Diet Survivors: July 2008 Archives
Do you putter? That's my way of cleaning around the house. A little here and a little here, with no real goal but to clean and tidy what's bugging me the most.
Once in a while, I go all out.
I didn't used to clean this way. I used to think I had to have a plan. I had to go room by room and be thorough.
But in reality, it meant I hardly ever cleaned at all. And I knocked myself out when I did clean, exhausted afterward.
Some people eat the way I used to clean. All or nothing. Binge or starve. Follow the plan. Use brute force to stick with it. Get depressed when you don't. Obsess.
Eating by puttering is normal. We try a bite here, and forkful there. We sometimes don't eat at all.
We eat according to whims, and according to our fancy. We eat by what's bugging us. Mostly we eat a little at a time, a bunch of small meals over the course of the day.
We eat sensibly. Just as we wouldn't use furniture polish on the windows, we don't eat dessert for dinner.
Once in a while, such as on holidays, we go all out.
Eating by puttering is normal eating.
If you do neither cleaning nor eating by puttering, pick one to start with, and then eventually use it to instruct you in how to do the other. Or start puttering both.
Puttering is sacred. Puttering is healthy. Eat by puttering.
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Find out more about Linda Moran's book, How to Survive Your Diet.
Visit the home of the book, The Rules of Normal Eating
Learn more about normal eating at Eat Normal Now
Is hunger awful?
Disgruntled dieters like to say they're tired of hunger. But that was the gnawing, empty, deprived hunger arising from a life of restriction and disgusting bland food. It's what you're running away from, right?
As you learn to eat normally, with balanced meals and intuition, you may find to your pleasant surprise that getting good and hungry before chowing down feels really good.
Actually, getting hungry is a normal part of the hunger and fullness cycle, and is what allows food to taste so good.
But dieters seem to get hooked on either never being hungry, filling up constantly on fat-free pretzels or diet soda, or getting overly hungry as a means to lose weight.
If you believe in one of the two methods, it will be hard for you to learn normal eating. Why?
We are meant to get hungry and then respond to the hunger by eating. Barring any special medical conditions, getting hungry is perfectly safe and normal. Not only that, you can embrace it.
Hunger is a good thing. Hunger means that the food will taste good. Have you ever noticed that food tastes better when you're good and hungry?
Interestingly, if you stick with the hunger and fullness method, it means you're committed to eating only delicious food. Diet food will never satisfy again.
As a normal eater, you will run into a new problem. On the occasion when you're late for your plane and stuck eating airline food, you may have no choice but to eat something less than desirable. Be prepared to feel disappointed, right up until the next meal.
Given all the pain you've caused yourself by dieting, and knowing that as a normal eater you will be occasionally disappointed, ask yourself which is better.
Just remember that once you're hungry, you don't have to stay that way. Once you have a stomach growl, or whatever is your personal hunger sign, go ahead and eat at the next convenient time.
It's better in most cases to go ahead and eat if your schedule allows, because staying hungry for too long can cause headaches and that tired old feeling of deprivation.
But if you have to wait a little longer, that's okay too. You can tolerate it. The stress caused by a little hunger is tolerable.
Click on the book cover for more information
Normal Eating solutions: (You'll see after clicking how to subscribe to them)
Diet Survivors meditations
Diet Survivors message board
Food and Feelings message board
Find out more about Linda Moran's book, How to Survive Your Diet.
Visit the home of the book, The Rules of Normal Eating
Learn more about normal eating at Eat Normal Now
