Who Are You Listening To?

Most people refuse to envisage intuitive eating for one simple reason: it's based on listening to your body.

"Eek! If I listened to my body, I'd be stuffing myself with bad food constantly!"

Actually, no, you wouldn't and here's why: you're not listening to your body. When you're eating in a clearly destructive way, you're listening to your mind, not your body.

The mind is a really noisy creature. It talks constantly and is usually really loud. It's got an opinion on everything, it makes all kinds of crazy (and yes, sometimes even surprisingly sensible) suggestions. It rarely leaves you in peace. Even when you're asleep, you're dreaming...your mind's at work.

Much of the time, the body is shy and retiring. If your health is decent, you don't notice yourself breathing. Your heart beats normally and quietly. You only notice your heart when something's really wrong or when you're exercising and your heart rate is elevated. You don't think about your back or your joints unless you've had an accident or suffer from arthritis. Usually, your body just goes about its work and doesn't make a fuss or constantly remind you that it's there.

Your body does communicate with you, but one of the sad lessons we learn as we grow up, is that we should ignore its messages. A baby cries when he or she is hungry. Once sated, the infant usually drifts off into a happy slumber. Babies also turn their heads away in disgust once they've had enough to eat. What do we do as adults? We "virtuously" ignore our legitimate hunger signals one day and stuff ourselves to the point of feeling physically ill the next. We often act this destructively several times a day.

Growing up is the process whereby we learn to no longer listen to our bodies and only listen to our minds. Sad, isn't it?