One of my clients inspired this journal entry. She is beautiful inside and out, and she has been working very hard to heal physically and emotionally from eating disorders and the subsequent damage that has occurred in her body. I thank her for being such an inspiration, and for helping me to have the courage to share how I have freed myself of being a slave to old beliefs about eating and food.
I work with many people with negative body images and eating disorders, but I have had to work through my own issues on both of those subjects. I have learned to listen to my body; so I eat what I want to, when I want to, and stop when I have had enough. I don’t stress over eating too much at one meal, because one meal will never make me fat. I no longer have an obsession with food; eating is a wonderfully pleasant experience for me now.
What I have found that works best is listening to your own body. Tune in, ask what your body needs, and if you LISTEN, it will tell you. YOU are in control of your body, nothing and no one else is. Like anything new that you are learning, this takes practice and persistence, so don’t give up on the first try! Lovingly ask yourself what it is that your body needs to be nourished, healthy, strong and vital. Honor your thoughts and feelings as they come up; really LISTEN.
There is no one out there who can tell you what diet is going to work best for you, because we are all unique. How our bodies function organically is the same, but how we process information is unique to each of us.
We have been force fed (pun intended) a plethora or information about what we should eat and how we should eat it, so no wonder so many of us are unhappy with our bodies, and weight in particular. Intuitive eating takes effort because it requires you to tune into your own body every time you want to eat. That is a good thing! The more you tune into your own body, the better you get to know yourself!
Key steps to eating intuitively are:
1. Toss out all the diet books. They are not wrong, but they work for the people that wrote them. What works for your body won’t be what works for your neighbor.
2. Get quiet and ASK your body what it needs to feel good, nourished and healthy. It will tell you, and you may be surprised at what you “hear.” Your body may crave things early on, especially if you have starved it of certain foods.
3. Honor your hunger. Eat when you are hungry, stop when you have had enough. Let go of all preconceived ideas about when to eat, what to eat, how to eat.
4. Trust your body. It will get the proper nutrients and the right amount of calories from what you eat as long as you are in tune with your body and feeding yourself accordingly.
5. Remove emotion from eating; make peace with food.
6. Love yourself the way you are right now. You are perfect. Realize this, accept it, and be at peace with yourself, then learn to listen to what your body is telling you. Understand that we all have different body types, bone structure, etc. Some of this you cannot change, but when you listen to and honor your body, you take back control; the control that we have given away.
7. Approach eating with gratitude for what is in front of you, for your body, for your ultimate good health.
The sense of freedom that comes with eating intuitively is amazing. Honor and love yourself in all ways, always.
Peace to you on your journey.
Valerie
Sept. 28, 2012
