Katherine's Diet Tip #2: Fight the Beast

Hunger is pretty rational. It tells you when you need to eat and when you've had enough. Cravings, on the other hand, are cruel and capricious. They always demand more, more, more!

Are you hungry, or do you just "want" to eat? What's the difference? Well, frankly, it's the difference between being at a healthy weight or being overweight. So read carefully... Today is Katherine's Diet Tip #2 for your spring awakening and pound shedding. Follow me in The Georgetown Dish every Monday with proven strategies to lose weight, improve your health or just increase your knowledge about nutrition. Through spring, we'll be losing weight together, so you'll be ready for the warmer days to come!

It's important to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are no longer hungry. Hunger means your body is running low on energy. Cravings, on the other hand, live in your emotions. They push you toward food to quiet the turbulence within. People who are successful at losing weight have learned to distinguish true hunger from cravings. They listen to their stomachs, not their emotions.

Using a scale of zero to ten, rate your body's hunger signals before and after eating:

0 = Ravenous: Irrational... will eat anything, especially if it's fattening1 = Empty: Too hungry, a bit irrational2 = Hungry: Time to eat3 = Hungry-or-Light: You could eat or wait4 = Light: You should wait before eating5 = Comfortable: You are no longer hungry; you're satisfied, comfortable without feeling full6 = Slightly Uncomfortable: Just past comfortable7 = Uncomfortable8 = Full: Your waistband is tightening9 = Very Full: You have to loosen your belt10 = Overstuffed and miserable

If you listen to your body signals and regularly eat when your stomach registers a "2," and stop eating when it registers a "5," you will be at your healthiest and more likely to be at your best body weight.

Excerpted from "Diet Simple: 195 Mental Tricks, Substitutions, Habits & Inspirations" (Lifeline Press) by Katherine Tallmadge