Intuitive Eating Uncovered!

Ok so the weirdest thing has happened over the past 3 days since i decided to cut out the rather larger protein and veggie portion of my breakfast and just consume my fruit n fibre shake and a coffee....For the rest of the day my appetite has drastically.... DECREASED!

You bet ya, i am getting fuller faster, so therefore my portion sizes have suddenly become smaller! (I'm not licking scraps off my plate anymore for the sake of having to eat x many calories at each sitting!) I also seemed to be even more aware now of 'actual' hunger over 'emotional hunger'. Once i consume my meal, i am not feeling peckish or the need to send the search patrol out for more food anymore! The rice at lunch has definitely got rid of my PB cravings and right now (haven't had any in 10 days!), i am feeling in absolute CONTROL baby!

So all of this has made me ponder a few things.

Does forcing food into an 'unhungry' (i'm not sure if that's even a word lol) stomach cause it to overstretch?
And then cos it is larger, do you automatically eat MORE food (more calories) just to fill it up?

One thing i have learned from ESE is that the first meal after a fast you actually can't eat as much as you think you can. Why? Because your stomach shrinks over that 24hr period. It's kind of the same between dinner to breakfast. For me, thats a 10-12hr period without food, so once the stomach empties its food into the digestive track, i'm assuming it starts shrinking back to its normal size. 24hrs might be required to get back to 'actual normal size', but 12hrs maybe it gets about half way there?

So perhaps forcing all those egg whites and veggies (1/2cup egg whites + 150g veggies) down my mouth in the past when i really wasnt' that hungry, over-stretched my stomach for the rest of the day? And i only ate that for the sake of RULES. So was that one factor in having to eat ginormous quanities at each meal just to feel full? I'd love to hear your thoughts?

So now that i've been intuitively listening to my body and only eating a small meal at breakfast, my stomach is not in an overstretched state so fullness is achieved faster. Ifeel satisfied with my meals and I'm enjoying all the flavours and not eating just cos its a certain time. Check out this post by Swkigg, she sums up ESE perfectly.

Its a great feeling not being on a DIET and still losing fat...lots of it. Guess what? I went out for dinner the last two nights and guess what i had as part of my meal? ....CARBS (gasp!)... Tuesday i had gluten free salt and pepper squid with salad and some chips (omg!) and last night i had grilled chicken breast with salad and some mash (omg x2!) ... and you know what? I did NOT feel guilty, for once i acutally enjoyed eating a restaurant meal like a normal person without doing advanced calculus in my head!