Last week we shared how to eat only when you’re
physically
hungry. The next step to intuitive eating is to recognise when
your body has
had enough food to satisfy its needs. When you stop eating at the
point of satisfaction,
rather than when you’re full,
your
body perfectly utilises that food, and some that’s in storage in
your fat cells,
to take it through to the next meal. Combining Principle’s 1 &
2 leads to
weight loss.
The way to start practicing principle 2 is to stop eating once the
physical sensation of
hunger is gone, you feel
comfortable, like
the food ‘hit the spot’.
Placing
more
awareness on the physical sensations in your body as you eat, will
help
you recognise when it’s time to stop. Many of the women who work with us also hold
unsupportive
beliefs around eating, you ‘must eat everything on your plate’ or
‘never waste
food’. Obviously these beliefs don’t support stopping when you’re
satisfied.
Learning to challenge these unsupportive beliefs and instill new
habits can
also be a significant part of this journey.
If ‘stopping eating when you’re satisfied’ is a
hard thing
for you to do, or do consistently, then emotional eating is at
play.
I don’t remember ever feeling satisfied when I
was
overweight. Food was the enemy and all I wanted was to be free of
needing it. I
wished I could live off diet coke and cigarettes (I picked that
idea up after
reading a book about how an anorexic stayed slim), I honestly
thought I’d
rather be anorexic than fat.
Food, I told myself, was something I loved; it
must be right
if I couldn’t stop eating it? But, food wasn’t actually a
pleasurable thing in
my life, it was just something I used as a weapon to beat away
uncomfortable feelings
I didn’t want to face.
At my lowest points when I was bingeing and
purging I’d prepare
by trawling the supermarket, a large packet of Twisties, tub of
ice cream, block
of chocolate, ooh that mock cream sponge roll looks good…now I
need some more
savory foods, I know, I’ll stop at KFC on the way home and pick up
a quarter
pack. Even when I ate to the point of feeling ‘stuffed’ I was
still empty. And
when I purged I’d just try to fill myself up again.
Emotional
needs will never
be satisfied with food.
Emotional eating can’t be rectified with a
physical level
solution. That’s why we developed materials that support women on
the
emotional, intellectual and spiritual levels to break free from
excess weight,
and also why we coach women one on one.
Next week we’ll introduce the third Principle
to intuitive eating
– Eat anything your body truly wants to eat.
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