What does it mean to "know why you're eating?"
The practice is about:
Pausing before you eat, to be present with your actions and motivations.
Observing your intentions for eating.
Asking yourself:
Are you eating for biological needs?
Are you eating for psychological needs?
Is this choice bringing you more joy and ease?
Accepting the motivation, whatever it is.
Awareness-building is the main goal of this practice. After you check in with yourself honestly, whatever next choice you make is ok.
Why and How to Practice
Eating is primal.
In the life of a human, eating is one of the few non-negotiables.
We move, socialize, sleep, and eat. The rest is details.
We eat for the obvious (awesome) reasons. Obviously, food is fuel. Eating is comforting, settling, energizing, engaging and fun.
And we sometimes eat for less obvious, more subconscious reasons. Like fear, anxiety, stress, boredom or procrastination.
No matter what the underlying motivation is, the key point is: there's a reason. If you understand the deeper reasoning, every action makes sense.
Every action is an attempt to solve a problem.
And understanding the underlying rationale makes changing that action easier.
We have both biological and psychological appetites.
Humans eat for two primary reasons:
biological needs (such as maintaining or physical functioning)
psychological needs (such as after an exciting or stressful event)
Both are legitimate and necessary needs.
Rather than diminishing or restricting any particular reason for eating, this practice is about simply becoming more aware.
Without a right or wrong answer, what's driving you to eat?
Whether biologically or psychologically driven, what problem are your actions solving for you?
Are you eating for biological needs?
Eating for biological needs means eating according to hunger and appetite signals.
For example, physical hunger can feel like:
physical emptiness in your stomach
low energy or fatigue
feeling cold or unclear thinking
feeling emotionally anxious or irritable from hunger (hangry)
Being clued in to the details of what biological hunger feels like requires listening to your body.
It's a complex art to learn to listen.
It’s not always clear and easy. The same signals that feel like hunger could actually be something else.
For example, hunger can feel very similar to signals of stress, exercise, or fatigue from lack of sleep.
In those cases, eating may not be the best action to satisfy those needs (In those cases, maybe you could use a different type of R&R.)
How do you know?
To deepen your skills at reading body signals and identifying hunger, you can practice asking yourself questions.
Do your hunger signals persist and intensify, or fade away?
Try to wait and notice what happens. Then decide what to do next.
Would you expect to be feeling hunger right now?
If the feeling seems to be out of whack with what you would normally expect, assess your bigger picture of deep health.
Have you been eating appropriate nutrients, at appropriate times for you?
Are you hydrated?
Have you been moving regularly?
Have you been sleeping regularly?
How are your relationships?
Have you made any major changes in your environment or routine lately?
There's a lot to consider.
You have a lot of tools within reach to change the way you feel. Food is only one of those tools (a powerful one). It takes time, practice, and persistence to learn to use it wisely as the best response for your body's needs.