It’s Not About the Food on Your Plate

Have you ever noticed that when you’re hungry, all you want to eat is junk food? Or that if your boss yells at you, or if your boyfriend or girlfriend dumps you, or if the weather gets humid and sticky – suddenly everything in the whole world seems to scream out “chocolate cake!” While it may seem like our appetite is very random and unpredictable, there are actually some very specific reasons why this occurs. Understanding these reasons can help us to stop falling for cravings that aren’t fueling our body and instead use them as a way to find out what we really need in our lives more than anything else: Primary Food.

Primary Food is NOT the food on your plate. 

The first kind of food that comes to mind is the stuff we eat. But primary food is not about what you put in your body. Primary food are the things that make you feel connected, happy, motivated and alive.

Primary food has nothing to do with what you eat; it’s the things that feed your soul, whatever those things may be (and they might surprise you). They could include spending time with friends or family; enjoying a hobby like making music or painting; getting outside for a walk or run; playing sports; anything else that makes life worth living. Primary food also includes your career and finances (including time management), spirituality (however spirituality is defined for you), relationships, physical activity and your home environment.

Secondary Food is the food on your plate.

Secondary food is the actual food you eat and is a result of the primary food you consume. Secondary food is fun and fueling. However, if it becomes a substitute for primary food and you aren’t hungry anymore, then it’s not serving you as fuel, fun, or both. More on that further in the article.

Relationship of primary and secondary food.

When we are starved for primary food, we are more likely to crave it in the form of secondary food. When you’re starving, you don’t care if your primary source is an apple or a McDonald’s hamburger—you just want calories.

Here are some signs that you might be hungry for primary food:

●   You can’t get enough of the “good” stuff. You eat until your stomach hurts and then spend then continue to look into the fridge longingly.

●   You’re eating unbalanced. Every time something goes wrong, you go straight back to unbalanced eating like bingeing or grabbing fast food because “your body needs it right now.”

●   Your cravings are out of control. Every time someone mentions a specific food item—or even just sounds like they might have eaten something delicious recently—you get an intense urge to eat whatever it is immediately.

When you are starved for primary food, you will often crave it in the form of secondary food. Succinctly, the primary food we consume, directly affects what is on our plate (our secondary food).

Half Belly Health is committed to providing you with the right tools to hit your health goals NOW and MAINTAIN for the rest of your life. We advocate and teach a holistic approach to nutrition that helps you strike the perfect balance between primary and secondary food consumption for effective and simple weight management. We would love to chat with you about your journey, needs, and goals in one of our FREE health consults. Schedule a time here.