Leez

Your hypothalmus has been undergoing adjustment and healing during P2, so it will be sending you hunger signals. It will be a new experience for some. You have the opportunity to get in touch with those signals in P3. Its important to realize that there are different hunger levels. Basically:

Thoughts of food: You are involved in something else and suddenly you start thinking about food. This is the beginning of hunger.
Food looks good: If you are already thinking about food, seeing an appealing food is another indicator of hunger.
An energy drop or empty feeling around meal time.
Unmistakable need for food. You might even feel weak or tired.
Ravenous hunger: the kind that makes you wolf down stuff without even tasting it.

Remember that stomach growling is not true hunger. Its just digestion noises.

When I eat, how do I know when to stop?

Hunger and fullness is regulated by the hypothalamus in the brain. When your body has had enough food to satisfy its needs, signals are sent to the hypothalamus, registering fullness (also called satiety). When we are in tune to our bodies, we recognize when it’s time to stop eating. The stomach feels comfortable, and satisfied–not stuffed. We soon begin to feel calmer, more alert and energized.

It takes approximately 20 minutes for fullness signals to transmit from the stomach back to the brain. So, if you eat too fast and aren’t paying attention, it’s easy to override this system and eat more than what the body is calling for.

When you do decided you are hungry enough to eat, try to eat slowly and chew thoroughly. This will give time for your satisfaction signals to get through. You want to stop eating not when you are full, but when you feel satisfied. As you become more skilled at it, there will come a point where you will recognize the "last bite". That is the last bite you want before moving from satisfaction to fullness.

Some people find it useful to measure their hunger against a hunger scale. You can do a web search and find many examples of that if its the sort of thing you think might help you.