This is what we had for dinner last night, and I can honestly say it was the first time I resented having to take pictures of the food I made. Normally, whether cooking at home or out to dinner, I HAVE to take a picture if the food looks amazing. Last night on the other hand, I had planned to blog this recipe, but have been doing “two-a-days” at the gym and didn’t get home until 7 to start making dinner. By that time, I was absolutely famished, and of course snacking on everything in the pantry while cooking.

So when I was finally done cooking…then, THEN, I had to shoot some images. All while staring at this amazing meal and dying to eat. I just kept growing more frustrated thinking all I wanted to do was sit down and eat! Hunger can make you go crazy sometimes can’t it? Which makes me start thinking about hunger pains. I learned a little while ago from a nutritionist friend that hunger can actually be a good thing. We as a society have led ourselves to believe that becoming hungry is a bad thing. I even had a friend tell me one time that she felt like she was “getting fat” if she let herself get too hungry thinking that it may be slowing her metabolism down.

While its true that not eating often enough or letting yourself become hungry too much can cause your body to store fat or make you eat more, hunger is also good for the body. Starvation on the other hand, has taken on a new meaning in our society. I know I personally say I am “starving” all the time, but most of us will hopefully never experience what its like to truly starve.

My thoughts on this grew from my interest in a recent article by my friend Eve, who is a health, fitness and nutrition guru. You can check out her site www.evedietrich.com. I have learned so much from her, and she has truly inspired the way I think about health and nutrition.

I say all this to say, many of us have gotten to a place where we view hunger negatively, and even fear it. While research indicates that allowing ourselves to get too hungry can cause us to indulge or binge eat, its ok to let yourself get hungry. If we are constantly full, we are probably eating too much or too often! So keep your hunger at bay, but when you start to feel hunger, appreciate it, knowing that you are truly listening to your body and not just eating for the heck of it…and remember, just being around food or looking at a blog with images of food (like this one!) can make you THINK you are hungry

These Southwest turkey burgers are absolutely divine…knowing this ahead of time is what probably aided in my intense hunger pains last night. So go make them…but only if you are hungry