eating intuitively

so this week i got kinda down on myself one day about not being as strict as i should with what i am eating. i decided to join weight watchers (for like the millionth time) today. last night i was hanging out with a good friends and i told her what i had decided. she made me promise not to join weight watchers until i bought and read the first chapter of intuitive eating by elyse resch and evelyn tribole. because i have had multiple therapists suggest this book to me and because i trust that this friend has my best interest at heart, i promised. i purchased the book on my kindle less than 24 hours ago and have already read 25% of it. i am pretty sure this idea is going to change my world.

in my last post i wrote about not wanting my blog to be about weight loss (which is something i want), but about becoming healthy. that is the idea of this book. it is all about saying "goodbye" to diets forever. it is about freeing ourselves from the guilt associated with foods, and making peace with food once and for all. the idea is based upon two important truths: our bodies have a stabilizing "natural weight" that has to do with our genetic makeup and that our bodies are magnificently engineered to be at this weight. it is about learning to eat like a toddler: eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full, enjoy your food, eat what you like and what makes you feel good.

now wouldn't that be nice, to eat what you want, when you want, maintain your weight and not feel guilty. THIS IS WHAT I WANT!! now, most people who learn eat intuitively, naturally lose some weight, but the focus is on listening to your body and trusting your body. do you know those people that eat a piece of cake when they want one, never over-think food, and still maintain their weight? the idea is that was how we were all created, but diets, societal pressures and self-deprication have gotten us into the vicious cycle of moralizing foods. this book is quick to point out that intuitive eating is not a quick fix or a diet and that if weight loss is the #1 priority this will probably not be successful. weight loss is the eventual effect of the months long process of learning to trust your bodies internal cues rather than externally imposed systems of control.

this is a scary and exciting adventure. what makes me most hopeful is that the dietitians that wrote the book say that their clients were able to have healthy relationships with foods where "bad" foods lost their power, where they gained a positive body image and all around ate better and felt better. i must say that if these are the results of following the plan in this book and i did not lose one pound, it would be worth it. if all it did was break the obsessive cycle of worrying about food, it would be enough. what it is trying to teach is that "i can have any food any time i want" but that "i don't want all the food i thought i did" and that "i don't need to feel guilty for eating the food i enjoy" especially when i stop eating when satisfied.

i admit that this all sounds sketch and too good to be true, but because so many trusted people have recommended it to me, i am giving it a shot. i also babysit toddlers regularly and i see that this is how they eat. there is no guilt associated with cookies. they love their pasta and their broccoli and tell you all about how yummy it is. they are what we were created to be. so as crazy as it may sound, i am going to try it. and let's be honest, it is no more crazy than the grapefruit diet, liquid fast diets, or slim-fast.