Opening a grapefruit, the scent sprays warm and sweet. I smell the tropics and am reminded why I like to travel south.
::
When you eat with your head and not your belly, you eat all sorts of wrong things. I listen very closely to my body. It tells me what I want to eat. And I listen for the feedback of my digestive system about how well I like a certain food – do I digest it well and does it energize me or am I bloated and lethargic? I track the food I eat. I eat whatever I truly want, after checking in with my belly. It’s my gut feeling. It’s so easy to eat well. When I eat well I am fit and healthy.
I read recently that the new diet is no diet; it’s the astonishing concept of eating well and not counting calories. Who knew?
Well I knew. I’m sick and tired of people refusing to be responsible to their body – to their own selves – and ingesting all sorts of medication, processed food, and poisons (alcohol, for example), then wondering why they are fat or feel crappy. To fight the lethargy caused by sleep deprivation and poor eating habits, we develop caffeine addictions, and chug Red Bull.
As a society we are addicted to fat, caffeine and sugar. We brag that we can do nothing without coffee; we brag about overeating on the holidays. We spend millions on gym memberships and diet aids.
You already know how to eat well. Your body, which is wiser than any brain, knows and will tell you if you listen. It may take a while to reset, to drop the habit of feeding yourself crap, but once you truly start listening, your body will guide you when to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat.
I used to eat secretly, binge with guilt, and hide my shamefully fat thighs in baggy pants. Now I eat what I want, when I want. I never overeat, I no longer diet, and I am not shamed by my body. I drink lots of water, my main beverage.
When I am about to eat, I look at the food I am choosing and imagine how it will feel in my body, as I eat it, as I digest it, and after. Will it bring me energy and vitality, will it nourish and enrich me? Or will it be hard to digest, sitting like cement in my belly? I notice hard-to-digest meals, like fast food, makes me lethargic and dopey. When I eat fresh ripe foods that are close to their natural state (ie not overly-processed), I am energized, athletic and healthy. It’s simple.
Yes Mum, you were right. Eat well, drink plenty of water, and get lots of fresh air and exercise. Take less than you think you want – you can always have seconds. Wash your hands, stay home when you’re sick, and be nice to those around you. Get plenty of rest and have close friends.
Life’s so simple, and if we stop distracting ourselves with nonsense like diets, plastic surgery and dis-health (don’t even get me started on how many ailments could be cured by drinking more water) – if we instead focus our energies on our power, our strengths and our ability to live in joy, well then we’d live as our natures intend. And we’d live long healthy happy lives full of love and joy.
Recently, upon the recommendation of my own intuition, I began eating more fat. I have always eschewed margarine for butter and eat full-fat yogurt and sour cream; now I don't worry about the fat in meat or cheese.
I take cream in my coffee. No cream, no coffee. I remember a friend telling me about having to break up with a man because he used skim milk in his coffee. I totally understood.
I am aging, and see my skin losing the subcutaneous fat that gives it that youthful glow. I love to practice taekwondo and am happy to be in pretty good shape, but a negative side-effect of weight-loss that I am developing a gauntness in my face. My mother-in-law has few if any wrinkles. She puts it down to healthy plumpness.
So I started thinking, what if I eat more fat? I eat well, and most of the fats I take in are from dairy, avocados, and meat. Chicken without the skin is bland; in fact I'd rather have tofu.
Fat-free and low-fat foods tend to have much higher sodium. Because fat carries the flavor, with no or less fat, they have to pump up the salt for taste. So those low-fat foods are rarely more healthy; it's really just substituting one "problem" for another.
Why did I put the word problem in quotation marks? It's because I don't think fat is a problem. And apparently the scientists now agree with me too.
Although I have linked to a good website above, I don't actually steer by what the experts say - we all know that you can drum up an expert to agree with any point of view. I trust, more than anything else, my intuition and my body. No one else has a body and life just like mine; when I listen to my heart and listen to my belly, I eat well and live richly, and I thrive.
I invite you to not eat by numbers - calories, percentages of fat, or serving size, for example. Eat from your heart, eat from your belly. Stop eating before you're full, ask if your body wants more. Drink lots of herbal tea, enjoy that bowl of ice cream, but make sure it is ice cream and not frozen dessert product.