My father’s illness and death gave me the push I needed to make a serious change in my life including how I approached eating. I talk about this experience in the article “Death Gave Me a Push“. It’s a little less upbeat than my other topics, but this one means a lot to me.
Because I restricted food, one of the first intuitive eating principles I decided to tackle was honoring my hunger. Although apprehensive, I told myself that I would eat when I was hungry. It seemed easy enough. I’m hungry; therefore, I eat. It wasn’t that simple though. Because I denied myself food for so long and was used to being famished, the subtle feelings of hunger were completely foreign to me. Although I was born with the ability to identify hunger, I had to put some genuine effort into hearing those signals again. …
Diets are rigid. Each come with a set of rules to follow that include anything from a maximum number of calories per day to what/when to eat. Sure, it provides structure which can be a comfort to some, but life happens sometimes and structure goes by the wayside. For me, this is when the guilt and self-loathing would set in because I had failed my diet.1 The beauty of intuitive eating is that there are no rules. IE is a set of guidelines that allow for the flexibility and practicality around food that is required for the bumps in everyday life. …
When I read Intuitive Eating, I got really excited about enjoying food again. I was told that eating mindfully would allow me to have a richer and more satisfying eating experience. After years of depriving myself and the subsequent shoveling of food into my mouth, I was looking forward to eating in a peaceful and pleasurable way. Did that happen? Absolutely and it was downright amazing! But, oddly enough, mindful eating also caused the opposite to occur. …