When was the last time you were truly hungry? Truly hungry in the sense of a growling tummy, so ravenous you could eat someone’s arm….I can bet that there are not too many people reading this who could attest to that kind of hunger. In fact, today we are so fed up it is ridiculous. By fed up I mean we are eating more than ever before. As a nation and as a race (human) we are disturbingly fat and unhealthy generally speaking.

As a Personal Trainer the vast majority of my clients want to lose weight. I have worked with countless people over the years and had a lot of amazing success with clients losing anywhere from 5kg to 60kg. The one thing that each of those people have had in common is that they have had to firstly change their mindset and then change their eating habits. The exercise part of the equation obviously factors in as well however, that believe it or not is the easy part! Food is such an emotional thing for many of us. We are fed (nurtured) from day one. Then as we get a little older we bribe our parents for ‘treats’ in return for good behaviour. We are given ‘treats’ for being good and because we didn’t misbehave or because we are sad or because we fell off our bike etc. This is where it starts and it continues on into adult life and we end up ‘Fed Up’ or in other words FAT.

I recently had a client complain that she is always so hungry. The menu suggestions I had offered her which were quite different and far more nutritious to that which she had been initially eating were not satisfying enough for her. When I accidently spied this person eating in a fast food outlet at around the same time as the comment, I knew there was more to the hungry tale than meets the eye. I feel the problem for many is that we are creatures of habit and addicted if you like to food, particularly junk food. The habit becomes difficult to break however definitely not impossible. The place it has to start is in your head. Get your mindset switched on and your body will follow. If you want something bad enough you can and will make it happen. Getting into shape is a great example. Anyone can change his/her own body no matter what shape but it has to start with the place between your ears.

Your body reflects everything you do to it. You are what you eat is a very true saying. If you eat crap, I’m afraid you will look and feel like crap. If you eat well, and by well I mean a healthy balanced nutritious diet then guess what? It’s not rocket science really. It is more the habitual ritual of eating because it is filling a space which is more often an emotional, bored or restless space rather than retraining yourself to eat to fuel your amazing machine not to be Fed Up.