My daughter asked me the other day, “Mom, I hear you talking about hunger and fullness. I want to know everything about it”
When she asked me this, I had a couple of lightening quick thoughts.
Wow, our kids listen and watch EVERYTHING we do, think and say. That includes how we talk and behave around food and our bodies.
She has no idea how she relates to food is the safest, most sane way to live. Eating the way we were designed to eat, based on hunger, fullness and pleasure is NATURAL and doesn’t need to be controlled.
So I told her, “You don’t really need these numbers or to learn this because you already do it on your own, just the way you were made to, but yes, let’s talk about what these body sensations feel like” And we proceeded to check in with how she felt at that moment, and satisfied with “knowing”, she moved on to playing with her toys.
This is what we all want right? That settled feeling of trust. To eat and be able to move on.
Of knowing that what we feel is safe, allowed, has meaning and we trust that if things change, we know how to navigate what happens next with what our bodies are saying.
You probably know though that what diet culture, the thin ideal and having fear and guilt around food teach right?
That we need too much.
That what we like isn’t good for us.
That we need to be controlled, monitored and told how to eat for our own good.
And what has been the result of that in your life?
The carnage of my own life and for thousands of people I have talked to looks like this:
1) Constant worry that going “off plan” is going to “ruin my hard work / day”.
2) That what the scale/mirror says will dictate if we have a good or bad day.
3) Carrying the heaviness of believing that you can only be successful/good enough with a certain weight/eating/fitness and feeling fear if you can’t achieve this…
I could make a list 100 items long but I think you get it.
It’s not your fault that you were influenced to believe that controlling your food and weight would make you more acceptable or safe. Likely this happened for you at a young age when you didn’t have much of a choice of what to believe.
The good news is that you can un-learn the idea that who you are is related to how you eat or what you look like.
And end the legacy of body hatred in your lineage.
In fact, one of my main motivators for recovery and to have peace with food and weight was ending the cycle of diet culture in my family. When I was wrestling with letting go dieting, the idea of influencing a future child to feel bad about their body or being judgmental towards people I might work with made me sick and made me willing to do whatever it took to find a solution.
Luckily, you don’t need to experiment on yourself, get back on and off the diet wagon or fumble around for nearly 10 years like I did to have the freedom from food and weight worries that you could have.
To get started with learning how to know the nuances of hunger and fullness like my daughter asked me about as well as a how to navigate weight worries, check out these free tools: www.tracybrownrd.com/free-gifts
And if you need help going deeper to end the legacy of diet culture in your lineage so a new generation starting with you can be free and not have to go what we’ve gone through, let’s chat at http://bit.ly/tracybclaritycall
Peaceful eating,
Tracy
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