Eat like a baby?!

Published: Sat, 04/29/17

Good Morning

What do you mean by eating like a baby?!

Eat mindfully - eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. Have you ever watched a baby or even a child eat?

It's something we totally forgot how to do. We came out of the womb only eating when we felt hungry and stopping when we are full.

So, what happened?

From the time we have grown up - until probably even now, our parents have instilled in us, or society as a whole, information about how, when, and what we should eat.

Before all the bombarding of food messages we ate intuitively- we were born this way.

We have been inundated with messages of how we should and should not eat. It's enough to make anyone's head spin. Am I right? Or am I wrong?

Messages like this:

-- Clean your plate, kids are starving in Africa, don't waste your food.
-- Eat your veggies, and then you can have some dessert.
-- Finish your meal before you leave the table.
-- You didn't eat enough, have a few more bites.
-- Don't waste food.
-- If you are good at school today you can have a cookie.
-- Seconds and even thirds forced on you.
-- We don't eat sweets because they are bad for you.

I've been in California for the last week spending time with my best friend and her sweet baby.  It was interesting watching her eat, and it got me to thinking about how we eat as adults.

She is using her internal clock, which we all have, but somewhere along the way we learned to completely dismiss our own internal clocks.

We watch the clock for feeding times because, like myself, we have been lead to believe that we must eat every 2-3 hours to keep the metabolism stoked. It's a myth, by the way.

At the basic level regarding meal feeding, times are a preference, as well as how many meals.

Baby E eats when she is hungry, and when she is done eating, she drops the food on the floor to my home away from home pup, Doc, lol! :D

He is eager to eat it all up.

No forcing food, no just one more bite. She stops eating when she’s full. Every single time she eats.

We used to all eat like this until we were bombarded with messages how we should eat.

Babies cry for feedings or meal time, or if it's a young child, they ask for food when they are hungry.

We can still do the same. Eat when we are hungry, not when a meal plan says. Eating every 2-3 hours does not stoke the metabolism like we once thought.

If you like eating every 2-3 hours, by all means, go for it, but if you don't, you can eat every 4 hours, etc.

 Mindful/intuitive eating was something that we did out of the womb, and we can still do it as adults.

I come from the dieting mindset, so I can tell you first hand it wasn't easy to reverse the effects of the diet mentality. With time, patience, effort, and consistency, I did it.

I changed the way I ate and how I viewed food, even when I wanted to lose some fat. Remember, there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to lose fat. It's how we go about it.

My number 1 thing that I am offering up today for advice would be to start paying to attention to your hunger. Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are almost full. No clocks necessary. Your body is your clock.

What are your thoughts on this? On mindful/intuitive eating?

I loved to hear your perspective or about the journey you are on to having a better relationship with food and your body. Hit reply right to this email!

Thank you for reading, have a wonderful weekend!

Yours in Strength and Health,
Xo
Candace

P.S. Hit that reply button and let me know if anything resonated with you in this email. I love hearing from you!

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