Full

Full - it is an interesting word and concept. I would guess that most would describe the concept of full as a good thing. My life is full of joy or my cabinets are full of food or my house is full of friends and family. All great things, but full has a dark side... careful you are or full you will get and no room you shall have.

You can have a full house with no room to grow, full cabinets that won't hold that last cup you need to put away, a full schedule that won't allow you time to even go to the bathroom without putting it on your calendar (there are days... I'm just saying). Probably the worst full of course is a full stomach. Most of use are raised to clear plates and eat until we are full. I've spent my adult life getting full - most was from food, but sometimes it is other things like "stuff" or praise or even information, all of these can fill you up! The worst part of being full? You have no more room even if something great comes along or super important.

So maybe full isn't the best thing - maybe there is such a thing as too much of a good thing? Can you have too much love? Maybe you can if you aren't returning that love or showing it to others. So instead of being full why not be satisfied. Let's take a meal for example, when I was a kid I would be "full" once I had eaten enough of my meal that I had room left for dessert. I would rarely get "full" on good food alone. As an adult I still deal with this, but instead of saying I'm full I know I'm satisfied with how much of this or that, that I have eaten.

So what is satisfaction? To be honest I don't know what the real definition is and I won't be looking it up because I like my own :) Satisfaction for me is being happy for starters. It is also somewhere between not enough and too much. So from an eating point of view I'm neither hungry or full, but I also won't be hungry in 30 minutes or an hour. If I'm working on a task, satisfaction may have nothing to do how close to finishing I am, I could be done and not satisfied with the result.

So let's think about being done with something and not be satisfied - it happens in meals all the time, or a bad movie or even in relationships. Given all those satisfaction would seem to have an element of expectation to it.  If I expect this chicken to taste like a steak I'm sure to be disappointed! This salad tastes nothing like that cheesecake. This movie won best picture, who voted for this awful thing? My best friend forgot my birthday...

Expectations are in everything we do - we expect to wake up in the morning. We expect to walk whenever we "tell" our legs to get up and move. So if we sit down to eat and we expect to get full, what will happen? Well we will get full most likely - But what if we sit down to fuel our bodies, to promote good health, to satisfy our needs. I'm not advocating to no enjoy your meals  - but I don't know anyone that like an overfull feeling a lot of us get that feeling when working toward full, we tend to "top off" the tank.

Not trying to lose weight, fair enough - Maybe try setting your expectations for Monday. "Today will be the best day of the week because I am refreshed from the weekend."

Looking to lose weight or improve your health - set an expectation that will satisfy you - try to listen to when you are satisfied not full or stuffed. Don't expect that healthy meal you fixed to taste like the deep fried Twinkies from the state fair. Expect it to give you energy and no heartburn and healthier body to enjoy your life with!

I hope this helped to satisfy your hungry for healthy knowledge but didn't fill you up with too much to think about! :)