Diet Survivors: October 2007 Archives

In the effort to control your weight, are you already doing your best? For many of you, you've been doing your best for years already. Is there anything you can possibly do that you haven't done?

Probably not. If you feel you're already doing your best to eat reasonable portions, to avoid overeating dessert, and to stop when you're full, then why are you still making yourself crazy with diets and watching the scale?

Here's an idea. Why not ditch the scale, and just rely on doing your best? It's all you can do, right? And that way, you can enjoy life. Hey, you're either doing your personal best or your not. Make up your mind.

You've ditched your diet addiction and traded it in for learning to sense your hunger and fullness signals. So do you still need to control your portions?

Yes and no. Theoretically, hunger and fullness signals should be pretty reliable. But it's a long road to finding that sensitivity, one paved with bumps and detours.

How will portion control help? For intuitive eaters, also called normal eaters, portion awareness may work better than portion control. After all, you gave up dieting because the whole "control" approach to eating never worked for you.

It's easy to gain portion awareness. Just watch thin, normal eaters.

Watch someone who has always been thin, or someone who has been an intuitive eater for a while and is at a reasonable weight.

Notice their portion sizes.

Also notice a few other traits common to normal eaters:

1. Some are pretty picky, choosing the best bittes first, and discarding any bit of food that's less than perfect

2. They stop without finishing their food because they're satisfied

3. If they put too much on their plates, they end up leaving more on their plates

4. They slow down as they get full, and push their food around (children do that too)

As a final note, here's what not to do:

1. Don't watch anorexics, bulimics or othe rdisordered eaters to learn about portion sizes. They will confuse you.

2. Don't look to restaurant portions as a good guide, unless perhaps it's a French restaurant.

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A prominent psychologist once said that the happiest people are the ones who don't have a case of the "if-onlies" as in "My life would be perfect if only..." You fill in the blank.

Do you think it's because those happy people have perfect circumstances? Or could it be that they are able to be content with what they already have?

Happiness doesn't arise from circumstances. It comes from one's attitude or approach to one's circumstances. Happiness is more of a choice than you might think.

I don't have the if-onlies. I love my life. Yes I hate my wallpaper, and I'm the one who picked it out, which makes it even worse. Yes I have a disabled teen that still can't zip his own zipper. He will likely always be dependent on me, and I probably will never enjoy an empty nest.

But it would be stupid of me to still be chasing after an elusive happiness. Life is full of brokenness, and I've decided I can be happy anyway. I can find happiness right here and now.

Here's a challenge today to all of you who still have eating issues, eating disorders, or any kind of dysfunction. Can you try saying, "My life is already pretty good, even with my eating issues." Or "My life is already pretty good, even though I'm overweight." Is it possible you could choose to be happy RIGHT NOW, even though you're still on a path to overcoming your problems?

Granted, there are sad times in life. So maybe contentment, rather than happiness, is what I'm talking about. Some folks call it joy. How much power do we really have to be content or joyous, regardless of outside circumstances? Quite a bit, I would venture.

Click on the book cover for more information

Free resources: (You'll see after clicking how to subscribe to them)

Diet Survivors meditations

Diet Survivors newsletter

Diet Survivors message board

Food and Feelings message board

Find out more about Linda Moran's book, How to Survive Your Diet.