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“I’ll
start my diet Monday!” Sound familiar? Every
week women make this promise to themselves, usually
after having blown yet another diet.
After
the binging, guilt and beating yourself up have passed,
you plan your next diet, hoping for a different outcome.
While the diet industry would like you to think you
are a failure and just need a different diet or more
willpower, the truth is very different.
The
answer to permanent weight loss and a healthy relationship
with food is learning to eat intuitively. You knew
how to do this when you were born. Infants and most
thin people eat intuitively. Watch a baby when you
have the opportunity. You will see that the baby screams
and demands food when she is hungry, regardless of
the time of day, or if her mother is busy or tired.
And when the baby is full, the bottle is refused or
the food is thrown on the floor. Babies don’t
have to clean their plates or eat everything so they
can have dessert.
In
theory, Intuitive Eating is quite simple – eat
when you are physically hungry, stop when you are
full, and enjoy what you are eating. Sounds almost
like the opposite of dieting, doesn’t it? The
best thing is, when you learn to eat intuitively your
body will return to its natural weight and you will
be able to maintain that weight without dieting, deprivation
or excessive exercise.
So
if we were born with this innate ability, why are
so many of us disconnected from it? There are many
reasons. As a young child, you probably heard messages
such as, “Eat everything on your plate and you
will get dessert,” or “You can’t
be hungry, it’s not dinner time!” In school
you ate at the scheduled lunchtime. Maybe your grandmother
was offended if you didn’t eat seconds. And
you were probably forced to eat things you didn’t
like in order to get a cookie or ice cream. As you
got older, you learned about dieting from your friends
at school; they were all doing it. And the magazines
you read told you how you should look and feel about
yourself. As an adult, you are still being inundated
with these messages. It’s no wonder everyone
is confused and feels like a failure!
Here
are the main reasons that we overeat, gain weight,
develop poor self-images and experience constant frustration:
-
Diet
deprivation backlash. This is a phenomenon
that most chronic dieters know well. Every time
you go on a diet, certain foods are on the “bad”
list. Many are probably your favorites, such as
chocolate, cookies, or cheese. The mind is a funny
thing. It will make you crave the very things you
restrict. Hence, for every diet there is an equal
and opposite binge. Instead of denying and restricting,
when you eat intuitively you can eat the foods you
love when you are hungry and not gain weight!
-
Emotional
eating. Many people react to emotional
situations by eating. This is a learned behavior,
usually from childhood. What you are actually doing
is stuffing down your feelings with food. This allows
you to focus on feeling sick from eating too much,
and you get to beat yourself up for your behavior,
thereby avoiding the original emotion and situation.
A better choice is to feel the emotions, however
painful, and work through them. Some people who
cannot lose weight are actually making sure the
weight stays on (without knowing it) so they have
something else to focus on (being overweight, feeling
guilty) instead of their true emotions.
-
Lack
of truthful nutrition information. With
all the diets and so-called nutrition “experts”
telling you what, when and how to eat, it’s
easy to be confused. High-protein, low-carb, low-fat,
3 meals a day, 6 small meals a day, it goes on and
on. When you learn intuitive eating your body will
let you know when you are hungry and what it wants.
There is some truth to the protein craze. I don’t
endorse high-protein diets; they are dangerous and
the weight loss is not permanent. But including
a small amount of protein every time you eat is
a great strategy for keeping your blood sugar stable
and inhibiting sugar cravings. If you eat nothing
but carbohydrates, no matter how much you eat you
will probably be hungry in an hour. Protein helps
buffer carbohydrate in the stomach, slowing down
digestion and keeping you satisfied and your blood
sugar stable.
-
Getting
too hungry. One sure way to overeat is
to let yourself get too hungry. You probably have
experienced this a few times – you forget
to eat or keep putting it off until you are so hungry
you are shaking, feeling dizzy, irritable and unable
to concentrate. When you finally do eat, you fail
to control how much you eat. You keep eating, still
shaking, thinking you are still hungry. This goes
on until you finally feel the food in your stomach,
usually way beyond the point of feeling satisfied.
You may even feel sick to your stomach, and the
guilt and shame follow. Pay attention to your hunger
and eat when you first sense it. This will prevent
weight gain and the desire to go on yet another
diet to punish yourself.
ACTION STEPS
1.
Spend the next month learning your physical hunger
cues. Throughout each day ask yourself, “Am
I hungry?” With time you will feel your hunger
naturally without having to think about it. When you
are hungry, eat something that you enjoy and really
want. Be sure to add some protein to whatever you
are eating.
2.
Throughout the same month, focus on learning how satisfaction
and fullness feel. While you are eating, check to
see if you are beginning to get full. As a general
guideline, if you feel pressure on your stomach you
have probably gone beyond full. Over time you will
learn to identify genuine fullness more naturally
and easily.
3.
Each time you want to eat, yet realize that you are
not physically hungry, tune in to what
is going on around you. There is some reason you want
food, and it is probably emotional.
Ask yourself how you feel. Are you sad, angry, or
tired? Are you procrastinating, or attempting to avoid
work or a decision? Spend a few minutes sitting with
the emotion instead of eating. When you experience
the emotion, its intensity will lower, whereas if
you try to “eat it away,” the emotion
will return with equal or greater intensity.
About
the Coach:
Gillian
Hood-Gabrielson is the founder and President of Healthier
Outcomes. A popular and in-demand fitness
and intuitive eating coach, Gillian understands the
unique needs of busy women in different ages and stages
of life. She is widely known for her ability to create
a high degree of motivation among her clients to make
exercise and intuitive eating an enjoyable and integral
part of their lives.
Check
out additional information on Gillian’s
Coaching Page.
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