Tweaking a Theory

My sweet husband has been back on the wagon lately.  After many health problems things are back on track and who wouldn't live a little after a year or so of not-so-good.  He has been trying to listen to his hunger.  It was as he grabbed some chips at 10:30 at night that I saw a loophole in that theory.  In "Women Food and God" this kind of listening is key to weight loss.  There is no perfect size just what is healthy for you as an individual.

While I absolutely loved the book, I can see one minor adjustment to her theory.  First, she says, you have to listen to and love your body.  Then feed it what it wants.  To me, this step is an advanced one.  Food is, after all, fuel.  Your body doesn't care what food tastes like or its texture or anything else.  It wants fuel to keep your body running.  At 10:30 at night your body has not sent signals for more fuel, that hunger is something else.  Maybe it is emotional and maybe it is desire for the taste/texture thing but fuel it is not which means it comes from a place other that your normal hunger response.

While food is meant to be enjoyed we don't need it to be enjoyable for our species to survive.  Around the world people are eating to survive but here in the USA we are eating to enjoy far more often than for sustainability.  Enjoying is not a sin but we need to recognize which beast we are feeding.  If more meals feed the enjoyment beast it is called emotional eating.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy all my food but yesterday's salad for lunch was a choice.  I would have preferred the pizza with all the toppings.  But, I took stock for a second in where that desire was coming from and a nice movie with a salad and a home cooked tortilla was enough.  I was thrilled with the experience.