Do you ever have a day when you’re just living your life, minding your own business, trying to eat intuitively, when suddenly you get hungry…like REAL hungry.

Okay, fine. So you eat the lunch you packed, but you’re still hungry. Fine. So you eat the snack you packed, and you’re still hungry. What is going on? All you can think about is food. Food food food. Will you ever feel full again?? Is your intuitive eating broken?? Are the binges coming back??

This happens to me periodically. About once a month. It’s almost like…a cycle. Surprise, turns out it’s just a weird PMS thing. I don’t know what kind of shenanigans my organs are up to in there, but they work up a serious appetite. I mean what are ya gonna do? Keep eating, that’s what.

For me, this particular hungrier-than-usual scenario generally lasts about two days, followed by about two days of a meh appetite. Some days I’m RIDICULOUSLY HUNGRY from the moment I wake up until like 4pm, and then I’m barely interested in dinner. Sometimes it’s the exact opposite. It’s pretty fascinating to observe how my appetite ebbs and flows in this effortless balancing act — my body is WAY better at finding balance than I ever was.

It’s pretty predictable now, but the first few times this happened to me it really freaked me out. I felt like a bottomless pit, completely and utterly preoccupied with food. That’s a feeling I know all too well from my own battle with food insanity, when a few *~*totally harmless*~* diets made my hunger hormones think that I was starving and turned me into a frenzied, food-obsessed shell of my former self.

It doesn’t matter if you’re well into your intuitive eating journey or you’re just starting out: sometimes your appetite will surprise you. And that’s okay! Note it, but don’t judge it. It could be the result of a tough workout, or trying to fight off an illness, or just that time of the month. Who knows? Your body knows. Just keep listening, and let your body lead.