The Joys Of Eating

Do you ever feel that being 'healthy' can seem so restrictive sometimes? Like you have to give up all your favorite foods, but because you're not ready to give up your favorite foods, you delay your plans to get on track with your health, or you crash-diet, only to go back to your old habits a few weeks or months down the road? Before you know it, a whole year passes by, then you turn around and realize that you're at the exact same point you were a year ago?

Phew! Just writing all that makes me feel tired, and yet that's exactly what happens when we adopt this idea that healthy eating, or that in order to reach your desired health goal, means restrictive eating.

It's definitely happened to me before.

When I made the decision to become vegetarian as a 13 year old teenager, it made sense because I felt bad for the animals and heard all these different things on why vegetariansim was the way to go. It was the right thing for me to do at the time, but physically, I didn't connect with my body's needs, which felt like I was restricting what I was eating.

Rather than focusing on a healthy, vegetarian way of eating, I unconsciously sought out other types of foods that would fulfill and satiate me the way meat and seafood did, which were not always the healthiest of choices. As a result, my body went way out of balance, and it took me a long time to realize that adopting a certain way of eating by cutting out foods did not automatically equate to being healthy.

Eventually, and over a long period of time, I re-learned what being vegetarian meant, and what it could be, and shifted my ways of eating so that I was still vegetarian and healthy. And while I'm no longer strictly vegetarian, that experience really taught me a lot about myself and the need to honor myself without dogma and judgment. It also taught me the importance of enjoying your food! You just can't sustain vibrant health if you don't enjoy what you're eating.

Eating is a very bio-individual thing. What works for your unique body may not work for someone else. And what works for you today may not work for you six months, one year, or 13 years (in my case!) down the road. This is a major reason why 'diets,' in the traditional sense, do not work, because they focus on the food, not on the person who's eating the food.

Our bodies are instinctually intelligent. It knows what it needs in order to get well. When you're run down from a cold or the flu, your body instinctually knows that more rest and water is needed. When you let a diet or way of eating dictate what and how much you should or should not be eating, you lose touch with your body's internal cuesthat normally regulate hunger and satiety. This can lead to overeating in the future because you can't tell when your body is physically full. It can also make you feel out of balance, because you're so focused on the diet that you start experiencing all these cravings and can't make much sense out of them except to give in to them.

The truth is, you don't need to give up all of your favorite foods cold-turkey in order to be healthy. I believe it's so much more effective and sustainable to focus on ADDING in foods, rather than taking away. Start with one or two simple changes, notice what a difference it makes you feel, and you will gradually keep wanting more of the food that makes you feel better. The key is to focus on what you can eat and that you enjoy eating, rather than on what you should, or would like to cut out.

And whatever you do wind up eating, savor the tastes, textures and aromas of your food, because in that moment, it's exactly what your body needs.