The following people are total inventions of my imagination!! No Blogger #1 or #2 or even #27. If you see yourself in the following post, rest assured, it's not you.
Sylvia goes out for supper with some colleagues from work to celebrate Amy's promotion. She looks at the menu. The menu features her favourites: fettuccine Alfredo and Caesar salad, no doubt drenched in dressing with big, fat croutons and real bacon bits (they don't skimp at this restaurant). The special also includes dessert: tiramisu, that delicious Italian specialty. Of course, there's a big basket of crusty bread on the table and nice soft butter to spread on it. The food is divine, she really feels like eating this food and she eats every single bite with great relish.
Martin works from home and it's lunch time. He has a poached egg, a piece of whole grain toast and some carrots and radishes. Then he has a handful of walnuts, followed by some grapes and then, why not, because he just loves the stuff, a couple of squares of chocolate.
Fred and Ann have a great supper. An hour later, even though they're still quite full, they both eat a slice of cake, left over from their son's birthday party the day before. It tastes fantastic.
Sylvia, Martin, Fred and Ann all ate exactly what they felt like eating and exactly as much as they felt like eating. I guess that makes them intuitive eaters, right? Guess again.
Of all the weight loss approaches in today's world, intuitive eating is getting the worst rap. In fact, I entitled this post "No Title"because of how dismissive people are of IE. Often, people simply giggle at the idea and at very worst they savagely rip it apart. But do they really know what it's about?
Stay tuned for Part 2...
Bad and Getting Worse
1 day ago
I should wait for part 2 before saying anything, but I know that intuitive eating does get a bad rap because people don't understand it very well. Part of the problem is that a lot of people with weight problems are so out of tune with their bodies (or really cannot read their bodies satiety levels because of broken biological connections, like me) that they scoff at the notion that anyone could practice intuitive eating successfully. This is part of the self-centered nature of many people - they think that if it can't work for them, it can't work for anybody. It's an attitude I have encountered as well when I talk about learning moderation. People believe moderation is impossible to learn and to practice on a permanent basis.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing your point may be that many people think "intuitive eating" means eat as much of anything as you want when you're hungry or to keep eating as long as you're hungry. Of course, I know that is not what it means. I think people willfully misunderstand it because they want to dismiss the concept, or they really are so far away from reading their body's cues that they can't begin to relate to the possibility that anyone can eat based on such cues.
I look forward to part 2.
I think that along with an inability to read our body's cues accurately is an entitlement mentality. The idea, fueled by the media and other influences in today's world, that we all should get what we want, when we want. If a little of something is good, a lot must be better, whether food or material possessions. Factor in eating in response to emotions and stress and it's a wonder anyone could accomplish true "intuitive eating."
ReplyDeleteYour description of the Fettuccine Alfredo dinner could have been set to music!
ReplyDeleteI actually don't know what IE is all about. I'm eager for Part 2.