People who I talk to about eating right almost invariably make the following statement: “But, I love eating. A lot.” Newsflash: So do I. A lot. There are times when I eat a lunch or dinner and I feel like I could eat more. Sometimes I will have a little Paleo-friendly dessert to cap off any lingering hunger I’m feeling (like some Paleo Thin Mints Sherry made this weekend) or, like at lunch on Tuesday, I just deal with it. I have more food in the refrigerator I could draw from, but I won’t. There are a few reasons for this.

1. I ate too fast and didn’t allow my body to catch up with the food I was putting in it. I ate enough food; a proper serving size. Within 20 minutes, the hunger subsided as I my body eventually felt full.
2. I was a little bored. All I had to do was do some reading, bury myself in some work, and all was good.

We control how we respond to hunger. It’s one of the most powerful feelings we experience, so I know it’s not easy to ignore. If you find that you ate enough and that maybe you just ate too fast or that you’re just bored, it’s easy to attack those issues with logic. If, after 30 minutes, I was still hungry, then I’d contemplate eating a handful of nuts or drinking a Paleo chocolate milk. However, it wasn’t the case, and I was able to go on without either one.

We all love eating. We’re hard wired for it. We need to learn how to live with those impulses and control the amount of food at each serving and the rate with which we eat. I’m not immune to the temptations and desires to eat more. I have just learned to work within those temptations (for the most part. I’m looking at you, potatoes).