PUTTING YOUR EATING IN ORDER

For years,  nutrition advice around the globe has focused on telling people what and how much to eat. These messages tend to shift over time, often circling back to new forms every few years. It is a pattern many of us have experienced. It's a cycle that will never end. This will never work long term because whoever owns the choice owns the power. Everyone needs to make their own choices of all foods connected to hunger. These are our original eating boundaries. We are born with them. Think of infants. They are born knowing when to start eating - they feel hunger. And they have a strong sense when hunger goes away they want to stop eating. They will clench their little lips, spit it out, throw it- whatever ever they need to do to stop eating! We still own these boundaries. We just stopped listening. The infant isn't working at starting or stopping eating. They just know!  

Eating and our bodies were meant to be the source of our energy. They were never meant to drain our energy. We were meant to feel hunger, never bury it or drug it. In addition, we were never meant to have extra storage (my term for fat) because its purpose was for a famine. And, as far as I know, there isn't one coming anytime soon.

In addition, we were also born with over 10,000 taste buds unique to each one of us. And this is why the rules keep changing. The rules come when studying different groups of people and what that group leans towards - more protein for some, others more carbs, some high fat, some low fat. It will always keep changing. So here we go again!

I am constantly working with my clients to rid themselves of the food thoughts (which many call food noise) of what is healthy and what is not healthy for the masses. All of these rules create work where there was meant to be no work! The simple truth is we were only meant to listen to our own eating boundaries. No one else knows how hungry we are or how the food feels to us.  And isn’t true health how we feel?

Once we are hungry, we make the decision to start eating. Then we need to focus on our taste buds in our mouth, how the food feels to us and when the  hunger goes away we need to stop eating. Our body will let our mind know when the decision to stop eating is needed to respect it.  This was how simple it is meant to be.  Once you are no longer hungry, you move into life, learning and moving forward.  Think of the 2 year old.  Have you ever seen a 2 year old not want to go and move?  We have that innate desire in all of us.  

So what happened to our natural eating boundaries and our natural desire to want to move forward?  We just stopped listening to hunger and choosing exactly what we wanted to eat when we were hungry.  Once we left the boundaries, we ended up in our heads where there are no eating boundaries.   And this is why work was created where there was meant to be no work. Calorie counting, restricting a particular food or a group of foods, constantly reading labels, checking to see if the restaurant had the food you could eat, etc., kept  food rules swirling in your head consuming your day. 

 So how do we start listening again? It starts with awareness of every morsel of food that goes into one’s body.  We need clarity of when we start eating and when we stop eating.  The action step of sitting before you eat is key.  You are stopping your movement in life and engaging the gut brain so the mind can access if you are hungry or not.  If you put your mind in your stomach, ask if you are hungry.  You will see it is possible if you think of a hunger scale.  On a scale from 1-10, with 1 being starving, 10 being stuffed, and 5 the feeling of nothingness (neither hungry or stuffed - balanced), what number would you be at when you put your mind in your stomach?  If you are not hungry, there is no need to eat.  This is the beginning of reconnecting your mind and body.  

In addition, in order to pay attention to hunger and the taste of food, do nothing else while you are eating.  Take this time to honor and feed yourself.  Enjoy the taste of the food.  Imagine always being at a fine restaurant. You have waited to be hungry and now you have arrived - honor yourself, savor each bite and absorb the pleasurable experience of enjoying your food.  

Why is total and complete choice of all foods key to the process?  Choice is your identity and you need to own what sustains your life - food.  To truly be within your core identity, to be within your body, you need to own your food choices.  It is why we were born with over 10,000 taste buds that are housed within our gut brain.  We were meant to feel how the food feels to us.  And we need to be within our bodies, without external judgment before we know what feels good to us.  It is a feeling of empowerment when you know you can choose what you want to eat that feels good to you based solely on our own choices.  We are inside of our own wisdom, given to us at birth.  

When you begin to put eating in order - no longer using food to handle life, but instead eating when you’re physically hungry and stopping when you’re balanced, you create space to hear your body’s messages more clearly. As you build tools to navigate life through your thoughts, actions, and the other four pleasure senses, you strengthen your ability to cope with challenges directly. With that growing confidence and self-trust, your excess storage (my term for fat) naturally dissipates.

As a result, your body and your relationship with food become a steady foundation of pleasure, providing the energy you need to fully engage in your life. Imagine the difference between resenting your body and feeling guilty when you eat or overeat, versus caring for your body and truly enjoying your food. When eating is put in its proper place, life becomes simpler, steadier, and far easier to navigate. Your body and eating are now giving you energy vs. draining your energy.  

By Guest Contributor Shirley Billigmeier

Photo by Pablo Merchán Montes on Unsplash