So when I first heard about “intuitive eating”, I thought it was a crazy concept. Now, a couple of years into it, I’m seeing where it is the natural way to live and it’s actually how our bodies were designed to be nourished and cared for. We as humans, with our constant desire to better things and sometimes go against nature to do it, are the ones that have screwed up the way we feel about food and weight.
Over the years I had been so terribly brainwashed about my weight and the food I ate, that I ended up living according to other people’s standards, policies and plans…whether it be a diet plan, a cleansing technique or just listening to people bad mouth me for my size, it all affected how I saw what I ate or how I felt about myself.
For me, eating intuitively is basically “going back to eating the way nature intended in the first place.” Your body will naturally tell you when you’re hungry and when you’re full. If you have never fallen prey to society’s judgments and the barrage of advertisements to go on a diet then you should feel very blessed.
But for those of us who have suffered the abuse of people calling us names and making us feel “less than” just because of our size, then sometimes we have to re-learn how to live naturally and how to listen to our bodies. AND IT’S NOT EASY! If you’re like me, you’ve spent years living (and eating) according to everything and everyone other than myself. I’ve kept food logs, I’ve cut out particular food groups, I’ve taken diet pills and I’ve been very close to suicide because I no longer trusted my own body, but put my faith and trust in things other than the “natural”.
I was taught not to trust my hunger signals and to starve even though I was sometimes famished. I was taught that I was “bad” if I binged but I only binged because I was trying to cope with an emotional hardship or I was physically starving myself.
I was really hungry today at lunch and I was craving chinese food from a local restaurant so I left work with my money in my pocket and drove to the restaurant. I got a “to go” plate and filled it to the top with the foods I love. I got fried rice and sesame chicken and some buttered potatoes and crab rangoon. I even got some egg drop soup and an egg roll.
I took my plate home and set it on the table with a napkin, a fork and spoon and some soy sauce. I dug in! It was delish! But I got full. I got full and caught myself thinking, “there’s just no way I can eat all of this.” I thought about saving the rest for another sitting but I decided I had had enough chinese food and I had quenched that desire so I threw the rest away. This is monumental for me. I mean I do this more and more every day but it’s still amazing to me that I can do it. I don’t have to finish everything on my plate. I don’t even have to keep it for later if I don’t want to. I have the choice to do whatever I want with it. That is eating intuitively. I’m not living by anyone else’s instructions or models. I’m trusting my own body to tell me what to do and it’s working.
If you haven’t experienced intuitive eating or haven’t tried it, I would whole-heartedly recommend it!
Angry Gray Rainbows 
Good for you! I love those moments when something in recovery happens like that, so naturally…and you catch yourself in the middle of it and think, “Did I really just do that? Without even thinking about it? THIS REALLY WORKS!!”
So awesome. Yay for you!! 🙂
EXACTLY! and thanks!
So it’s getting more and more ok to waste food because your eyes are bigger than your stomach?? Good for you then.
Yes it is and thanks.
I’m really glad intuitive eating is working so well for you. Ive been doing it for about a year and it is getting easier and feeling more natural by the day. I hardly ever binge now, although I haven’t yet gotten to the point where I can leave food like you did.
The only thing that sometimes annoys me about not eating until I’m hungry, is that I can go for many hours not feeling hungry. I’m at a stage where I want to wait for hunger to eat, because food is so much more tasty that way, but sometimes get impatient to eat.
I think the thing to remember is to NOT treat IE as a new diet, and that it is ok to eat when not hungry if you want to.
I know what you’re talking about.
When I was going to church, my church offered a program called “Weigh Down Workshop” which is a program that was started by Gwen Shamblin. Without going into the religious aspect of it, I can say it is VERY similar to IE.
The first thing you’re asked to do is to not eat until you actually feel stomach hunger. I think I went almost 23 hours before I ate anything. Of course though, I was trying to prove to myself that I could go a very long time and I was starving by the time I ate.
I agree that you can eat even when you’re not hungry. “Normal” eaters do that too. That’s my goal…to become a “normal eater”.
My biggest barrier to eating intuitively is my work schedule. I’m away from home for lunch five days a week, and for dinner three days a week, and to save money and my digestion (which is delicate) I bring food with me. Unfortunately if I don’t feel like eating whatever I brought, I still pretty much have to eat it (at least the dinner; for lunch I could go to the caf., but that food is usually less appealing than my homemade lunch). If I don’t eat it I obviously suffer the effects of not eating. On the other hand, if it’s lunchtime and I’m not hungry, I still have to eat because I’ll suffer later on if I don’t.
The other thing I do is if I brought too much I feel like I have to eat it all. This is more under my control, but it’s a frugality thing. I know if I eat more now I will be less hungry later, and I also want to get my money’s worth. I can’t save it for later because I won’t have time to eat later.
Perhaps what I should do is make sure I have enough snacky stuff and just let go of the uneaten portion of whatever I don’t want to finish. If I have something easily snackable I can eat it at my desk or on the subway.
I keep at least a few meals’ worth of snacky stuff and lunch stuff at work. Cans of soup and snacks in my desk, frozen food in the freezer (fortunately no one’s stolen mine yet).
My office does have a fridge, toaster oven, and microwave.
Eve,
I got to say that for me having snacky stuff is key. I always have some crackers or fruit or cream cheese in the fridge. But I can totally relate to what you’re saying. I would say that in the case of having set meal times or lack of storage, you do the best you can and then don’t beat yourself up for “doing something wrong”. Try not to make IE too legalistic with too many rights and wrongs. It could easily then become another diet.
Don’t be too hard on yourself and do what you can with what you have. Give yourself some grace. You’re doing fine.
This is great. I have been working on this for many years but still struggle with the diet mentality. I also have a hard time knowing when I am hungry and stopping when I am full. How do you (anyone) do this. I definitely need to work on it.
As far as saving food, I thought of my own family. We would wrap up leftovers and say basically, lets wrap this stuff up and then throw it out in a few days. It was always good for a laugh but we kept doing it. Nothing like lauging at your own issues but still doing it anyway.
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JennyRose – I go by “if you’re not sure you’re hungry, then you’re not” to tell if I need to eat or not. The important thing is not to be too religious about that, though. As Sassyblonde says above, normal eating should be the goal, and normal eaters eat when not physically hungry sometimes.
As for stopping when I’m full, I don’t worry too much about that. I eat as much as I want, which is sometimes a smallish amount, and sometimes a lot. The thing is, if I eat a lot, I know it’ll be a long time until I’m hungry again, so it all balances out. If I try to be strict and stop eating when I’m “satisfied”, it causes me to binge, so I know this isn’t for me.
HeatherJ~
You’re first sentence is something I go by a lot. I will ask my hubby what he’s hungry for and if he says, “I don’t know,” then I say, “you must not be hungry then.”
Your second paragraph made something pop in my head…I’m not sure why but I’ll share it anyway. It reminded me I’m not in this for “weight loss”, I’m in it for my health and to learn to return to doing things naturally for me.
There IS a balance to it all. It’s just that, depending on how long you’ve been entrenched in the diet mentality, it may take a while to find that balance and be comfortable with it.
Thanks Heather J for the great advice; I go by “if you’re not sure you’re hungry, then you’re not. For a while I was just trying to trust my appetite but this makes it much easier.
It is obvious, even to me, when I am very hungry.
I love having the kind of realization that is illustrated in this post. It is so freeing to leave a third of an omelet on a plate because I am full. I still have times now where I eat past full, and when that happens I just stay with the knowledge that my body is learning and I am gentle with myself. Thanks for the post.