How to Feel Emotionally SATISFIED from Food | PLUS What To Do If Something Messes with Your HUNGER? 

Who else has an Abbey monologue in their head when they make food? Like my breakfast this morning. I was like “we’ve got some delicious banana providing carbs and fiber, some yummy Greek yogurt with lots of protein, and those walnuts round everything out with some fat and crunch. Yum!”

yessss your videos have helped me so much in my ED recovery journey!!!

I really love the idea of intuitive eating but there’s a problem with satisfaction. Many of us have been prescribed a special diet due to our chronic physical condition, so even though I imagine: yes, I want chips, but I don’t want to have stomach pain so I end up eating rice cakes. So in the end I’m not truly satisfied but at least I have no pain. I am sure many people can relate.

Abbey, as a licensed mental health therapist that integrates nutrition when discussing mental health, I can’t thank you enough for your professionalism on this platform! Especially the fact that you have a colleague review your content. So ethically responsible! It warms my heart so thank you 🤗

I've been practicing intuitive eating since I binged your series on it and my brother laughed at me because I was just standing there trying to FEEL if I was hungry and i looked so silly 🤣 worth it though

I am mostly recovered from a binge eating disorder and part of intuitive eating for me has been allowing myself both to eat small amounts when I'm not very hungry, and to let myself enjoy huge plates of food when I am very hungry. Eating too little can trigger fear of restriction, which can cause a relapse, and eating too much can trigger fear of relapse... Which can cause a relapse 🙄 So trying to be kind to myself has been such a huge help.

Satisfaction is what helps me not eat fast food. It may be quick but when I compare it to something quick, tasty and ultimately healthier that I can make at home fast food becomes less appealing. Until I started reframing food choices like this, fast food and lokey binging was a revolving door and these videos certainly helped.

Eating foods that you enjoy is such a simple and powerful message. In my parents quest to force me to always eat everything on my plate, I stopped thinking about whether or not i liked a food, because i had to eat it anyway. Now that I'm really asking if i enjoy something and savouring the flavours, there are so many foods that i don't actually like and have just been eating because i always have! These range from salted crisps to spinach. But I'm also discovering foods that i do love, like tomatoes, that I have just been avoiding because i remember not liking them as a child as was relieved not to have to eat them! I feel like my whole pallete is different now!

Could you do a video on set point? How do you know if your weight is healthy? I’m curious to know what factors you use to determine whether someone has a healthy body and relationship with food.

Something that I also find helpful, is eating outside. There is something about eating in nature that makes you slow down, and enjoy the experience. ❤️ I try and eat outside for all meals when the weather is nice

These videos have helped me so much with tuning in with my natural hunger cues, satisfaction with my meals and building a positive/neutral relationship with food

Listening to this reminds me of when I was a preschool teacher, lunch was always short for these little ones and I always felt we were rushing them to eat. So I finally started letting them eat a few minutes ahead of the scheduled lunch time. They are a very social bunch so they want to talk to each other as they enjoy their meal. Maybe we start teaching them to hurry through meals at such a young age.🤔

Hi abbey. I just wanted to say I love your channel. Everyone has always told me to count calories. When I do this I always end up bingeing. When I switched to just worrying about the quality of food I ate and not worrying about the calories life became much better. I’m recovering and getting better every day. Thanks for all your help

You changed my relationship with food, now life is so much easier. Big thanks 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Abbey my gosh, love you and your content so much! Every time I watch one of your Intuitive Eating videos, I always feel so at peace with food. Food is sustenance AND pleasure!

These videos help me so much as someone who has suffered with an ED! Thank you for giving us free advice and endless knowledge about nutrition.

Abbey, you are my only coffee break friend 😅 I've started watching your videos over and over again post workout because you make me feel less lonely...I love your voice, your content and your way of dealing with RU-vidrs who are a bit 'bananas' about dieting...

Abbey, thank you, SO MUCH! This book changed my life. The freedom is indescribable. Intuitive eating is a daily practice, getting easier over time. Living with a new roommate whose eating patterns are very triggering. Your videos are a welcome reminder that food no longer has power over me. Grateful for your content.

I love these videos so much they've really helped me so much. Over about a year and a half span of time I had a really hard time with the cycle of binge eating then trying to go on an extreme diet then repeat. This cycle lead to me to gaining about 100 pounds in that time. It really took a toll on my self esteem. Sense watching these videos on intuitive eating and doing some other research I've been able to stop that cycle and and get to a point were I'm able to maintain my weight and now I'm in a place were I feel in control of my eating habits and feel I can make small sustainable changes to my diet to get to a healthier weight. Thank you so much for the amazing content.

abbey you are a goddess!! i’m just starting grad school for dietetics and just completed my undergrad in dietetics at BU! your channel is so inspiring to me (as a nutrition youtuber just starting out)! was so happy when i found your page sharing REAL nutrition content!

If you don’t make your food choices every day with Abby’s advice in your head are you even a fan?

It’s gonna be a year in July since I’ve been battling my eating disorder: AFRID. Living in a household that shakes every eating choice I make, on top of not having a safe space to make my own food w/o getting yelled @, I have resorted to eating out a lot (this was before the pandemic mainly). Seeing this video made me cry since this is exactly what I’ve been working on for over a year now w/ my nutritionist. Thank you Abbey for making this video. It means the world to me that another dietician is saying the same thing and agreeing w/ this as well. 😭❤️

imo the reminder that we can have some more food later helps a lot w satisfaction. what helps me is to just think "you can have this now, but you don't have to eat so much of it that you feel sick. it's also gonna be there later, slow down." like if i crave gummies, i will eat a handful, and i will be mindful to eat it slowly. i find that rly enjoyable and i actually feel much better than binging on the sweets or not getting any at all.

How do you not have a million subscribers?! Your research, personality, warmth and intellect is amazing. Thank you, Abbey!!

hi abbey! can u react to one of ashley wicka’s what i eat in a days? she’s a vegan teen (like me) and i use a lot of her recipes so i wanted to know what you think about her diet!

this is a great video, thank you Abbey :) I used to feel like my options were either to eat anything I wanted (lots of refined carbs and "junk food" - not bad foods of course, but that was all I would eat) OR to have the "self control" to not eat because I felt that healthier options could never truly satisfy me emotionally/mentally. In the past year I've actually been able to find so many foods that satisfy cravings and leave me feeling satisfied without feeling overly full. I started having a lot of meals and snacks with a combination of fat and protein, not just carbs, and I felt satiated in a way that just carbohydrates never made me feel. the longer I went without restricting and then binging on foods that made me feel physically and emotionally terrible afterwards, the less I actually craved them, and it made me feel so much more in control of myself! in fact, it really helped me get over certain food fears, and the fear of casually having "junk food" in the house because I felt that I was able to just have enough to satisfy myself, and then stop. I'm definitely still struggling with my ED, but it has been really helpful to listen to what my body wants - to be able to eat a meal, be satisfied, and not want to continuously eat until I feel terrible about myself.

Such an important video. From someone who has struggled with binge eating in the past, this has been a huge goal of mine throughout my own journey. Haven't had a binge in 16 months and I'm down 30 pounds in a healthy way!

Abby, I would just like to thank you for all the amazing content you provide us with videos. You inspire me, and really changed the way I see food and how much I enjoy it. I'm a huge fan! Love from Brazil

The best video on this channel! Such a beautiful, thoughtful and helpful content with concrete excecises❤

As a dietetics student, your videos provide me so much guidance for interactions with future patients 🙏🏼❤️

I love this series so much and this episode, in particular, has such great practical advice and tips! Since watching this series, I've stopped judging myself so harshly and stressing over every single thing I purchase at the grocery store and instead buy things that I genuinely enjoy eating. My food waste has gone done tremendously and I've noticed that I enjoy eating my meals more. Thank you so much for doing this series!

this sweater is so cute and so is the background and lighting i just!!!! *chefs kiss*

I can’t thank you enough for this series! It is taking time for my previously restrictive mentality to transition to intuitive eating, but as I am practicing I am getting freedom.

I gained 50lbs in 2 months on prednisone. It was very frustrating and hard (especially after having so much previous success with intuitive eating) but my favorite thing to tell people was "I'd rather be fat than sick" or "there are worse things i could be than fat" i mean....who could argue with that?

Thank you so much for all your videos. It must be so much work. Your ability to translate the research, and do all the literature reviews is incredible (talking about all your videos, not only intuitive eating.)

it took me so long to realize that even though i've avoided going back down the road of having an eating disorder, i definitely still have disordered eating habits. i often finish a plate after feeling full so i'm not being wasteful, and, like my mom says, "eat with my eyes" and take too much to begin with. i'm trying to get better at intuitive eating, listening to my body, and being mindful to avoid boredom eating every day. thank you for making these helpful videos! 💖

Always dropping the knowledge!

Sometimes I ask myself what I would actually like to eat and I realize there isn't anything I want. But I think that is become of something deeper, I just don't know what

I like coming up with different HCC while preparing my meal. The mental aspect to be creative while also thinking about what tastes, textures, etc go together is one way I build satisfaction before even eating and makes me enjoy the experience even more.

This video is excellent! I’ve watched it twice today. You’ve helped me to learn so much about myself and what I want to achieve. Thank you Abbey. You’re amazing ❤️

I love her, she is such an inspiration and listening to her makes me feel safe and comforted 🥰

Loved how timely and informative this was, Abbey! Especially during this time when people who already have disordered eating patterns and unhealthy relationship with food are in quarantine, it's easier to just give in to messed up hunger cues and binge on a lot of food that aren't necessarily good for both my physical and mental state. Thank you for this! I hope you're safe, healthy, and happy. 💖

Thank you so much Abbey! You are helping so many people including me ❤️ keep up with the awesome work 🥰

Thank you for this very helpful video! I feel like intuitive eating is the way to go for me.

Thanks so much for this - it is so true we don't take enough time to really savour and enjoy our food. Many years ago I lived in Paris and the French really have a wonderful attitude - meal times are seen as special and the food is really to be savoured and enjoyed. We should all be more French!

This was a really amazing video abbey. Thank you so much

I absolutely love your videos, they are so much fun but also so informative. Love from Portugal!!! :)

never been so early lol Love you and your content Abbey!

Love your great points about the satisfaction factor, so important!

You are brilliant! I feel such a sense of freedom just listening to this.

this!!!!!!! this is why I started my channel. I am a soon to be registered dietitian (just gotta take my test but did all my training) and I am working on a series talking about the BASICS of HAES, Intuitive Eating, fat acceptance, body image, in a thoughtful and nuanced way. And, I am doing this while in recovery and in a fat body to give you my perspective and knowledge! This is pumping me up!

I wanted to share my first IE win! I have been scheduling meals, incorporating gentle nutrition, and trying to learn my fullness and hunger cues after years of anorexia and orthorexia. Yesterday I treated myself to Krispy Kreme for dessert. Usually after a dessert like that I spend the next day ravenous and craving high sugar foods, bingeing, and feeling guilty. I understand now that that was my bodies way of begging for calories when it saw they were available. This is the first time that I woke up in the morning and nothing sounded good and I wasn’t hungry until about 11 and I just really wanted a savory dish. I take that as my bodies way of telling me “you gave me a lot of calories and sugar yesterday, so I really don’t need anything right now to thrive.” Our bodies really are so smart and self-balancing when you give them the steering wheel!

Because of you I decided to do a dietitian study! Thank you for convincing me to follow my dream!❤

This series is amazing thanks so much Abbey!!!

I feel satisfaction in my tummy too, I could eat a big portion of a horrible meal and tummy would still feel empty until I ate some yummy stuff (this isn’t what I do though I just eat yummy meals!) xx

This is a great helpful continuation to the other video you made, “what to do if you never feel full” - thank you! I’m still struggling a lot of the time when I’m very hungry (and have the appetite) but can’t think of what I “really want” despite my best efforts. I’ll be first to acknowledge any possible mental blocks in the form of a restrictive mindset, but they are subconscious and most often I cannot find any answer to “what I truly want”, even theoretically!

You're a very good presenter/explainer (good elocution and tone and breakdown of information) :)

These videos are sooo important. So much good information.

Love this series! Keep up the great work

Love your video ❤this is just exactly how I been eating this past year and lost so much weigjt by just reaching for what I crave in each part of the day. Being happy after each meal is so important!

I’m looking forward to you going over gentle nutrition- this one I’ve found hard to get my head around and live in the middle - not all healthy or all junk!

This is so good and relevant. Thanks so much.

Brilliant talk... and funny! Thank You Abbey. :)

The one thing that really made me feel better, energized, and determined to reach my goals was Forwago. Thank you so much !!!

I'm French and I'm shook... Businessed _don't_ close at lunch time in America? I have a 1h30 break at work

Thank you so much for this video. I have to take lots of quetiapine/seroquel for bipolar disorder and it often feels like i'm full, and then all of a sudden super hungry. Some people tried to advice me saying things like "well, just eat less!". But it's not just a small craving for an extra snack, it's literally RAVENOUS hunger as if you've eaten nothing throughout the whole day. Throws me off my hunger cues a lot, i've been trying to get more protein into each meal but I'll try to up the healthy fats and fiber as well.

So many good points. Eating is a gift that we should value and taking the time to slow down and appreciate what is one our plate is key 🔑 Thank you for sharing some easy to follow tips. ❤️

Amazing video! I am on a diet right now and I've kept binging! Because I reach for the sweet things to satisfy my sweet tooth instead of truly listening to what my body actually wants! Also, I'm really lazy when it comes to cooking/eating so I eat foods that don't really satisfy me both physically and mentally. I really need to practice taking time with my food so I don't overeat and reach my goals! Thank you Abbey :)

Such great advice, thank you.

Listening to this description of all the ways food can be satisfying just gave me so many ideas of food to enjoy next

This video is literally mindblowing. I didnt consciously realize it but while I do really like spicy food and crunchy food that REALLY depends on the time of the day. In the morning I like food that doesnt take a lot of effort to chew and preferably something slightly sweet. Any other time of the day I prefer food that I have to chew but I never realized this o-o hmm our food preferences sure are bizarre.

So I was planning on having a huge breakfast this morning (I have a pretty clean and plant based diet so this can be exhausting sometimes) because I was really craving some heavy processed foods like Oreos and chocolate ice cream, in the morning while eating I followed your guidelines especially on focusing on enjoying the taste and the texture and really listening to what my body wanted, and then something cool happened: I kind of made a unity between the need of my body (like literally what my stomach was feeling at the moment) and the psychological satisfaction that I needed. I didn’t even finish the whole meal because I felt full and satisfied and I had no desire to keep on eating, like you said the first 5-10 bites were THE BEST and honestly I felt it was enough, this is such a beautiful feeling.

I really really like spicy soups and the way they make me feel. Both physically and mentally! I should eat them more often from now on :)

great as always abbey!

Another class of medication that can make you less hungry are ADHD medications. Ritalin and Adderall are notorious for this especially in kids, but in adults too. In kids on high doses, sometimes they even end up with stunted growth because they have so little desire to eat they don’t get proper nutrition. My mom taught special ed for years and many of her students had problems with this. Sometimes she could even tell the medication was wearing off because her student who had barely touched lunch was complaining of being hungry.

this video feels like a mantra :) thanks a lot it is great !

This is so helpful as I am on prednisone at the moment. Thank you for these videos!

One thing that I find difficult is that when I’m so in tune with the exact way I like x y or z food (the most pleasurable recipe/ preparation) it’s hard to convince myself that x y or z food is not “scarce” because I have to actually either make a serious effort to find a bakery or restaurant that makes it the way I want it or take the time to make it myself which is not always successful. Even if I find a restaurant that had a good item often the quality varies when I get it, so this adds to the “scare” mentality for me. I also find myself less prone to habituation than seems reasonable for my favorite foods (more frequently for sweets than savory foods). I’ve had the same breakfast every morning for the past 5 ish years (peanut butter on a banana), and about 5c popcorn for snack everyday for the last two. I can go weeks eating the same lunch before in sick of it. I can eat cookie dinner for weeks, which makes me scared to accept this as an intuitive way of eating because I have familial history of diabetes.

This video really helped! Thank you ❤️🥳

I'm a type 1 diabetic myself, yes I get hungry all the time. And i'm in recovery from Diabulimia ( an eating disorder which a lot of diabetics suffer from and not very common ). Your video is really helping me with recovery. Thanks Abbey! Lots of love from Indonesia❤

This is really brilliant! I realise I crave salty food in the evenings

I love your videos !! I want to be a dietitian when I grow up so you are very inspiring 💜

Abbey, I needed this video so much. I'm on some AD and mood stabilisers for my depression and anxiety and they have made a huge difference to my mood. But as a result I put on a lot of weight. Over the past year I've lost over 30 kilos due to diet and exercise but I'm often feeling hungry. So I always ask myself whether it's genuine hunger or medication driven.

This is such great advice! I really need your advice with feeding my kids based on this. I have an 11 and 13 year old who have recently decided to go vegan (I’ve been vegan for 11 years, long story, my kids have anaphylactic allergies so this switch for them wasn’t difficult and was completely their choice, I never pushed it). I worry everyday that they are not satisfied or getting enough nutrients with their meals. I’m very diligent about their protein, b12 etc. I would love a video about allergies, kids going vegan etc. You are the best! So glad I found your channel!

Your videos are always so informative!!

I love these videos. Could you do an updated video on intermittent fasting? Particularly for pcos?

Still listening, Abbey! Today I found myself using the phrase "food choices that aren't supportive of my blood sugar goals" rather than "eating like crap" (type II diabetic trying to keep up with lifestyle control)

Hi Abbey, since discovering your channel I have used it repeatedly to bring me back to earth when ever I feel the need to jump into yet another fad diet. Your sensible, smart, compassionate approach reminds me that it’s not the answer. Just wanted to say thanks from Australia.

Thinking what I want to eat changed the game for me. For example in the evening before going to sleep I think “what would I want to eat in the morning “ and then I wake up having a plan and knowing exactly what I want. Plus this way I always wake up excited to start the day and have a good breakfast.

I watch all your videos, some times more than once. Awesome information. Helped me a lot.💖💗🇨🇦😍😊♥️

I loooove all of this but my favorite thing is probably the fact that satisfaction IS SO SO SO IMPORTANT!! Diet culture teaches over and over in many different ways that taste, texture etc doesn't matter. I've been on quite the journey (the past decade or so) fighting through all this and just feeling all along that something wasn't quite right. Several years of calorie counting and bland, boring, "healthy" food. Then about 4ish years ago I switched to plant based eating. I started with high carb low fat, didn't stick to that very long because I dont like bland potatoes lol, or even seasoned but without salt= yuck!! Then shifted to the no oil, no salt and no sugar way and have been struggling through that until recently I simply GAVE UP because food had become SOOO unenjoyable!!! And riddled with guilt (because you supposedly can't break your food addiction without cutting out SOS foods). You can't even have a sprinkle of salt on your dang asparagus (without feeling guilty anyway, thats crazy!)! I couldn't think of any foods that sounded appealing to eat anymore, I was so sad and defeated. So based on Abbey and a couple others, I decided to essentially make up my own way of eating. I'm still mostly plant based (for ethics, environment and budget reasons) but I allow some oil for sauteing, etc and I'm not scared to use salt!! Veggies are delicious again! I eat seafood 1-2x a week too (yummm). I also allow myself "bad/treat" foods (they are just food!!) weekly. For example, I truuuuly adore donuts, they are probably my favorite food of all time (the good fresh ones from the local donut shop). So now I allow myself 1 per week when my office gets them on Fridays. I don't let the diet culture/disordered thoughts control me anymore with the little thoughts like "you could lose more weight this week if you skip it. you don't really need it this week. its so unhealthy. etc" I also dont obsess over them anymore because I know I can/will have them when I want! I've been eating when hungry and mostly stopping when I'm full, though thats tricky on a plant based diet because the fiber rich food is so filling but I'm figuring it out along the way. One last thing I wanted to say that is so toxic (which is discussed in Abbeys last review video of the high carb low fat no seasoning girl lol) is how some of these diets push eating such large volumes of low cal food with no seasoning specifically to discourage eating a large amount of it. Now that I see it, it's so easy to see it's disordered thinking. It is literally a tactic used by those with ED's and they promote it! Kinda scary. Glad to be out of that! Since I've started this a few weeks ago, nearly every one of my meals has been so satisfying and it feels so good! Plus I've stopped the weight gain and lost a couple pounds, but that can take as long as it needs to, I'm not obsessing over the scale anymore. Thank you Abbey specifically for the Oil Free Vegan video because that really planted that seed that there were other possibilities out there :)

I have decided to give a try to intuitive eating. As someone who is binging all the time, with history of bulimia, IBS, gastritis, very low income, and currently taking SSRI medication, I still find it helpful in many ways. But there is one thing I can't find a way around: eating intuitively on a very tight budget. I have to batch make things to save money, buy in bulk etc. If I want a banana, maybe I just don't have an access to it at the moment. When I binge, sometimes I do it on enormous quantities of plain cooked rice. And I can keep on eating like I have a black hole in my stomach! Lol I complained a lot here 🤣 Your videos helped me a lot to understand how to feel satisfied with less food 🌷

I struggle with an ED and when it used to be worse I went to a nutritionist and she said I can still eat a lot and maintain my weight (but keep in mind I was very underweight my bmi was a 16 something idk) and she told me “u can have pasta but just have the tomato instead of the cream so u can maintain ur weight” kinda indicating I’ll be fat with cream pasta which I realize now is so not true and she wasn’t good. And I needed to gain weight not maintain. Anyway I struggle less now but I still do

Loving it❤. I eat by numbers which can hurt😅

I appreciate ur videos so much I have been watching for about a month now and it’s not perfect but I’m trying to reshape my relationship with food. I’m so done with restricting myself so much and then binging so badly it was all for nothing. Thank you for this great video

I love your tips thank you for sharing.

Abbey, I’m a Canadian frontline worker, and I often work with our senior population, and those with chronic wounds could you do an episode about increased nutritional needs with those populations, I.e. increased fat/protein needs for wound healing/tissue repair, also can we talk about how meals in acute care centres don’t cater to these needs. I try to make sure that my patients are getting good calorifically dense foods, that are hopefully nutritious, and suited to their needs but it’s really hard with the food service systems in place.

Hey Abbey! I love your videos so much, they have helped me so much. I know obviously you are a dietitian so this isn’t exactly your field of expertise, but would you ever be willing to do a video or a series about different forms of exercise (cardio, HIIT, LISS etc) and how to exercise to lose fat and gain muscle?

Love this series!

Abbey, I had a weird interaction today that I'd love your input on. Someone asked if anyone had heard of intuitive eating, and someone else said it was specifically for people who have had an eating disorder. When a couple of people disagreed, they said "it is outright a way for people with eating disorders to help aid themselves out of their disorders. saying you eat intuitively when you haven't struggled is appropriating and misrepresenting." As someone who has not been a part of that community I removed myself from the conversation. This was the first comment of this nature that I had seen/heard on the subject, and was curious if this is a sentiment you've come up against before? Not sure if it is fodder for a video in the series, but would like to hear your thoughts, if you have time!