Have you ever thought, “I wish I could just eat normally!”
Hell yes, right, lol!
I’ve had this thought for years not sure when I first started to think it, but it’s been years for sure, probably decades.
I thought that by quitting dieting, I would be able to eat normally. Well, that didn’t work, lol! After a few attempts, I had to acknowledge that I didn’t even know what eating normally was.
What does eating normally look like?
Good question. The answer will likely surprise you as much as it did for me.
Eating normally is when eating is not a thing, not an issue. When eating is not a worry. When eating is just another thing you do in your day.
Normal eating is flexible because that what life is about – change. Think of normal eating is like a palm tree.
If you watch a palm tree during a terrible storm, they bend; they are really flexible so that they can weather the storm. Very rigid trees cannot weather the storm and break.
Eating normally is flexible, adaptable and bendable. It goes with the flow, lol what a concept, eh lol!
Normal eating is rooted in trust for yourself. Trusting your body with food and around food.
Eating normally is grounded in respect. Respect for food and your body. Normal eating respects the innate function of food; to fuel & nutrition to your body with pleasure. It’s eating with respect towards your body not because you have to or there’s a rule that said so but because you want your body to be able to do all the things for you.
Normal eating is not about trying to change your body, thinness or beauty. THAT’s a game-changer for me…. changing my beliefs about the purpose of food and eating in my life. Because up to then, food and eating had been about controlling my body.
You see all of us, you yes, all of you reading; All of us are born eating normally. We all have this skill within us.
But as we go along our lives, something overrides this inner wisdom of normal eating and rewrites the coding in our mind of what normal eating should be or ought to look like. That something is DIET Culture.
Why eating normally start differently for chronic dieters
You see, these adults that are “normal eaters”, are the people who have never been on a diet. They’ve never had their inner food and eating “coding” altered.
They don’t question or negotiate with their hunger. These are the people who leave the chocolate cake on their plate but don’t even notice until you ask them why.
They eat an entire pizza with their buddies without a second thought.
A normal eater says no to eating that second helping of mash potatoes not because it’s too many calories but because they know that if they do that will feel a ball in the pit of their stomach and not be able to play with the kids after dinner.
So how do you become one of these people? A Normal eater?
- Recognize that nothing is wrong with you; you are not broken; it’s not your fault that you are struggling with eating and food. DC fucked up your eating habit, your relationship with food and your body. Sit with that and accept it!
- Then once you accepted that nothing is wrong with you, move on to the next stage, which is to acknowledge that you were born a “normal eater” and that you have the innate wisdom within you to eat normally. Hell yess, you are good enough! Deeply connect with this part of self-worth!
- Then reconnect to your innate power around food. You can use a process like the 10 principles of intuitive eating to make your way back home… or others, doesn’t matter. Just make sure that whatever method you choose to reconnect to your innate power around food and eating isn’t tinted with DC!
Sound simple right? LOL Remember my story at the beginning… I’m transparent I tried that 3 steps process, and I struggled.
So this episode of the podcast, I’m going into detail about what is the missing ingredients to make the process of becoming a normal eater easier for former dieters.
What you’ll learn listening to this episode:
- What is normal eating
- How to develop normal eating behavior
- The difference in the process of normal eating for women who have been dieting for long period.
