IFS and Fullness Cues: Why Our Parts Keep Eating and How to Help Them Stop

Two weeks ago, I asked, are you hungry?  Today, I'm asking, are you full? And just like last week, that question may be really easy to answer, or it may be more difficult. But honestly, knowing you're full isn't usually the problem, is it?  For most people--myself included--the problem isn't that you don't realize you're full.  It's knowing you're full and continuing to eat anyway. Right???  And then you end up eating to the point of feeling too full, stuffed.  Sometimes sick.  Which often sets off a cascade of criticism from your parts.  "How could you do this?  What's wrong with you?  Why can't you control yourself with food?" Eating past your fullness cues feels terrible both physically and emotionally.  And yet it's something that so many of us do a LOT. Why is that? As with anything involving food, it's not a simple answer.  Tuning into our bodies and eating in ways that are nurturing and satisfying is complicated.  But it's NOT impossible.   I've found that there are six different reasons for eating past our hunger cues, and we're talking about them all on this week's podcast.   Eating past the point of fullness can be the result of physical and emotional factors.  And when I say emotional factors, I'm referring to parts (of course!).  The two most common physical factors are:   Eating with too many distractions Staring eating when you're too hungry Our parts can also talk us into continuing eating despite feeling full.  Why would they do that?  For protection, of course, and because of the lessons that they've learned about food and eating.  I've noticed four different types or categories of parts that tend to lead people to surpass their fullness cues, and those are:   Our dieting parts trigger our overeating parts (i.e. "I'm eating all of this because the diet starts tomorrow") We have parts that are concerned about food waste (i.e. they were in the "Clean Plate Club") Some of our parts don't want to let go of food as a coping mechanism We have parts that are truly enjoying eating--and that's ok On this week's podcast, we go into detail about all of the above factors, and we discuss what to do about them.  We talk about incorporating mindful eating--in a very realistic way--as well as how to respond to the parts of you that want you to keep eating.  And, as I always try to do, I normalize this behavior because sometimes overdoing it with food is absolutely ok!    Freebies: Eating Parts Cheat Sheet Diets Don't Work Mini-Course