An Experiment

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

Let me start off by saying that if you are a newbie, you might want

to skip over this post. It could trigger diet mentality for some

people, which is certainly not my intention.

After practicing the principles of Intuitive Eating for over 6

months, I think I am ready to tackle Principle 10: Honor Your Health -

Gentle Nutrition. The operative words there are, " I think... " . That

is why I am calling this " An Experiment " . We'll see how things go.

After 3 weeks of legalizing Halloween candy and soda, I am ready for

some gentle nutrition! Sadly, unlike my experiences with many

other " fun foods " , where I gradually got more and more sick of them,

with the steady diet of candy and soda I discovered I was getting

more and more drawn to them and felt an almost irresistible urge to

consume them more each day. I also found it was altering my cravings.

I no longer craved fresh fruit,or balanced meals. I felt like I was

rotting my teeth out and setting myself up to go over the " edge " into

Diabetes land. (I have been on the border for many years.) I am tired

of feeling tired and having very swollen feet and ankles. I finally

decided it was time to honor my body with some gentle nutrition and

to step away from the Halloween candy and soda for a while.

I feel like I am going to be walking a fine line between diet

mentality and honoring my health with gentle nutrition. I could

easily slip into diet mentality and vow to avoid all sugar and start

weighing myself daily. But I do have a few strategies in mind to help

me avoid that. I was struck by a quote in the chapter about Principle

10, that said, " In matters of taste, consider nutrition, and in

matters of nutrition, consider taste. " That is going to be my mantra

for the next few days because it reminds me that just because I am

going to choose to honor my body with gentle nutrition does not mean

I cannot choose foods that I enjoy and that satisfy me. In fact, I

consider it my responsibility to make SURE I choose foods that

satisfy me.

Also, as I was rereading some of the " Intuitive Eating " book tonight

I found the advice about switching from linear thinking to process

thinking VERY helpful. My natural instinct is to be a linear thinker

and say, " I will avoid all candy and soda for one month and see how

my body responds. " But if I think of the process instead of focusing

on an endpoint, I will be much less anxious and just content to

observe what happens each day and to learn from the experience. Like

tonight, I observed, " I have not had soda or Halloween candy for 2

days. Yesterday I had a ferocious desire for these foods after every

meal. Today I notice my cravings are greatly diminished. " Or this

one, " When I was really craving chocolate after dinner tonight, I

found I was very satisfied with just a small piece of dark chocolate. "

Maybe I will learn I am not ready to take this step. I didn't even

have the courage to read the chapter on Principle 10 until last

night. But I am going to hang on to my Food Anthropologist hat for

all I am worth and try to keep my Diet Mentality hat buried in the

closet and see how it goes. I will keep you posted!

I.E.'ing since April '08