Have Your Pizza and Eat It Too
by Dinneen
Filed under Blog, Emotional Eating, Intuitive Eating
The other evening I went out to dinner with my husband when something really struck me that I wanted to share with you…
I looked over at the next table and saw a young girl who had a piece of pizza on the plate in front of her. I saw the mother trying to coax her to eat, but the girl was just too interested in looking around, saying hi to other people in the restaurant, and she even got up to check out flowers in the restaurant.
Then she went back to her seat, started talking to her brother, and then finally (after about 5 minutes) she took her first bite of pizza.
And then it hit me — that’s what Intuitive Eating (also called mindful eating) is all about. About getting back to that place where *life* is more interesting and fulfilling that food isn’t so important anymore.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love food and I really enjoy eating. And when I sit down to eat most of the time I’m hungry.
But in our culture, we are so attuned to food being used as a solution to our issues, to food being used as a recreation, to food being used as a social tool, that we have seemingly forgotten that foods primary purpose –is to nourish our bodies. AND that eating can be (and should be!) physically pleasurable.
But for so many, food often plays other roles and seems to have taken precedence over many other things in our life.
But food shouldn’t be a substitute for pleasure in life.…it should be a part of it. And just like this young girl at the Italian restaurant — she was so interested in other things that the food was no longer so important.
You see, intuitive or mindful eating gets you back in touch with your actual needs, and gives us permission to once again experience the pure pleasure of eating. It’s a common sense, hunger-based approach to eating, where you are encouraged (and learn HOW) to eat when and only when your body tells you it is hungry. But for many of us, dieting has made a sort of ‘disconnect’ in those signals.
When someone is disconnected to her internal cues of hunger or fullness, it is easier to be trigged by external triggers to eat — such as emotions, stress, being tired, because the clocks says it’s 12 noon, opportunity, and/or perceived ‘rules’ of eating.
If someone has rigid rules for so-called healthy eating, she is more likely to succumb to overeating, as a consequence of breaking the well-meaning rules.
With intuitive eating, instead of focusing on dieting, you’ll to focus your attention to what you love. Because if you love your LIFE, you’ll want to take care of your body.
So aim to be like the girl I saw in the restaurant — where food is a part of life and life’s pleasure, but it doesn’t control you or your day. No matter what your way of eating, you can apply an intuitive approach to it–it’s about a way of living and relating to food, not about a food plan.
And for those of you who would like to learn further, and get back to that place where food is just food, where you don’t eat with your emotions but instead with your stomach and inner guidance — I have a new class that will get you there. It’s an 8-week course that will change the way you think about food, help you break free of the dieting and overeating cycle, and take back control of your weight and your life. And it’s starting at the end of this month.
All the details are here, if you want check it out:
http://www.IntuitiveEatingSuccess.com
The course is definitely not a diet or eating plan, but instead a way of experiencing life which allows you to be present and aware so that you are able to listen to your body and choose food based on nourishment and self-care.
I’m so passionate about this and feel the message is an important one for any woman who wants to handle her relationship with food, her weight, and her life in a healthy way, and to become truly whole. If that is you, you will not be disappointed, I promise.
Will Work For Food
by Dinneen
Filed under Blog, Emotional Eating, Nutrition
A few weeks ago I had a bit on an epiphany. It was after lunch. I had eaten a small lunch so a few hours later was hungry and decided to have some of the nuts my husband had bought.
But these weren’t a can or container of nuts. These were “real” nuts. You know, the kind with the shell still on them? There were Brazil nuts, almonds, and walnuts.
So I took a handful and started opening them one-by-one with a nutcracker (let me remind you I haven’t done this in years). As I was doing this I realized I was putting effort into eating.
In other words, I had to WORK to get my food. And anyone who has opened nuts with a nutcracker knows that it takes time. With the time and effort it took, after about five minutes I had eaten about only 7 or 8 nuts. But it was just enough time for my body to tell me it was full. I wasn’t hungry anymore so I put the unopened nuts away.
Just then I realized that if, instead, I had opened a can of nuts – the ones with the shell already taken off – I would have eaten about 40 of them (or even more) in the five minutes! Think about how easy it is to just munch on nuts and before you know it half the container is gone!
So by working for my food, I ate less.
The same for dinner that night. I had an orange after my salad and pizza (yes, I DO eat pizza!). As it’s winter and I don’t get much Vitamin C, I decided to have an orange. Again, same story. I had to peel that orange to eat it.
Okay, I know that’s not a lot of work. But I could have easily just poured myself a glass of orange juice and within 10 seconds be done with it. But by peeling the orange, I had to do a little work. In addition, by eating the fruit itself, I get all of the fiber and nutrients that get lost when processed into juice.
By having to do some “work,” I had time to actually focus on my food, enjoy it, and think about where it came from (as it was still in it’s natural state).
We just eat so mindlessly today. We need to put little (if any) energy into getting or eating our food. Today most of us just open a box or put something in the microwave. Much of our food is “convenient” so we put almost no effort into it.
Now I don’t think you should go out and hunt for your food like the cavemen did. However, I do want to make you aware of how EASY it is today to just pop something in the microwave, open a box, or call for take-out. (Yes, I do each of these myself sometimes, but not all the time).
We need to take a step back and realize that our environment is affecting our weight.
Losing or maintaining weight is not just about eating the right foods at the right times. It’s also about being aware of your environment and how it affects not only your food choices, but your efforts to lose weight.
Like I often say: Losing weight is not just about the food. And no, it’s not nuts. But I, for one, will ‘work’ for my food.
© Dinneen Diette. All Rights Reserved.
The Magic Answer to Your Weight Struggle is Closer Than You Think
by Dinneen
Filed under Blog, Intuitive Eating
It seems every time I turn on the TV, there’s news of some celebrity, personality or public figure and their battle of the bulge and war on losing weight and KEEPING it off.
Many of us can relate. Even Oprah. Yes, Oprah
What the heck is going on?
For one thing, we keep looking to external factors to determine what and how much to eat. We’ve spent years listening to others to tell us what to eat, so we’ve been disconnected from our bodies.
If we listen to our bodies correctly, it tells us what to eat. The problem is, we’ve been listening to the “diet gurus” and other people for so long that we no longer know what to eat or even trust ourselves around food.
When I first lived in France, I was amazed how people just “knew” what to eat. There wasn’t this constant talk about calories, portion size or fat grams. They just knew.
But how did they know?
Well, for one thing, they listen to their INTERNAL cues. They listen to their bodies and trust their bodies to tell them what to do. They listen to their hunger and fullness cues, and to what their body is craving.
So how to listen to our own internal cues?
Be Mindful When Eating
In order to get back in touch with our internal hunger and fullness cues, it is important to be mindful when eating. Using our senses when eating is a great way to get back in touch with our bodies. With today’s hectic lifestyles, we’re too busy rushing around and eating food on the run. So slow down a bit and start to become more mindful when eating.
Don’t Restrict Foods
When people go on diets, they start eliminating certain foods or a food group — like carbs, for example. Once you go off the diet it’s normal to over-indulge in foods high in carbs. This is because the body has been missing the nutrients and craves them intensely. It’s the same for any foods. The more and longer a food is restricted, the more intense the craving.
At first, one might feel out of control and that they cant be trusted around the food. But over time the craving will subside and return to normal.
So stop looking for the magic answer to your weight loss. The answer is actually inside you — you just need to look inward and bring it out.
