SO much.
If you have any sort of history of food restriction, whether from dieting, or medical stuff, or an eating disorder, or food scarcity of any kind; from financial reasons, or barriers to getting food, or the inability to prepare the food you’ve got – your body is, frankly, not going to trust you.
Even after you start giving yourself permission.
I imagine that, inside all of us, is a small, vulnerable animal (one of my wonderful students calls it the “fuzzy self”) who just needs to know it will be taken care of, and that it will be fed.
And who’s responsible for the care and feeding of fuzzy self? Yep, it’s you.
If you no longer feel clear hunger or fullness signals (aside from desperation hunger or uncomfortable overfullness), there’s probably been a breach of trust, and it’s probably been going on for a while.
If you want to get back to a state of normalcy with hunger and satiety, and to regain comfort with the idea of eating, then it’s time to repair that relationship.
But rebuilding trust requires more than just saying the words of permission; it requires action.
One of my favourite quotes from Epictetus is –
“True happiness is a verb. It is the ongoing, dynamic performance of worthy deeds.”
Read the rest of the article, heck, read the whole site. She says what I wish I could, only more eloquently and with fewer references to gin and soccer players.
Noting wrong with gin and soccer players.
Comment by BrooklynShoeBabe — October 11, 2011 @ 9:48 pm
But I LIKE the references to gin and soccer players!
Comment by Colleen — October 11, 2011 @ 11:50 pm
I think I love her, I definitely love the brilliancy of common sense… Truly excellent!
Comment by Leah — October 12, 2011 @ 1:52 am
I’ll third the gin and soccer players, because let’s face it, everything goes down better with shirtless hotness and liquor. But, thanks, this lady’s website is an incredible find. Now, of course, I’ve lost an hour to her posts, but it’s always nice to find an unexpected oasis of sanity on the loony desert of the interwebs.
Comment by megaera — October 13, 2011 @ 6:09 am