Restricting: What Does Work?
In Part 1 of Restricting, I explained that restricted eating always fails.
When you are undernourished, which occurs with restriction, your body will demand more, making you more likely to eat mindlessly, automatically, and quickly. In fact, how nourished you are from earlier in the day and even the day before will affect what and how much you eat.
Now I want to ask you a question: Who decides how much you are supposed to eat? This decision may come from an expert, a book, a magazine, a program, or possibly from your self-imposed actions. Unfortunately, when you are making a decision based on these suggestions, you are being controlled and are not eating intuitively.
If you have been restricting/skipping meals or just not getting the amount of food your body needs, you will probably end the restriction by choosing food that is convenient, tempting, or comforting: salty chips and salsa, greasy french fries, a brownie with ice cream, or a candy bar. Oftentimes you won’t even remember later what you ate or how much. Do you recall tasting anything when you binged? Hit reply and let me know!
If you had been well-nourished all along, you might have chosen salmon with rice and a garden salad or steak with roasted potatoes and grilled veggies. Be thoughtful, though, and ask yourself if you believe eating “good” food makes you good and choosing “bad” food makes you bad. Simply put, that’s a non-starter. When you clear away the “should” and “can’t” statements, the world of intuitive eating comes into view.
Clients are always telling me that they are the one person who can’t stop eating rice, Reese's, french fries, etc. I call this your “fear food.” It’s the food we fear we’ll lose control over and, thus, must restrict.
What if you could rely on your body to make the choices that are best for you at the moment? I believe you can. And guess what – after learning how to listen to your body’s hunger cues, tuning into what you really want to eat, and eating without any shame or guilt, you, too, will find you can stop restricting and binging! It’s amazing!!!!!!