Mindful Eating, Intuitive Eating. If you haven’t heard of these ideas, you are in for a treat! Mindful eating truly is the key to ending almost all of the problems people face around food. And before you roll your eyes, I promise I’m not going too granola on you!
Have you ever noticed how a brand new baby seems to just know when to stop eating? Or how a young toddler somehow seems to balance out the food they eat over a week to get everything they need? I find it amazing how we are just born with this “intuitive” sense of what and how much our bodies need to function perfectly. What did we do to mess this up so badly as adults?!
Unfortunately in our silly adult world we have created eating “rules” full of good foods and bad foods, diets, emotional eating, time parameters and on and on. In the future maybe I’ll share some of the funny “rules” I’ve heard my clients tell me they lived by. While most of these rules are created with the best of intentions, they all have the same end effect: they dull our recognition of the signals our body is trying so desperately to tell us.
We are born perfectly in tune with our bodies (yes, there are rare exceptions, but we’re talking about the typical person). We are born very attuned to our hunger and know when we are full. Babies who are allowed to follow their own hunger and fullness cues do not overeat. Toddlers who are allowed access to a wide variety of healthy foods pick and choose exactly what their growing bodies need at that time. Sounds like something from a perfect world, doesn’t it?
In our culture, kids are now exposed to these “rules” that start challenging the communication they are receiving from their bodies at younger and younger ages. Firmly enforced feeding schedules can lead some babies to overeat at one feeding so they don’t feel hungry before the next. Juice, candy and junk foods are great instant gratification; constant access to these foods can make it hard for toddlers to be drawn to the foods they most need for their growing bodies. As kids grow older they can’t help but want the bright packaging and funny commercials of less healthy foods. Gradually they are taught to start questioning, then dismissing their hunger signals, fullness cues, and cravings. It’s no wonder there are such problems with picky eating, childhood obesity, and nutrient deficiencies.
Luckily there is hope! We can all learn to be mindful, intuitive eaters again. Helping our kids learn to listen to their bodies again will help them avoid the same challenges we may have with food. Easy actions make a huge difference: helping them take a few seconds before a meal to actually gauge how hungry they are, having fun family conversations during meals instead of being distracted by the TV, helping them gauge how they felt after eating too much or too little, letting them help choose between healthy meal options, and letting them describe the flavors and textures of new foods, just to name a few. I feel very passionately about intuitive and mindful eating because I have seen the huge effect it has had on my own life and health as well as for the people I’m lucky enough to work with. I will be sharing many more ideas in the future on how to actually move towards more mindful eating. I’m very excited to see how you use these ideas to help your family become healthier!
If you just can’t wait and want to get started right away, I highly recommend you check out intuitiveeating.com. I’m not in any way affiliated with them, but I probably should be with how often I refer my friends and family to their books and information! Please let me know how you are getting started on your intuitive eating journey.