The Core Four is the Not Really Hungry weight loss method that focuses on the four main habits needed for lasting weight loss.

One definition of the word habit is “an automatic response.” Wouldn’t weight loss be easier if we did what was best for our body automatically? We just have to keep trying and keep practicing until we turn our behaviors into habits.

I started this concept back in 2014 with my Habits of a Loser posts. I was developing a system at that time, but I never finalized anything. My original framework included 15 different habits!

As I was thinking about how to cover the topics in the podcast, I realized that my original framework was just too overwhelming. It was overwhelming even for me, and I wrote the posts! I was making it way too hard, and it was preventing me from really committing.

Planning the podcast helped me realize that I needed to simplify. I needed to pick the TOP habits and focus on those instead of trying to change every single thing at once. Hence, The Core Four was born. The other habits are still important of course, but they all support The Core Four in some way.

Habit 1 – Handle Your Hunger

To truly handle your hunger, just stop eating when you’re not really hungry. Simple, right? Not so much.

We eat for so many reasons and most of them are not physical hunger. We eat when we are stressed, sad, mad, tired, bored, lonely, anxious… the list goes on and on. But the common theme is that we are using food to escape. We don’t want to feel those emotions so we eat to distract or numb ourselves. Sometimes we even eat just because we need to relax or decompress. Eating gives us an excuse to stop and sit for a few minutes.

Learning to handle your hunger will be a process. There will be experimenting and stumbling along away. This is normal. Repeat after me. It is normal to struggle as you try to change. It doesn’t mean that you can’t do it.

This habit is the most important and the most challenging, but it’s worth the effort! Once you get control over your hunger, it is totally empowering. YOU are in charge, not your hunger or your emotions.

To dig deeper into this habit, just check out the Handle Your Hunger post or listen to podcast episode 3.

Habit 2 – Plan & Reflect

Plan and reflect is the second habit in The Core Four. Planning gives you a road map to follow, and reflecting helps you assess how much you enjoyed your trip! They are both important and work together to help you succeed.

I know that planning doesn’t come naturally to everyone, and not everyone enjoys it (gasp!), but hopefully I can help you see the benefits. For me, planning what I will eat removes stress from my life. It takes away decision drama and eliminates impulse eating. Planning helps me focus and gives me a way to hold myself accountable. It also saves me time and money!

The key items to remember about this habit:

• Planning should be fast. Don’t overthink it.
• Keep your plans simple and realistic.
• Reflecting doesn’t have to be negative.
• Use your reflecting to improve, not to berate.

In order to streamline the process of planning and reflecting, I created The Core Four Planner! It gives you a format to follow for a weekly plan, daily plans, daily reflections, and weekly reflections.

To dive deeper into reflection, check out the Progress Not Perfection Journal. There are 60 different thought provoking questions provided, or you can create your own topics. The journal includes 100 reflection pages for you to explore the fears and challenges that are holding you back.

For more details on this habit, check out the Plan & Reflect post.

Habit 3 – Drink Water

Is this one of the most boring suggestions ever? I know it sounds SO rudimentary, but our bodies NEED water. Have you ever heard of any healthy eating plan that didn’t recommend drinking water? Probably not.

The most important thing to know is that water is necessary to burn fat! If you want to lose weight, burning fat should be a top priority. Water also gives us more energy, helps with digestion, and helps our skin look better. You can read the Drink Water post for all the details, but those are the key points.

Aim to get about 8 glasses (64 ounces) per day. This can vary depending on the person or circumstances, but you can use your urine color as a guide. You want it to be pale yellow. Clear means you are over hydrated and dark means you are dehydrated.

If drinking water is hard for you, really examine what you think about water. Do you think it’s boring and bland? Try telling yourself it’s refreshing and nurturing instead. You might feel silly at first, but our thoughts are powerful. It really makes a difference what we tell ourselves.

Habit 4 – Sleep More

Most of us love sleep and never get enough of it! Our lives are so busy and we always seem to be over scheduled and overwhelmed. We need AT LEAST 7 hours of sleep, but many of us barely get 6 and would do better with 8 or 9. Sleep is important to our overall health, and we can’t keep running on fumes.

When we aren’t getting enough sleep, our metabolism and hormones get all messed up. As the hunger hormones get off balance, your body makes you feel like you need to eat AND makes it harder for you to know when you are full. Awesome, right? Your stress hormone is also elevated when you don’t get enough sleep which also causes an increased appetite in some people.

On top of the hormone imbalance, lack of sleep dulls activity in the part of the brain responsible for decision making. So your brain literally isn’t working like it should when you are sleep deprived. When you are tired, your cravings will be worse because your body is craving energy. Your resistance to those cravings is weakened due to your sluggish brain.

To dive into this topic even more, read the Sleep More post. And then go to bed! We all have plenty of reasons (or excuses), but we really need to make sleep a priority to live our best lives.

SUMMARY

Now that you know the basic premise of The Core Four, it’s time to get to work. Make a simple plan for tomorrow and stick to it. As you follow your plan, think about WHY you are eating and question if you are really hungry before you eat. Also strive to drink some water and get more sleep. That’s it!

If you want to learn more, read the full posts on each of the Core Four habits. If you want structure, consider purchasing The Core Four Meal Planner or the Progress Not Perfection Journal. If you want support, join the Not Really Hungry Community on Facebook. You can do this. I’m here to help!

To truly handle your hunger, you must manage your mind. This habit is the key to lasting weight loss, and it is usually one of the biggest challenges we are faced with on a daily basis.

The Core Four method focuses on eating mindfully so that you can lose weight and change your life. What does it mean to eat mindfully?

You can call it stress eating, emotional eating, or eating your feelings. Whatever you call it, you’re not eating mindfully if you’re eating when you’re not really hungry. The reason it is so hard to change is because the food is fulfilling some need that we have. The food is a crutch in some way.

Mindful eating is all about paying attention. To eat mindfully, you need to eat slowly and without distractions whenever possible. You need to listen to your body. You need to work on learning (and following) your hunger cues which means no more eating your feelings.

• No eating because of stress, anger, or sadness.
• No eating for comfort or companionship.
• No eating for entertainment or to stay awake.
• No eating for happiness or fulfillment.
• No eating simply because the food tastes good.

So how do we change our actions?  First we have to change our thinking. Does mindful eating sound hard or scary to you? I used to think that. I used to think it wasn’t structured enough and that I wouldn’t be able to control myself. Those were just my thoughts, and none of them were facts.

It turns out that mindful eating is actually very freeing. It has helped me remove so much stress and worry from my eating life and has shown me a way I can really LIVE while maintaining a healthy weight. It takes practice, but it gets easier with time and it is SO worth it!

HANDLE YOUR HUNGER IN 4 STEPS

STEP 1 – MAKE A PLAN

How does planning help you with your hunger? This ties into the Plan & Reflect habit of the Core Four method. When you plan what to eat and reflect on your feelings and physical huger cues before and after eating, you will start to identify patterns.

You also learn to plan real food that you WANT to eat without guilt or fear. Mindful eating doesn’t mean deprivation or starving yourself. Eating mindfully allows you to eat anything in moderation.

STEP 2 – ASSESS YOUR HUNGER

Are you physically hungry? The most important lesson I have learned is how to listen to my body and eat because I’m physically hungry. We tend to eat for tons of reasons that are not about physical hunger, so removing all that extra eating dramatically helps with weight loss.

BEFORE you eat, assess how you are feeling. If you are not really hungry but want to eat for an emotional reason, don’t do it. Face the emotion. Why do you want to eat? What problem will eating solve?

STEP 3 – CHOOSE TO EAT OR TO WAIT

If you are physically hungry, you have two choices: eat your planned food or wait for your next meal. That’s it. There’s no need to be stressed or anxious or worried. It’s up to you and depends on your circumstances.

If you know your lunch break is in 30 minutes, maybe you should just wait and be okay with being a little hungry. If you are starving or hangry and still have hours until your next planned meal, you should probably eat!

EAT WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS. Stop multitasking and focus on your meal. We can all afford 10 minutes to tune out the world and tune into our bodies. It’s hard to know if you are truly hungry if you are eating while working, surfing social media, or watching TV.

EAT SLOWLY. Studies show that it takes our brains up to 20 minutes to realize we are full, but most people finish their food in 10 minutes or less. Obviously if you’re already done eating by the time your brain realizes you are full, it’s too late.

STEP 4 – ASSESS YOUR FULLNESS

While you are eating your meal, keep checking in with your body to see how it’s feeling. The goal is to be satisfied, not stuffed or sick. Remember that our brains don’t always know when we are full. If you think you might be done, you probably are. If you wait 10 minutes and still feel slightly hungry, then you need to eat a little more.

THIS WILL TAKE PRACTICE.  You will overeat many times until you find your sweet spot. Just stick with it. Keep track of how you feel so that you can learn from each meal. If you are using the Core Four Meal Planner, there’s a “Handle Your Hunger” box on each daily plan!

After you eat, how do you feel? Are you comfortable or stuffed? Do you wish you would have stopped sooner, or do you feel like you need to eat more? While you are learning, it’s natural to worry about being hungry later. But if you are, so what? Then you’ll eat again. There are no rules about how often you should be eating.

CORE FOUR HUNGER SCALE

To help you assess your hunger and fullness levels, you can also follow the Core Four Hunger Scale. It’s easy to fall back into the habit of mindless eating, but the hunger scale keeps you conscious of what you are doing.

You want to avoid extremes on the hunger scale. Waiting for -3 or -4 sets you up for more struggles than necessary. It’s time to eat when you are at a -1 or -2. Likewise, stop eating when you reach a 1 or 2. Do not eat to a 3 or 4, as this will make you feel miserable. Often level 3 or 4 brings on shame or guilt as well.

How do you know if you ate too little or too much?

Your stomach is our best measuring device! It goes everywhere with you and adapts as your activity levels adapt or as your NEEDS adapt. Trust yourself and your ability to learn this skill. You don’t need an app to tell you when or how much to eat. You got this.

You will need different amounts of food on different days. This is totally normal. If you try to force yourself to have the exact same amount of food every single day, your body is not getting what it needs. This often leads to us feeling hungry, frustrated, and deprived…which often leads us to quitting!

Why do we overeat?

Overeating happens for so many reasons, but none of the reasons are hunger. When we give our bodies more fuel than they need, that’s overeating. Usually overeating is a symptom of some other problem.

For me, I didn’t know how to handle my emotions. We didn’t really talk about our feelings when I was growing up. I was taught that I shouldn’t rock the boat or speak up for myself. I had been taught that using drugs and alcohol was wrong, but no one ever said anything about not abusing food.

The main issue with my emotional eating definitely stemmed from not speaking my feelings. Trying to grin and bear it or bite my tongue all the time became very exhausting and felt very fake.

Anytime I felt like I “shouldn’t” say something, I would stuff the feelings down with food. Every time I would get stressed or upset or unsatisfied with something in my life, I would eat. It was like I didn’t know how to fix the actual problems so I ate to escape them.

We all KNOW that we shouldn’t overeat, but we don’t know how to stop or don’t choose to stop in the moment. We can change that!

What is your reason for overeating? Keep probing until you really understand your why. Once you know the driving force behind the behavior, it’s much easier to change it. If you are using the Progress Not Perfection Journal, this is a perfect topic to write about!

YOU CAN DO THIS!

You might have to work at it, but start believing in yourself! It is freeing to truly believe you can do it. I didn’t used to believe in myself. I thought I had to eat by the numbers because I was out of control and couldn’t trust my own decisions. Those thoughts led to a total state of fear. Living in fear is no way to live!

Now when I start to think I can’t do something, I tell myself “Actually, I CAN!” My brain needs the reminder and it helps so much to counter negative thoughts with positive ones. Actually, I can listen to my body and stop when I’ve had enough. Actually, I can eat my splurge without wrecking my entire week. Actually, I can eat foods I love and still lose weight.

When I joined Weight Watchers for the first time (way back in 2000), one of the first changes I made was to start drinking more water. I didn’t really know why it was good for me. I just knew that WW recommended it as one of their “Good Health Guidelines.” At that time, I was trying to lose weight for my wedding. I was willing to do just about anything to fit in a smaller wedding dress, so I did what I was told with no questions asked!

Let’s face it. We know that water is good for us, but we don’t really know why and we probably don’t really care why. We need to find reasons that matter in our own lives in order to be more motivated to do it.

1. LOSE WEIGHT

Let’s keep it real.  Losing weight is the primary reason I started drinking water.  I used to drink a lot of pop. I pretty much only drank water when I was hot or had over-exerted myself. It wasn’t a conscious choice or habit. My main motivation for switching to water was to save calories.  To be brutally honest, I really didn’t care about the health benefits of water back then. I just didn’t want to spend 150 calories on a can of pop. I’d rather eat those calories!! 

Today, drinking water has become such a habit that I never leave home without it!  Other 0 calorie options are plain tea, coffee, and diet pop/juice etc., but water is still the best choice for your body.  From personal experience, I’ve heard lots of people say their weight loss is better on weeks that they drink all their water.

You also need water to burn fat. If you aren’t drinking enough and become even mildly dehydrated, your body is forced to slow its metabolism to compensate.

Sometimes when we feel hungry, we are actually thirsty. If you feel hungry at an unusual time, try drinking a glass of water first. Wait about 15 minutes.  If the hunger goes away, you were probably actually thirsty. You could save yourself from eating hundreds of calories that your body doesn’t actually need.

If you are serious about losing weight, this is probably one of the easiest habits to implement.  Drinking water doesn’t require willpower or sacrifice. It just requires you to make a conscious effort to drink more.

2. HAVE MORE ENERGY

Most of us know that a large percentage of our bodies is water, but do we know what the water does?  The water in our bodies helps with digestion, circulation, transportation of nutrients, and maintenance of body temperature. We can’t survive more than a few days without water. It is critical to our bodies!

We lose fluid all day long through skin evaporation and even breathing!  If we are constantly losing fluids, we need to replenish the fluids for our bodies to keep functioning at their best. Our bodies just don’t work as well without proper hydration. Dehydration can exacerbate health problems and even lead to new health problems.   When we get dehydrated, our bodily functions and metabolism slow down to conserve energy.  Dehydration can even inhibit fat burning!  (see reason #1!)

Water helps our muscles feel energized. When muscles don’t have adequate fluids, they don’t work as well. Water also aids in keeping our joints lubricated, which is important to prevent injury.  Just like our muscles, our kidneys & bowels work better with proper hydration.  We may be at risk for kidney stones if we habitually drink too little. We can also help avoid constipation with proper hydration.

Drinking water can also help our skin look better.  It won’t erase wrinkles, but being dehydrated makes your skin look more dry and wrinkled. I don’t want any help looking wrinkled, do you?!  Looking better will help us feel more confident too!

3. SAVE MONEY

Have you noticed how expensive pop is at restaurants these days?  At most restaurants in my area, it’s about $2.50 for a glass of pop.  If you have a family of four, that’s an extra $10 on the bill!  Even if you are dining alone, that cost really adds up. My husband and I find that many times we don’t even get through 1 glass, so that’s even more of a waste of money!  Also, if you drink a full glass of water before your meal arrives, you may eat less overall.  (see reason #1!)

If your water at home is safe to drink, drink tap water.  You’ll save so much money this way!  If it helps, buy a water pitcher with a filter.  Get yourself a refillable water bottle or a pretty glass to make it more appealing.  I started using a Contigo stainless steel travel mug for my water last year. I was already using them for coffee and was impressed at how long my coffee stayed hot.  They keep water cold even longer (up to 12 hours) and it doesn’t sweat!!  I used to hate it when my water bottle would sweat all over my desk.

Even if you prefer bottled water to tap water, it is still less expensive than buying pop!  Usually I can find a 32 or 36 pack of bottled water for $3-$3.50.  I’d pay the same amount for only 12 cans of pop!  I get 3 times the water for the same price!!

When you’re away from home, most public places have drinking fountains. Find the drinking fountain instead of paying $1 for a pop out of the machine.  I have my mug with me at all times, so I just fill it up from the drinking fountain at work. That way the water is already really cold going into the mug! It is especially important to stay hydrated when shopping to keep your energy level up so you don’t feel like you need a sugary snack for an energy boost!

Which reasons matter for you? Find a benefit of drinking water than hits home with you. You’ll be much more likely to do it if it has personal meaning!