4 Natural Ways To Feel Full

Hey Gorgeous!

It’s Nathalie here, the Founder and Holistic Nutritionist behind Glow Nutritional Consulting, and I got another awesome question in recently: “What commonly available foods will fill me up? I feel like I’m eating all day…”

So here are the tips I’d use, as a Holistic Nutritionist, to make sure I was feeling totally satiated without crazy appetite-suppressants.

1. Eat More Fiber

This can be more flaxseeds, chia seeds, fruits or veggies.

This is a super helpful tip because when you have enough fiber (and you’re drinking enough water), you’ll start to notice yourself feeling much more full. This is because, especially with flax and chia, the fiber gels up in your stomach and intestines and helps to alert your mind that “hello, we’re full in here!”

Adding some ground flax or chia seeds to smoothies, to porridge, to salads, or making chia pudding and/or making homemade bars or power balls are great ways to eat more of these. Here’s an awesome granola bar recipe from Oh She Glows that I totally stand behind. http://ohsheglows.com/2014/05/23/no-bake-almond-joy-granola-bars/

I make bars like these just without heating anything, and they end up delish. I hope that helps to give you an idea of the types of ingredients a good bar or ball recipe will include!

2. Drink More Water

Water is SO important not only for gelling up fiber as I said above, but for making sure you’re not confusing hunger signals with thirst signals (which is super easy to do).

Christopher (my fiance) was always really good at reminding me when I felt fridge-rampagey during Nutrition School, “just by chance… have you had any water lately?”

Ligggghhhttttttbuuuulllllbbb. Most of the time he was right, it was a thirst craving, and I couldn’t get that full feeling from food because my body wasn’t craving food (even though it felt like it was). It was craving water.

3. Eat More Fat

Fat is what is really satiating. Eat more of it. Go for coconut oil, flax oil and extra virgin olive oil as your top 3 fats. Have them as dressings, on pastas, anything you normally eat, boost up the fat content with the fats above and you won’t gain weight, you’ll feel satiated and you’ll feel full for longer.

I throw about a tablespoon of flax oil and a tablespoon of coconut oil in my smoothies each morning, and that’s the major reason why my smoothies can hold me until late morning or lunch (depending on their size).

4. Have Good Snacks, and Don’t Feel Bad About Them

If you’re hungry all the time, maybe it’s for good reason. Your body does a million things all the time that you’re not aware of, and it’s always monitoring different levels of things, it’s really, really amazing. Maybe you’re hungry because you were exposed to some kind of cold or flu and your body is like “immune system repair – STAT!”. Maybe you’re hungry because you didn’t have a great sleep and your body is like, “I need brain power!”. Maybe you’re hungry because you calorie-counted a really low amount yesterday, and your body is trying to make up the extra calories that you need for your bodily functions, activity level and stress level.

There are so many possibilities! And what it comes down to for me, is to trust my body.

So if you’re hungry lots and lots, eat super healthy snacks! I go for hummus (easy to get) and crackers (I opt for Mary’s crackers). Or I often cut up an avocado and mush it up with hot sauce and sea salt, dipping crackers or veggies into it. Or cucumber slices with home made olive tapenade – ooooooh yum that’s a fave (also great if you’re burnt out because it’s deliciously salty).

I snack all the time, and I’m no kind of special body-wise, I just do smart snacks, and I don’t ever feel guilty about them. We all need food, snacking in itself is super helpful, we’ve just got to start picking the right, satiating (fat-filled is super important!) snacks.

I hope that helps!!

You’re awesome.

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