I actually don’t need those two bites. They may discover I really do need those two bites, but that’s another method to see hey, am I getting to satisfied? Like, can I leave these two bites behind? Look, people, I have heard all kinds of stories in current community that people lose weight simply by doing that, by leaving two bites behind every meal. So I find that incredible. Doesn’t really work for me, but works for plenty of people.

Another is are you feeling like bloated? Like that bloated feeling of your clothes are a little tight? That’s probably beyond satisfied, just to know that. So if, like, okay, if you keep having that feeling, you’re gonna say, all right, next time let me try to eat a little less and quantify that Two bites, three bites, whatever that is and see how that feels, and it may feel a lot better for you.

Pick One Meal and One Method

Now you may try this, not with every meal, but start with one meal a day to try this out. Or you may go for it and say I’m gonna try this in every meal, like, pick one method to do. I wouldn’t do all of it at once. I would pick one method either splitting the meal and leaving the plate in the kitchen and taking the other plate to your table or your couch or wherever you’re eating After you eat that portion, pausing, waiting, setting a timer five, 10 minutes, and people do 20 minutes and then checking back in whether you need the other plate. So if you’re gonna do that one, like, just do that one, don’t do all the things all at once. That’s a setup for failure, honestly.

So just pick one to do for a week, or pick one meal to do for a week. That’s what I would tell you. Or you could just pick a snack to do it with.

Often, nighttime snacking gets people like they’re not truly hungry, like they are at, let’s say, breakfast or dinner or lunch or something like that in between. I mean, that’s another thing to check in with hunger and truly find your hunger, but that’s not the focus of this episode. This focus of this episode is finding satisfied. If you’re eating when you’re not hungry, satisfied’s gonna come pretty darn quick. And FYI, you’re gonna be satisfied in like a couple of bites typically. So just pay attention to that.

Perhaps if you’re eating, you’re like I’m satisfied in a couple of bites. Then you may ask yourself was I truly hungry? And if the answer is no, it’s like oh well, perhaps tomorrow night I can skip this or I can wait until I’m truly hungry, which may be 30 more minutes. So that’s another way to figure out satisfied.

Drink the Water

Final method is a lot of people eat about half their meal, or let’s say 75%, and then they drink 8 ounces of water and then they wait 10 minutes to see am I truly satisfied? Sometimes we’re thirsty instead of hungry and we don’t really realize it. Now, some people do that beforehand to find hunger, like they drink water, wait 20 minutes. If they’re still hungry, they’re like okay, this truly is hunger, but you’ll have to figure out for yourself which one works better.

Okay, you may hear that the AC has clicked on, which means that it’s time for me to stop this episode, so I hope that this helps everyone feel satisfied, and it acts like a supplement to the free hypnosis for mindful eating that I aired.

Now you can also buy hypnosis for healthy eating healthy and mindful eating off of my website, drlizhypnosis.com, and that one’s a really good I call it the in depth one and it has an option without music as well that you can download. That comes with it, and it’s only 29.99 or so, and you get a discount with the discount code “podcast” If you put that in the discount code field, because I like to give my listeners discounts here and there for listening to the podcast. All right, everyone, I hope you have a wonderful week and that you’re healthy and safe. Peace.

I hope you truly enjoyed today’s episode. Remember that you can get free hypnosis downloads over at my website, drlizhypnosis.com. I work all over the world doing hypnosis, so if you’re interested in working with me, please schedule a free consultation over at my website and we’ll see what your goals are and if I can be of service to you and helping you reach them. Finally, if you liked today’s episode, please subscribe to the podcast or tell a friend that way, more and more people learn about the power of hypnosis. All right, everyone, have a wonderful week, peace.

Transcribed by https://podium.page