If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I have been on a diet, a highly unnatural condition that we should do rarely, if ever. Just think about it: When you diet, you are literally eating less than you need to operate your brain and body. You would never expect your car to put up with something like that, but people try to do this to themselves constantly. Dieting is even presented to the public as a healthy activity. Well it isn’t.
Every day, we come to agree with the “intuitive eating” proponents more and more. Eating right has everything to do with being tuned in to hunger, thirst, and satiation, not with white-knuckling it until you get home and can fix a meal, a “meal” that’s still too little food compared to what your body is demanding in that moment. However, the truth is that you can never reliably lose pounds without restricting calories—it’s a fact of life. I admit it: I am in a quandary.
So, what about listening to your body? Last evening, I was watching a movie when a deep and persistent hunger took over, a hunger that a bowl of veggies wasn’t going to satisfy. “But I’m on a diet,” I said to myself. “I just ate dinner,” I also said to myself. I then popped up out of my seat and got a bowl of crackers. I found myself counting as I ate them, “One, two,” is that enough? “Three, four, five,” Are you okay how? “Six, seven, eight.” I feel fine now. I think I’ll live. Crisis averted.
No, listening to your body is not a cliché. What has more wisdom than an organism that has evolved for literally billions of years, every adaptation over every generation, geared toward survival. I learned two things through this experience: First, do listen to your body and its wisdom. Second: don’t think you and your measly willpower can fool Mother Nature.
Stop Losing and Win 