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.