I don't know about you, but I love food. Always have, always will. According to my mom, I rarely threw up as a baby, probably because I wanted to keep and savor every last drop of food. She also used to regularly find me with my hand in the cookie jar or cracker box. What can I say, eating is one of my favorite pastimes.
Despite my natural inclination to want to eat literally all the time, there have been stages in my life where I almost hated food because I saw it as the enemy. I felt confused and lost. I wanted to be "skinny" because I thought that would give me more value as a woman. I did diet after diet in my early 20s hoping that the next one would be the one that would finally help me lose weight for good. One time I did something called the military diet because it was supposed to jump-start my weight loss. I ate nothing but small servings of tuna and saltines for 3 days. It was terrible.
There were times when I was willing to do whatever it would take to lose weight. If restricting my calories so much that I got dizzy, started losing hair, and even skipped periods was what it would take to be (what I thought was) beautiful then those other things would be worth it. Who cares if I went to bed every night with hunger pains, at least I would look good the next day. So what if I constantly turned down dinner invitations because I thought one meal out would make me "fat", at least that new dress would fit. I would tell myself it was okay to go for a long run even though I had an injury because if I skipped that one run then I would certainly gain weight. I was actually in this stage of restriction and over-exercising when I decided to go back to school to become a Registered Dietitian. I thought I had figured out the secret to losing weight and keeping it off. The funny thing is, my education and path to becoming an RD actually taught me that I had several disordered eating habits and that what I had been doing to my body was not healthy at all.
It took me a long time to learn that what I look like on the outside does not give me worth as a human being. Thankfully, I met and married a wonderful man who helped me realize that my value was SO beyond a number on the scale. I used to weigh myself daily. I don't use that scale anymore. Learning to let go of the diet mentality, embrace my body, and eat for nutrition as well as enjoyment took time. To be completely honest, I am still working through these things. However, I can say that I feel so much happier and healthier since letting go of counting calories, trying new diets, and constantly worrying about how much I weigh. I feel more at peace and less stressed than ever because I am not always thinking about the next meal.
What has helped me work through my eating issues the most is something called Intuitive Eating. Maybe you've heard of it. Intuitive Eating is "a self-care eating framework, which integrates instinct, emotion, and rational thought and was created by two dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in 1995. Intuitive Eating is a weight-inclusive, evidence-based model with a validated assessment scale and over 100 studies to date." There are 10 key principles to it that are designed to help you pay more attention to your body's natural signals relating to hunger and satiety and remove any obstacles in the way of you listening to your body. The 10 principles are:
Reject the diet mentality
Honor your hunger
Make peace with food
Challenge the food police
Discover the satisfaction factor
Feel your fullness
Cope with your emotions with kindness
Respect your body
Movement - feel the difference
Honor your health - gentle nutrition.
Research continues to emerge on both benefits of Intuitive Eating and negative effects of chronic dieting. One such study found that college women who counted calories and weighed themselves frequently had higher body weights than those who did not count calories or weigh themselves regularly. Take it from someone who has done it several times in her life, counting calories is stressful and a bit depressing because you often feel like you cannot eat what you really want.
You may be thinking that Intuitive Eating sounds great but difficult and you would be right. It is important to note that weight loss should not be your number one goal when trying to become an intuitive eater. A good goal instead would be to make peace with food. Many critics of Intuitive Eating think of it as an excuse to eat whatever you want. In reality, intuitive eaters are more attuned to their bodies and often choose nutrient-dense foods over calorie-dense foods because they understand the importance of such nutrient consumption in order to fuel their bodies best.
Having good nutrition knowledge is imperative to taking care of your body and would be an important tool to have before embarking on becoming an intuitive eater. Intuitive Eating can be difficult and would be especially so if you did not understand what nutrients your body needs to thrive, the difference between macronutrients and micronutrients, why hydration and physical activity are important for your overall health, what types of foods tend to cause weight gain, and even the basics of digestion and how to recognize foods that are causing gastrointestinal discomfort.
If you are interested in learning more, here are a couple resources:
There are also RD's specializing in Intuitive Eating (something I hope to do in the future). Although I could help you out on this topic now, I simply do not have the time, but I do hope to be able to work with you in the future! Send me an e-mail or leave a comment below if you want to learn more about Intuitive Eating...or anything else nutrition related!
-Brittany
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