Cravings aren’t hunger: how to tell what your body is really asking for
A decade-by-decade look at my own cravings, the habit patterns they revealed, and the simple tool that changed everything.
Cravings Are Not Always Hunger
I have to admit, most of the time I’ve eaten in my life, it was cravings, not actual food hunger.
Cravings, I’ve learned, rarely come from true hunger. They come from habit, or from wanting something else entirely.
My Decade-by-Decade Hunger Stories
20s: The Beef Sandwich Spell
Lunchtime meant Portillo’s Italian Beef with Chicago giardiniera. Every day. The craving was so strong I’m not sure how I broke it. But once I did, it was gone, like someone switched off the craving channel. That’s when I realized cravings are not evidence that your body needs something. They’re often evidence of what your habits have trained you to expect. Hunger is physical. Cravings are emotional, mental, or habitual.
30s: Matcha as Emotional Armor
Fresh off a divorce and eating clean, organic, unprocessed foods, I still found myself detouring to Starbucks for a grande soy matcha latte before walking into my attorney’s office. I told myself it was grounding. Honestly, it was my way of bracing for decisions I didn’t want to make. It felt like liquid courage in the form of a warm, supportive inner hug in a paper cup.
40s: Healthy Food as Distraction
By my 40s, I was a vegetarian living what Ayurveda calls a sattvic life: clean, light, and pure. My days began with meditation, my meals were fresh, and my evenings were quiet walks with the sun setting. My mind was clear, and my body was light. I could feel my power rising, and it scared me. I muted that power with food – not junk, not sugar, not wine. Just more healthy food. Grazing instead of eating meals, I thought I was hungry. Alas, I was not. I was scared.
Why This Matters
Cravings aren’t always about “bad” food. For me, they came from:
Habit
Wanting to feel safe
Distracting myself from power or change
And the tricky part is that healthy food can be emotional eating in disguise.
The Pause That Changes Everything
When I finally saw this, I started asking myself before I ate:
Am I truly hungry?
If I am, how hungry am I?
Your answer might surprise you. Or slightly annoy you. That’s when you know you’ve hit something real.
What Helped Me Reset
Intermittent fasting gave me the clarity I needed, creating enough space between meals to know what my body actually wanted.
I cut my meals to two a day, creating 16-hour spaces between eating
This made me more intentional with food choices
I chose higher fat, tons of fiber, and just enough protein
I paid close attention to my mood and energy before and after eating
But you don’t have to intermittent fast for this to work. Just using the tracker I’m about to share with you can open your awareness in the exact same way.
Food Changes, But Awareness is the Constant
Hunger shifts with:
Seasons
Life chapters
Stress levels
Emotional climate
The habit worth keeping is paying attention. Listening. Trusting your body to tell you the truth.
Your Turn: Track It
If you’re ready to see your own patterns, here’s how:
The Food & Mood Tracker helps you log:
What you eat
When you eat
How hungry you were before
How you felt before and after
Do it for 3–7 days. Don’t skip. Your memory is not as honest as you think.
Look for:
Patterns that repeat
Emotional detours
Foods that carry you
Foods that quietly trip you
Take the Next Step
If you want to stop guessing and start knowing what your body is truly asking for, the Food & Mood Tracker will help you connect the dots between what you eat, how you feel, and the choices you make next.
Inside, I’ll walk you through:
How to read your tracker like a map so you can see your energy patterns clearly
A simple 3-step method to interpret your results without overwhelm
Common patterns and what they might mean for your digestion, energy, and emotional state
How to tell the difference between food hunger and emotional hunger in real time
Small shifts that lead to big changes in mood, clarity, and decision-making
When you can see exactly how food and feeling are linked for you, you stop chasing quick fixes and start working with your body’s own intelligence.
The result? More steady energy, fewer cravings, and a relationship with food that feels calm and clear.
Here’s the Food & Mood Tracker and my private guide on how to interpret your results: