Getting In Tune With Your Body’s Hunger and Fullness Signals

Before we change WHAT we eat, we have to look at HOW we are eating. How many times have you stuffed your breakfast down your throat on your way to work? Have you ever eaten so much so fast that your stomach felt like it was going to explode? We’ve all been there…

It’s important to honor our internal hunger and fullness scales because when we are able to be more in tune with our bodies, we save ourselves from endless moments of regret and frustration. The way in which you eat – fast, slow, distracted, etc – is just as significant a factor in your health as the foods you eat. 

So, what exactly is the hunger/fullness scale? Look at your body as if it were a brand new, beautiful car. Would you drive that precious vehicle on empty for miles and miles? Probably not. If our hunger scales are on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being just noticing your hunger, and 10 being starving/ravenous (below empty in the gas tank), we should start planning for food at a 2. This is when we’ll make the most sound, healthy decisions for our bodies. On the other hand, on our fullness scale, 10 is stuffed and 1 is starving. Typically, we want to aim for a 7 or 8 max on the fullness scale when we finish a meal. We want to feel nourished, energized, and satiated, not stuffed.

Seems simple enough right? Start planning for food when you’re at a 2 on the hunger scale and stop eating when you’re at a 7 on the fullness scale. For many of us, putting this into practice may be a bit more challenging than it seems because our eating habits have kept us so out of touch with our internal hunger/fullness scales. Sometimes we eat when we’re bored, sometimes we don’t eat at all, sometimes we shove food down our throats in a rush, sometimes we overeat…We’ve confused our poor bodies so much, no wonder we’re so out of touch with our hunger and satiety cues. It’s time to re-train our minds to be more in tune with our bodies by changing the way we eat. How do we do this? See the list of steps below!

1. Give yourself more time at each meal. If you normally eat breakfast in five minutes, give it 10. If you normally take 10 minutes, bump it up to 15. For lunch and dinner, give yourself at least 20 minutes. Why 20 minutes? That’s how long it takes the receptors and hormones in our stomachs to communicate with the brain and say “I’m full.” Don’t have the time? MAKE the time. Rearrange your home and work schedules to give yourself more time. Get your family and coworkers involved too!
2. Eat slowly. During these meals, make sure you are thoroughly chewing and savoring each bite. Eat with all of your senses! Enjoy the smell, taste, texture, etc of your food.
3. Eat stress-free. When we’re stressed out and we eat a meal, it doesn’t matter if it is the healthiest meal in the world, our bodies will not absorb those nutrients properly. In a stressed state, the body puts digestion on pause. And if your body isn’t digesting the food you’re eating, what happens? Acid reflux, bloating, stomach pain, the list goes on and on. Here are a few tips on eating stress-free:
   1. Take 10 deep breaths before you eat.
   2. Eat with no distractions or stressful external stimuli – no work, no TV, etc.
   3. Focus on the meal in front of you and be grateful for it (eat with all the senses.)
4. Eat for energy and satiety, rather than comfort or fullness. Remember, you want to be at about a 7 on the fullness scale. When you’re done eating, make a physical gesture that your meal is complete by pushing your plate away, putting a napkin over it, or crossing your silverware. If you’re eating with other people, state out loud that you are full or done.

Implementing these action steps will make your eating experience much more pleasant, allow your body to more efficiently digest and assimilate nutrients, and prevent you from making some “hanger”-fueled choices, such as yelling at a spouse for no reason or eating an entire jar of olives. When you’re in tune with these signals and you honor your body by feeding it when it’s hungry and stopping before you feel overly full, you’re showing your body self-love. This will pay off when you do begin to start looking at WHAT you’re eating and making some changes to your diet. You’ll notice that the body will respond better and perhaps quicker than usual to certain dietary changes.

My Fitness Journey

Hello all, welcome back!

Someone had suggested I speak a little bit more about my own personal fitness journey that I have been on since 2005. I have to start off by saying my first inspiration from the fitness world came from my father. I can remember growing up in our small apartment in Hoboken, NJ. In the corner of the master bed room he had one of those all in one gym stations. It was a flat bench that could raise up for incline with dip handles behind it. It even had a cable attachment for lat pulls and leg extensions in the front of it. He was a true mans man at the time. Metallica blasting, no shirt on, constantly going over to the mirror to check his “gains.” He even had a camcorder and started filming his workouts. This was WAY before Facebook and Instagram. The energy in that tiny bedroom was infectious. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was hooked. I wanted to feel like that! I wanted to lift heavy weights and build a huge chest! However, I came to realize in my early teen, overweight years that it was not as easy as it looked. “You mean to tell me one day of bench press won’t give me the chiseled pecs I’m looking for?” “Is it supposed to be this difficult to lift 15 pounds?” “What is this soreness!?” Needless to say I didn’t last very long with that mindset. I went through the rest of my teenage years including high school very quiet, self conscious, insecure, overweight, etc.

Fast forward to 2005, I just graduated high school and got a job at a local gym where I started out as a life guard for their swimming pool. I wasn’t even old enough to workout there without a chaperone. When I finally turned 18 they allowed me to workout by myself. This was my first time showing any consistency working out and boy, did my body adapt quickly. I saw and felt my chest getting bigger and stronger by the month, my arms were starting to show definition, my confidence was through the roof. It was not controlled, I was downright cocky. I also knew nothing about nutrition or how the body worked. This will come back later in the story.

So over the course of about 7 years working at this gym I ended up working in every department. I worked the front desk, I became and online certified trainer (which is a joke and a disservice to the fitness industry if I’m honest), I headed over to the sales department and even had my hand in the marketing department. At some point this gym I was at started to rent out space to a personal trainer trade school, this will also come back later. At around 21 years old I tore 2 ligaments (ligaments attach bone to bone) in my right ankle playing basketball. I had no health insurance, my uncle had to pay out of his own pocket for me to get an MRI. No health insurance meant to surgery, no rehab. My ankle is currently being held together by scar tissue. I had crutches and stayed off that ankle for months, testing it each month to see how it was healing. This was a dark time for me. Unable to work, I stayed home all day, every day taking prescription pain medication and eating all day long. Hello, weight gain and depression! As soon as I was able to start putting weight on that foot, I did and I returned to work against their wishes. I started to rehab myself, picking the brains of anyone that seemed like they knew what they were talking about. I wanted to play basketball again, I started to work on my cross over, slowly and painfully. I can remember still being on crutches, hobbling over to the bench press and getting in as many sets as I could during the 30 minute lunch break I had. The soreness had never felt so good.

As my ankle got closer to 100% I started to work with a personal trainer that free lanced at this gym. It changed my life. I had never been stronger and the education on lifting that I received from him is a huge part of what I apply to my business today. After working with him for over a year I eventually had to discontinue due to the fact I had decided to go to school to become an RMA (Registered Medical Assistant). I was working at the gym during the day and going to school at night. Finding time to workout became difficult and remember when I said diet would come back into this story? Well, here it comes.

Your body will talk to you. It will send you signs that something is not right. I never put much thought into what I was eating or how I was living. So that meant late night diner trips after spending a few hours at a local bar. There is about 3 different fast food chains within a 1 mile radius of my town, I even had picked up smoking cigarettes! I had asthma, I literally could not leave my house without a pack of tums due to acid reflex and I was taking 4 – 8 Advil every single day due to stress headaches. Side note, pain medications do not work for stress headaches. I felt horrible every day, I was getting sick every few months. My wake up call came when I went to the doctor for a check up. My BMI told me I was obese, he wanted me to fill prescriptions for a daily asthma inhaler (I had only had an emergency pump to this point), he wanted me to see an orthopedist for all of the pain I was in (my body aches were terrible when I was sick) and a neurologist for my head aches. I did none of what he asked. I refused to accept this as my new life. I stopped smoking and got my obese @$$ on a treadmill for my heart and lung health. I changed my diet which amazingly stopped my antacid use and I quit my job, I woke up the very next day headache free. I also started taking zinc to help boost my immune system. Thanks, doc.

From that point on I never looked back. I had realized that between rehabbing my own injury, putting myself through school (and graduating) and doing an complete 180 with my health that I could do anything I put my mind to. Anything. So, that’s what I have been doing ever since. From owning a dance studio to driving trains for the HBLR. Putting myself back through school to become the best fitness professional I could be. The school I am referring to of course just so happened to be the personal trainer school that was located inside of the gym I started working at when I was 17. Now if that’s not full circle then I don’t know what is! The Fitness Academy will be turning 1 year old in few months and none of this would have been possible if not for all the pain I had to endure both physically, mentally and a  whole slue of other wild stories not mentioned in this blog.

So, that’s my story, or at least part of it. The message behind it? Embrace your pain, never fear change and believe in yourself. Let your heart lead you, it’s way smarter than your brain.

Peace & Love,

~ Matt G.

The Fitness Academy, LLC

If you’re seeking change in your life and need help to get started feel free to reach out to me. Change starts within the mind and your first session is always on me!

FitnessAcademyNJ@Gmail.com

@FitnessAcademyNJ on Instagram

201.983.3510 (call/text)

Get Out Of Your Own Way!

All too often potential clients will sit in front of me during their free consolation and tell me about how they feel on a daily basis both physically and mentally. How they feel tired all the time and can even acknowledge that they just don’t care enough to be active on a weekly basis (never mind a daily basis). I’m here to tell you to get out of your own way before your pity party becomes a hospital visit or another trip to the pharmacy to pick up your insulin or worst of all a funeral. Fitness professionals are in the business of health care prevention. You know somewhere in the back of your mind you “need to do this” because I hear it all the time. Yet, you still can’t commit. You still can’t get yourself to love yourself enough to take care of yourself.

Basically one of the only things I retained from my 3rd grade teacher was this simple quote; “It’s easy to be bad, it’s hard to be good.” Such a light bulb moment for me even at such a young age. I realized this quote extends itself to every single area of life. Will you choose consequences or rewards? It’s easy to be lazy and eat whatever you want, their will be consequences to this life style and no rewards. It’s hard to dedicate your efforts to bettering yourself through nutrition and exercise. But the rewards, I promise you, will blow your mind.

You will struggle, get over it! This society tells us everything can be done with a quick fix; a magic pill, a simple juice diet, a 30 day workout plan and it’s all good. Well, I call B.S. you need to change your lifestyle and 30 days will only be the beginning. Believe me when I say it’s okay to struggle because everyone does. It’s totally normal, I still struggle to this day. Why? Because it’s easy to be bad and it’s hard to be good. You show me someone who says they don’t enjoy pizza and cupcakes and I’ll show you a liar. Here is where the amazing part happens. When you dedicate yourself to becoming the best version of yourself you will either no longer crave foods that you know negatively affect your body or if you decide you still do want to indulge in pizza and cupcakes, you can! Because there is no point in driving yourself crazy feeling like you can’t enjoy any of the foods you are used to eating. The trick is being smart about when you allow yourself to indulge.

So, to wrap this up. No, nothing about this will be easy, accept it. “Nothing worth having comes easy.” Just repeat that to yourself until it sticks. If you feel totally lost and don’t know where to begin, find yourself a fitness professional and let them lead you. I didn’t do it on my own and you don’t have to do it alone either. One day at a time. Since it may takes months or years (yes, years) for you still find a steady stride don’t beat yourself up and think you’ve ruined all of your progress because you had a bad meal, day or even week. Life is hard and a lot of us turn to food for instant satisfaction. It’s okay in the beginning, just keep your eyes on the prize and get back on the horse ASAP!

Sending much love and peace your way,

~ The Fitness Academy

Schedule your free 90 min consolation today!

E-mail – FitnessAcademyNJ@Gmail.com

Or call/text Matt at 201.983.3510

Overcoming Depression and Anxiety

Hello again and welcome back,

So, it’s 2018 and words like depression and anxiety get used so often we have become numb to the true meaning of these words and the impact they have on our lives. Fun fact I want you to think about as you continue to read along; The only time an animal (monkey, lion, elephant, even your house cat/dog, etc) feels stress or anxiety is when it becomes prey. An animal does not sit there and stress over the present day, the future or the past. It just lives its life as each day passes by. So, why do we allow our brains to completely take over and cause us unnecessary stress, anxiety and depression? Do we truly know what these words actually represent? Or are we just victims of the media and a society that constantly tells us every time we turn on the TV that we have depression and anxiety and with this pill all your worries and troubles magically disappear!

Depression – “Feelings of severe despondency and dejection.”

Anxiety – “A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.”

Stress – “State of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.”

Let me be clear by stating, I am not saying you should never feel these emotions. I’m simply saying you have more control over them than you think. Look at it this way, when you were younger you spent hours with teachers or coaches to master a craft, whether it be writing and spelling or dribbling a basketball. The more you practiced, the better you got. Arguably, the muscle of the mind is stronger than any muscle in the body and we’ve all heard of muscle memory. So, when you constantly live in a state of depression or anxiety you are actually “practicing” how to be depressed and anxious!

So, first things first. Acknowledge and accept that your subconscious is incredibly powerful and this is where the thinking begins. This is where, on your Sunday afternoon you start to feel uneasy and nervous that Monday is coming and it’s back to work for the week at a job you’re not in love with. Before you know it it’s 2:00 in the morning and your counting how many hours you have left before you have to be up and ready to start your day. I believe life and the mind is like a very delicate day of fishing. It’s all about balance, knowing when to fight and take action, and when to relax and not try to control everything. Sound complicated? Well, that’s because it is. I love old cliche sayings because they have been around forever and they almost always hold true, so in this case I will say, “Nothing worth having comes easy.”

Alright, you have now accepted, acknowledged and shown respect to your subconscious. That’s step one, treat your subconscious as if it’s another entity living within your being. Sounds crazy, I know. What’s next? Practice, practice, practice! Here is a method I have used with some clients in the past; write down a list of all the things in your life that cause you any feelings of negativity. Then, write down another list on a separate piece of paper of all the things in your life that bring happiness to your life. The first list you acknowledge and accept that these are areas of your life that you are working on. It will take time but you will overcome all of these things that you feel are weighing you down. Now take that first list and shove it in a drawer somewhere, we’ll get back to it. The second list of happiness you carry around with you everywhere you go. Anytime you feel any negative energy or sadness coming over you, take that list out and give it a look over. Spending time on each one to feel the joy it brings you when you’re doing it. Show gratitude for each and every one. This is just one technique to rewiring your brain for positivity. Now, as for that second list. As you continue to work to improve your life for the better, once you feel you have overcome any one of those hurdles you can now cross it off of your “negative” list. This will give you a sense of accomplishment which is huge for your subconscious to acknowledge and accept. Do you see how we have flipped the dynamics. We are no longer allowing the subconscious to dictate towards us, giving us things that we need to register and deal with. Now we are creating things for the subconscious to acknowledge. This will in-turn cause the subconscious to expect positive things to happen in our every day lives.

Crawl before you walk. This is just one method I give my clients. If you would like to know more or go into further detail feel free to reach out to me at FitnessAcademyNJ@gmail.com

Follow me on social media @FitnessAcademyNJ (Instagram)

To get the full effect, you can always schedule your complimentary session with me at The Fitness Academy.

Just call or text 201.983.3510 or email at FitnessAcademyNJ@gmail.com

Peace & Love,

~Matt G.