Category: Blog Posts

In Defense of Mindless Eating

Ok ok ok, sure sure sure — paying attention to what you are eating, and enjoying it, and really tasting your food and feeling for satiation is never a BAD thing, especially when it makes you happy and feel good.

But the rules of “mindful eating” or “intuitive eating” are stressful and unhelpful and you should throw them away. You don’t have to pay attention when you eat.

I used to get so stressed about whether I was eating too fast or not paying attention enough or not keeping each bite in my mouth long enough or whatever. Then when I was sort of satiated I would stressedly stop so I didn’t overeat, and then I would be hungry 45 minutes later.

That is a nice way to spend your entire day eating very slow tiny bites. Which is not much of a life.

Paying attention to what you eat will never hurt, but it is not the be-all-end-all.

Eating should be EASY. It should not take hours and should not take much thought at all!

You can eat that brownie fast. You can eat it fast and be hungry still and get another one, and eat that one fast too. Then you may take a third and eat that one fast as well and maybe stop near the end when you feel like you may feel full. Or maybe you eat 5 brownies til you feel full. That is normal and that is fine. Hungry people eat fast. You are supposed to. It is FINE.

We have made eating too stressy.

Maybe afterwards you’ll think- wow I wish I enjoyed those brownies more. Or maybe you won’t. Maybe you enjoyed them just fine and you enjoyed eating them fast. Either way: WHATEVER.

Then you will be full, or very full, or slightly full for a time. That time will pass and you will get hungry again. Maybe in 45 minutes because your body really wanted some protein too. Or maybe in 4 hours because you ate lots of the perfect thing for you at that time.

Your body is SO SMART that you don’t even need to pay close attention to your eating. You don’t NEED to meditate on every bite. You just don’t need to. You CAN! Sure! But you can do whatever the hell you want.

Your body is smart enough to know to stop eating. Food is less desirable when you aren’t hungry anymore. And once you aren’t afraid of food or eating, non-desirable food won’t need to be quickly snuck into your body for fear you’ll never get it again.

Fuck It.

Who Would You Be

And as much as disordered eating is physical thing, it is even more a mental thing.

If you find yourself very attached the the idea of being _______________ “perfect”, “thin”, “skinny”, “beautiful”, “healthy”, “powerful”, “glowing”, etc.

Or if giving over to normal eating is too hard because you feel like in the process you are losing control of whatever word you insert above, do this exercise:

Take your word from above, whatever the thing is that you are petrified to lose or lose control over, that thing that you ACHE for. The thing that you feel would make everything RIGHT if you could just have it.

Then ask yourself, Why do I want to be ________________. 

Imagine your life that way. Imagine how you would look, how you would dress, what you would do, how you would feel, how you would BE. Imagine it in great detail and write down at least 10 specific ways YOU would feel different. Take your time with this, and don’t edit. There are no right or wrong or petty answers. Some may be brilliant and insightful and some may be silly. Write as much as you want. Fantasize. Imagine. Have fun.When you have your list, look at it and go over the items. These are the things that you really want, more than the word in your fill in the blank.

Then decide if any of those things you can go for now and be now, without worrying about getting to that ached for perfection first. Then make a list of the ways you could make those feelings and new ways you would be happen now: today, tomorrow.

***

What we really want, what we really think skinniness or beauty will give us, is happiness.

We really just want to be vibrant and awesome and authentic and happy. We want great friends, we want to laugh, we want to speak our truths, we want to give our gifts, we want to be heard and special and alive. Being pretty or skinny or buff or “in perfect health” or “powerful” are all just things we imagine will get us what we want: happiness. But I swear to baby jesus and abraham and a rubber urban outfitters statue of buddha: it will not.

You can become society’s definition of gorgeous and be more miserable than ever. In fact, that happens more often than not, because what you were going after doesn’t come with anything real except more self-criticism, and you’re still relying on their approval. Perfectionism has no stopping point.

Do it NOW. Make plans for tomorrow to do all the things you say you’ll do once you become _____________________.

I promise you that is the only way to really live.

Now.

Fuck.

It.

Q & A: How do you eat whatever you want, while dealing with hormone imbalances and insulin resistance?

I get quite a few questions like the following, and I want to take the time to answer it on my blog!

Q: I was just diagnosed with polycystic ovaries, so my hormones are very imbalanced as well. Also, my insulin receptors on my red blood cells are bad, so I’m in a pre-diabetic state–which means that I can have very little carbs or sugar. This is disappointing to me, because I was just beginning to heal my relationship with food, especially sugar and carbs, and now I’m afraid ill to back to being afraid of them because they could potentially ruin my health….

Anyway, my question is, how did you deal with your hormone imbalance and insulin resistance? Do you think it could be the Result of restricting food intake for an extended period of time?Did your hormones ever level out and/or insulin levels go back to normal? And if so how? Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!

Answer

Edited to add: Julie Duffy Dillon is a dietitian who specializes in non-diet & PCOS and I highly recommend you listen to my episode with her here.

But here is my personal experience with PCOS:

I absolutely, 100% had problems with sugar/insulin resistance in my past, and now I do not. It left me feeling horrible and shaky and tired, among other things. I am convinced this is why: genetic predisposition + STRESS/CORTISOL and lifelong restriction/binge eating.

I then think it was numerous extreme low-carb diets, and ongoing disordered eating that kept my body in a state of “WTF!?”.

My hormones, relatedly, were WACKED. Notably, low progesterone. Which, while I think there are some genetic and environmental factors at play, the straw that broke the camel’s back was STRESS/CORTISOL and compounded by restriction/low-carb diets and the backlash: binge eating.

What does this mean? This means that yes, I am certain that our body’s ability to metabolize sugar greatly decreases the less of it we eat. And that sugar is helpful metabolically. I think that the most important thing in slowly healing this, is trusting that you are NOT actually diabetic, you CAN handle sugar, and to start to experiment with eating what you want and letting go of those food fears. There will be both a learning curve for you and for your body.

I did a few things at the same time last spring of 2012, I stopped restricting sugar/everything, AND I started taking natural progesterone because I am extremely low. When they did my blood panel after a few months of eating sugar liberally, my sugar was extremely normal. After they did a blood panel of my hormones after a few months on progesterone, my testosterone was lower (more normal), even though I was continuing to eat liberally.

This goes to show that eating more sugar does no equal insulin resistance/imbalanced hormones!

Also lastly for hormones, stress reduction is very important! But guess what one huge stressor tends to be in our lives? Thinking we are supposed to be on some ultra important life-saving, beauty restoring diet! And, that any deviation from it is utter failing.

Another big part of stress reduction is a good dose of spirituality and trusting and accepting of what this weird little crazy, little amazing life has to offer. And trusting that food is not your biggest enemy, no matter what they say.

I am not personally 100% healed of hormonal problems, but my health, energy, appetite, and life is without a doubt better since trusting that food and sugar were not my enemies.

Please take note that I am not a doctor, so with any medical advice, please use your own personal intuition about your body first, as well as consulting a (maybe, holistic or HAES) doctor or nutritionist as well.