It seems like an easy enough question to ask yourself, but many of us don’t know what hunger is. There was probably a time when you were a child when you knew exactly when you were hungry. Your stomach would growl, and you’d go into the kitchen to ask when dinner would be ready. You were too young to make a snack yourself, so you’d go play outside until it was time to eat. By the time dinner was on the table, you were hungry and food tasted good.

So what happened? I sometimes go into a panic when I realize I am away from home without a snack when I start to feel the slightest bit of hunger build during the afternoon. Ironically I am usually surrounded by food when this happens – grocery stores, smoothie places, restaurants. A little trial and error has taught me that hunger is not an emergency. There are people all over the world who go more than 3-4 hours between meals (and sadly, much longer) and their stomachs growl and they don’t peel over in misery. Sometimes I have to remind myself of this when I am agonizing over the decision to have a snack before dinner and risk spoiling my appetite or just get hungrier.

One of my pet peeves is when recipes claim “to keep you full until lunch.” I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t want to be full when it’s time for lunch! After a few years of eating every 3 hours because the clock told me to, I lost touch with my hunger cues. I forgot what it was like for my stomach to growl! (And this does really happen to people who never let themselves get hungry). But now I have learned that food really does taste so much better when I’ve let hunger build. There’s a window of time between a lightly growling stomach and feeling ravenous where I need to eat or I will risk overeating to compensate from being too hungry, but it’s a pretty big window and I’ve learned to feel for it. Once my stomach feels like it could growl, I like to wait 30 minutes to an hour before I actually sit down and eat. At that point lunch has a purpose, and food tastes better. I realize everyone doesn’t always have a choice when they eat, but when you do have a choice, try to eat when your stomach wants you to.

Over the years I have accumulated a few tips about hunger that I’ve found useful to remind myself before I chow down:

1) If you have to ask yourself if you’re hungry, you’re probably not. It’s so easy to confuse hunger with boredom, digestion status, and dehydration that sometimes I catch myself asking myself if I am really hungry or not. I have come to the conclusion that if I have to ask, I am not really hungry. Usually this is my cue to go drink some water! If you are really hungry, you’ll know right away.

2) Do ALL foods sound appealing? (Hint: not just the sweet ones!) I read once that if you need to check and see if you are truly hungry or not, ask yourself if a can of green beans sounds appealing (assuming you do actually like green beans). A person who is hungry will accept the beans without thinking twice. A can of beans isn’t the most appealing of foods in the first place, which is why it works nicely as a test. Sometimes I find I’m just in the mood for a LaraBar or yogurt and cereal, but not for a salad. This is a sign that I’m not really hungry – just bored.

3) Do you feel empty inside? Estela of The Weekly Bite turned me on to this pointer. Or I guess I should say she reminded me about emptiness. Sometimes my stomach is literally still full of a big lunch but I feel “hungry” at the top of my stomach. I sometimes wonder if this is this point of my stomach going from “full” to “neutral” as my it empties of my last meal. Although I can still sense food in my stomach, something tells me it’s time think about filling it back up. Estella pointed out that when you are hungry you will feel empty. Otherwise, it’s probably thirst, boredom, etc.

Hunger shouldn’t be complicated, so let’s stop making it so!