The idea of intuitive eating is to listen to your internal cues, rather than external rules, to guide what and how much you eat. The hope is that you will listen to your cravings and hunger to determine when to stop eating.

As I said in my previous post, I believe the only way to easily and naturally stop when you are satisfied (as opposed to nervously eating more than is comfortable), is to truly allow all foods and commit to never restricting again.

Don’t Stress Out Over New Rules

One of the rules or ‘guidelines’ that you will often hear about intuitive eating is “stop when you are full”. While I agree that this is a tenet of intuitive eating, sometimes coming from that angle can be stressful.

During previous intuitive eating attempts, I’d get truly stressed over “when I was full”. I was very concerned that I was going to overshoot and “not learn how to do it correctly”. Please note that THIS fear stems also from a deep fear of gaining weight, which is why body positivity is so important.

I have heard from other intuitive eating teachers and books things like: pay close attention to your hunger. Rate your hunger every few bites. Pay attention, satisfaction can happen mid-bite… While I think it is helpful to pay attention to how you feel during your eating, the way that way they focused on stopping points was stressful and unhelpful. It made me believe that there was one perfect stopping point that I should always be finding. And there is not!

There are many bites on a scale of good stopping points. And any point is ok!

You body can handle an extra few bites! Or like way more. You may be slightly fuller, but as long as you are listening and feeling and enjoying, you are doing well. And your body makes up for it in slightly longer satiation. Or slightly less hunger for your next meal or snack. Or revved metabolism.

There is no virtue in stopping just at the perfect point. Or just before you get full. There is no problem being that in-tune, but expecting there to even be a “perfect point” every time you eat is going to leave you frustrated. Especially in the beginning of your Intuitive Eating journey. There is no perfect point. Trying to find it will just stress you out.

and just for the hell of it…

In Defense of Overeating

(My definition is: eating til you are uncomfortably full.)

• teaches your body there is no famine
• teaches your mind there is no restriction
• activates your your metabolism
• teaches you how it feels to stop at different points of fullness
• proves to you that eating past fullness can’t destroy you
• focuses on nourishing, instead of restricting

Don’t get caught up in Intuitive Eating Perfectionism!

If you have read enough of my posts already, you know I don’t believe in diets, I don’t believe in letting food choices stress you out, and I don’t think cravings are demons within that we need to destroy – but instead cravings are wonderful little messages/guides that can lead us to eating what we need.

I also don’t believe that its helpful to hold ourselves to impossibly high health standards.

I argue in defense of sugar, fat, dairy, midnight snacks and more to come, in order to help people stop fearing food and start eating it.

Stop restricting and start nourishing.

So what about this little thing called Emotional Eating?

I argue that the majority of disordered eating is rooted in restriction, but sometimes, people just eat to numb out and stop feeling.

And here we get into the emotional and the spiritual side of eating.

The way we eat can reveal to us what we believe about Life. Are we afraid there is not enough? Are we constantly afraid to eat too much? Constantly restricting? Constantly guilty. Constantly hungry?

How to Address Emotional Eating

If you find yourself eating in response to sad or stressful situations instead of pure hunger, as many people do, you are afraid of your pain.

We are afraid that the anger we have will consume us. We are afraid that the fear we have will destroy us. We are afraid that the sadness we squelch will debilitate us. Yes it is scary, but we are wrong. It cannot destroy us. Pain is just pain. Our avoidance and resistance to the pain is far worse than actually just feeling it.

And the solution is simple, transformative, and not nearly as difficult as it seems: Feel.

“Whatever you accept fully, will complete itself, and disappear” – Working on Yourself Doesn’t Work.

You can always still eat after – or during. But make a contract with yourself to start feeling.

Simply feel the sensation of your pain. Label it.  Accept it, welcome it, and be curious about it.

And when you feel it, accept it and welcome it non-judgmentally, it really does lose it’s power. It becomes just a thing- not a horror.

Then you can go eat whatever you want, not because you are avoiding your life and your feelings, but because you are damn hungry.

I’ve heard it all- all the reasons dairy is apparently horrible for you:

Not only is it labelled “pus” (thank you, Skinny Bitch book), but it is filled with hormones, spikes insulin, casein is addictive, everyone is lactose intolerant, its a neolithic food, we are adults and don’t need milk, and even the most mainstream and fat-phobic reason: it is loaded with saturated FAT!

Lots of groups like to give their reasons why milk and dairy are health wreckers, but I am here to argue in Milk’s defense.

Lactose Intolerance

Many people are lactose intolerant, or “lactose intolerant”. I was diagnosed as lactose intolerant at 2 years old and grew up drinking rice milk and soy cheese. (blerggg) But I would sneak real cheese at school. In fact, my schtick in the cafeteria was that I would go to the salad bar and just fill up a whole bowl of shredded cheese and eat it with my hands. Delicious. I was a Fuck It Dieter long before I was a dieter.

But I found I could tolerate cheese no problem, and also that it was my favorite food. But milk, which I rarely tried, and never really liked anyway, made me feel bloated. Lots of the extreme diets I went on argued against dairy, and because of my “lactose intolerance” I believed them even more.

Its Not the Milk’s Fault

I read recently that lactose intolerance is not the milk’s fault, it is our fault. They argue that the difficulty digesting it is due to impaired gut function and low thyroid function. And that in many cases, slowly adding it back in can help our bodies adjust to digesting it.

Not only did Ray Peat and Danny Roddy convince me to give milk another go, but also the Weston A. Price Foundation’s support of (Raw) Dairy consumption. Not only that, but the restrictive GAPS diet I tried (and failed) even supports dairy consumption.

While WAPF and other Real Food enthusiasts insist that milk should be raw, Ray Peat seems to think that even pasteurized milk can be beneficial.

So I began drinking some. First a glass of pasteurized milk -which did leave me bloated. But, I was at my parents home in PA at the time where Raw Milk is easier to get, so the next day I had some raw milk and felt fine.

!

I kept on drinking raw milk for a few days. When I ran out, I decided to have another glass of pasteurized milk. And I felt fine. I felt fine! I cured a life long case of lactose intolerance.

Then I started in on the ice cream.

While I would say that raw milk is probably best I think it is amazing that it alone cured my inability to drink pasteurized milk. I am now back living in NY, where raw milk is far more difficult to get, so I drink pasteurized grass-fed milk sometimes. And I eat ice cream a lot.

So… Is Milk a Beneficial and/or Essential Part of the Diet?

I don’t know. I don’t know and I don’t even think I care.

I am in the business of busting food myths and food phobias.

I wanted to show myself that I could. And give myself the option to drink milk and eat ice cream if that’s what I crave. I already tolerated cream in my coffee and allthecheese. I wanted the freedom and the option to go even further. Plus I had a feeling that it could be great.

I am trying to tell you, dear reader, that if you are scared of milk: no need. And if you are lactose intolerant or even allergic to milk, it is not the milk. It may just be your body’s state, and if it is worth it to you to acclimate to drinking milk, you probably can.

How are we supposed to eat what we crave when we are afraid of food that might be good for us?!

Milk’s Benefits in Simple Terms

Milk is loaded with protein, vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin K2, and B2 and B12 vitamins. As well as grassfed milk having conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)- an amazing-for-you-fat. These are all vitamins that are not quite abundant in other foods, and definitely not abundant in plant foods.

Milk is easy to consume and the nutrients are easy to absorb.

I think the best thing about milk and cheese and ice cream though, is that it is one of the highest foods in saturated fat, which is a good thing. It supports healthy cell, hormone and brain function, as well as being anti-inflammatory.

Remember, my goal is to take away unnecessary food phobias to allow our cravings to be King. Don’t listen to those ladies who wrote Skinny Bitch. Just because they have a book doesn’t make them right.

And just because I have a blog doesn’t make me right.

Listen to Yourself.

and Fuck It!