Hello Beautiful!!
This past Saturday I hosted my first prayer and fitness class post-baby, and it was fabulous! The weather was amazing, we got in a great workout, and I am super pumped for the rest of the series. If you’re in the New Orleans area, please join me on Thursday nights at 7pm at First Baptist New Orleans for these free classes! It’s wonderfully relaxing and invigorating. Reply to this email if you’d like more info!
Later that day as baby napped, I hopped on Periscope to talk about something that occurred to me again as she and I had breakfast (well, she watched!) at La Madeleine. This is a concept I’ve had in mind for a little while now, and I was glad to pause to explain it!
It is what I call ‘first and second appetites.’
The idea is that when we are truly hungry (ie, our bodies really need fuel and aren’t sending us flawed signals because of the sugar or chemicals we’ve been ingesting), we are coming to the table with our ‘first appetite.’
Generally, this appetite is rather quickly satisfied unless we’ve had excessive strenuous activity recently and our bodies are trying to make up for the exertion.
(This is one of the reasons why I advise against intense exercise if someone is trying to lose weight. I have found that long, moderate, and low impact, stopping as soon as your body is fatigued, is best for keeping the appetite under control.)
Stopping eating right as this first appetite tapers off is a major trick for easy weight loss, but it’s all too easy to start up the ‘second appetite,’ which can be spurred from the taste of even one more bite of food when our bodies no longer need it.
It’s like our bodies say, ‘Oh, there’s more? Alright folks, let’s pull out all the hunger and digestion hormones and do this thing again.’ And we can literally start up a second hunger which we don’t really need, and which I have found doesn’t have as clear of an ending. In fact, when I start eating when I’m not really hungry, I find I eat more than when I have a normal appetite, as I don’t have my body’s natural guides to go by and to tell me when to stop.
When I keep eating and head into this second appetite, I almost always gain a bit of weight the next day, even if my food choices were extremely healthy.
It’s an art to recognize when the first appetite has ended, and to control our emotions so we don’t head into the second appetite out of stress, boredom, or anxiety. When I am trying to figure out where I body stands, this may be when I get up to pick up the kitchen a bit, excuse myself and head to the restroom, or simply interact with my dining companions and sip some tea.
I am slowing my eating down enough to let my body honestly signal to me whether or not it still truly needs sustenance, or just feels like another bite for the heck of it. In which case, I let it know that there is always another meal or snack around the corner if a true first appetite comes back.
So, have you ever sensed this in your body as you’re eating? Do you think you can learn to find that delicate line between appetites? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Enjoy just the food your body needs, gorgeous – it leads to …
Love and Freedom!
Jackie
