Every so often, you want to be able to eat whatever you want, whenever you want. But most of the time, you are going to want to choose your food and the amount you eat with these three questions in mind:
1. How much energy have you expended during the day? If you’ve walked for an hour that day, you can eat more. If you’ve decided to take it easy, it’s a good idea to adjust accordingly.
2. How hungry are you? You can tune into your physical hunger signals and eat when your body needs fuel and not just when your emotional state compels you to get a food fix.
3. What is your body telling you would taste good right now? Consider the possibility that your body knows what it needs and learn to be responsive to that information.
By paying attention to these three factors, you can help restore your healthy relationship to food and counterbalance food cravings that lead to both binging and starving.