Today, I’m sharing a few of my favorite tips to help master one of the most important keys to maintaining your healthiest weight without dieting. The single most important key to my own success has been learning to identify true hunger from what I call “counterfeit hunger.” I consider emotional eating, mindless and bored eating, and overeating all to be forms of counterfeit hunger. It’s those times when you're sort of eating just to eat,rather than truly needing to fuel your body. I’m going to share with you my five most successful strategies to avoid feeding counterfeit hunger. I pray it’s a helpful blessing!

Use the Carrot Test

Ok, admittedly this one sounds a little silly, but it works. Why? Because it's a very visual, quick tool to help you decipher true physical hunger from pseudo hunger. Here’s how I use the carrot test. If I think I’m hungry, but I’m not absolutely certain whether or not I’m legitimately physically hungry, I’ll pause before eating and ask myself, “Am I hungry enough to eat a carrot?” Now, it’s not that I’m against carrots. More so, its about knowing that when I’m truly hungry I’m not going to turn down food. So, if the answer is yes, great, time to eat something. If however, the answer is no, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got room for those chips over there, most likely I’m using food to fill a different void. If the answer is no, it’s good to pause and ask yourself, “Ok, so if I’m not REALLY hungry, what need/feeling/void am I looking for food to fill right now?”

Third Time is a Charm

Another tool that I use to help protect me from feeding counterfeit hunger is one that the Lord Himself built into us. God have us a signal system to help guide us in the area of eating. It’s the rumbling of your tummy! When we are truly, physically in need of food, our bodies were created to give us indications of that – how thoughtful right?  I use these built-in signals to really help guide my eating. I try to stay very mindful of my hunger cues and tend not to eat until I’ve heard from them. The most effective one for me is listening for/feeling the growling of my stomach. If I’m tempted to eat and suspect that I may not actually be physically hungry, I use the “rule of three’s” – if I feel or hear my tummy growl three times, I know for sure I need food for fuel and not for feelings.

Car Caution

I don’t know about you, but the car is one place where things can so easily get out of hand for me in terms of snacking! I used to have the terrible habit of going to the grocery store hungry, then grabbing a bag of popcorn or chips, or some kind of snack out of the grocery sack and putting it in the front console of my car to eat while I drove. Boy, oh boy. Not a good strategy. Now, in this scenario I was legitimately hungry for sure, but I’ve just set myself up to go way past a reasonable or needed snack portion by having a open bag at my disposal. A much wiser approach is the method I use now. I now keep a few small sandwich baggies in my glovebox. When I’m hungry, I simply put an appropriate portion of the snack I choose in the bag, leave the rest in the back of the car with the other groceries and enjoy my snack within healthy, controlled boundaries on my drive home.

Say No to BLTs

The BLT I’m referring to here has nothing to do with meat and veggies. I’m talking about bites, licks and tastes (BLTs). It’s so easy to do isn’t it? You make your kids a PBJ and lick the spoon. You finish the crust of their pizza. You lick the remaining batter off the spoon when you’re baking your favorite DD muffins. BLTs are so habitual if we’re not careful, but can really add up to a lot of unneeded, mindlessly consumed calories. Try simply reminding yourself to stay away from BLTs and intentionally encourage yourself that you’ll be purposeful to choose to eat on purpose, when truly needed, and only those things that are really important to you.

Let’s Grab a Drink!

My final tip to curb counterfeit hunger is to enjoy a drink you love. Many, many times we interpret thirst as hunger. I’ve found time and time again that when I opt for a fun beverage instead of food firs my hunger is eliminated. I get excited about fun drinks, so the thought of enjoying one to stave off hunger for a bit until I’m truly hungry is something I enjoy. I encourage you to stay away from beverages that will leave you feeling “blick” or work against your goals with a ton of unnecessary sugar and calories. My favorite go-to fun drinks are: