It pains me to see smart people do stupid things.
Actually, it pains me to see anyone do stupid things, especially when they’re under the misguided impression that these stupid things are actually smart things.
Err. I hope that made sense to someone other than me… If not, allow me to elaborate a bit further. I may end up going off on one of my long winded rants, though, so you might wanna grab a little something to munch on before we get down to business…
[Greek yogurt buried under trail mix, Kashi Honey Sunshine, and Puffins]
We good? We good. *steps on soapbox*
I’m pretty sure that almost everyone has been unfortunate enough to have been subjected to those “wonderful” pearls of wisdom that teach you how to curb your hunger without actually eating – “innocent” ploys meant to disguise hunger in an attempt to eat less and lose weight. Drink lots of water. Load up on fiber. Chew lots of gum. And my personal favorite – sniff some vanilla. Yes, friends, vanilla is supposed to trick you into thinking that you’re not hungry by… I don’t even know.
Wow. Would you look at that… I feel more satisfied already. Or, you know, not.
In any case, I’m also pretty sure that 99.9% of us have employed these “tips” at some point in our lives. Guilty as charged, right here. What can I say? I was young. I was stupid. I suffered from an eating disorder. Masking my hunger became my sole purpose in life, and I was darn proud of it, too – proud of how I could get by on barely anything at all, while everyone else needed to eat. Ha! Suckers.
Uhm, yeah. Twisted, I know.
I won’t go into any specific detail, because that kind of information isn’t useful to anyone, but I will say this – you are not doing yourself any favors by trying to trick your body – even if you win the battle, you’ll end up losing the war. And truth be told, most of the time you don’t even end up winning the battle. No. You like to believe that you do, because your hunger seems to go away, but your body is smarter than you think. It sees past your tricks, and punishes you accordingly. Enter bloat. Enter discomfort. Enter fullness without satisfaction. Does that sound like winning to you? Yeah, me neither.
[Pumpkin Hummus Tortilla Pizza with avocado instead of cheese]
But we do it anyways. And don’t be ashamed to admit it, because I’ve been there too. I remember choosing only low-calorie, high-volume foods to make up my meals, and then stuffing myself to the point of physical discomfort. The most ironic thing? I felt overly full yet unsatisfied. But I was terrified of my hunger – I feared it worse than the Devil – and in my mind, eating more of one thing, for the same amount of calories, was better than eating less of another. Thus, I would always choose a huge plate of broccoli over a spoonful of almond butter… it made more sense to my disordered way of thinking.
It also meant that I was constantly suffering from digestive complaints 😯
But perhaps even more harmful than the physical discomfort is the effect that such trickery has on our ability to eat intuitively. Think about it. Your body tells you that it’s hungry. Feed me, feed me! Your response? Drinking half of the recommended daily intake of water in one sitting. Errr wha? Your body is confused. It asked for food, not water. It also begins to believe that you might not be as smart as it originally gave you credit for. It tries again. And again. Eventually, it stops wasting it’s time trying to talk to you – you never listened anyways. You’re now on your own, trying to figure out whether you’re hungry or not, whether you need to eat more or not.
You see? You lose the war.
You also screw up your metabolism, open yourself up to the possibility of developing an eating disorder, and suck all the fun out of life. And nevermind the fact that all of your efforts usually come back to bite you in the ass. The body can only handle so much deprivation, and when it reaches its breaking point? Don’t be surprised if urges to binge hit you like a truck. A big one. With a pair of cow horns on the grill.
[When in doubt, throw a bunch of leftovers into a pan, coat them with soy sauce and roasted sesame oil, and call it a meal]
So don’t try to be smart by being stupid. Save yourself the trouble of having to relearn how to eat intuitively, and just eat when you’re hungry. I know the concept seems old school in today’s “survive on nothing but air” mentality, but it’s a tried and true approach that will get you the farthest in the long run.
Trust me.
And if you already ignored your body long enough for it to start giving you the silent treatment, don’t fret – it’s pretty forgiving, it’ll start talking to you again. But you have to be willing to listen and do as you’re told. I know it’s scary to give up the control and fear that you might end up going out of control, but I guarantee that if you give it enough time without freaking out, everything will right itself naturally. Trust your body. It’s not trying to screw you over.
*steps off soapbox*
. – . – . – .
Thoughts? Experiences? I leave the floor open to you 😀
Not to regurgitate what every other commenter on your blog has to say about their ED experience, but this post turned on my metaphorical lightbulb. Even now, in recovery and six months completely out of any sort of treatment, I still choose to make my meals up of the “light” versions of things and, of course, piles of low-cal vegetables. But, just like you said, this means I just end up overstuffed, uncomfortable, and somehow…empty. I was thinking, what gives? but you might just be right. Stay awesome, and thank you.
Wow – nicely said!…er I mean, written! 😉 I used to have this thing where I would buy fat free snacks and I’m pretty sure those snacks weren’t meant to be fat free. Its really is just better to listen to our bodies 🙂
i like your soap box. feel free to get on any time! thank you friend.
Oh man I can totally relate to everything!
Isn’t food so much better WHEN WE EAT WHAT WE WANT?
i had a different kind or eating disorder… a HEALTHY eating disorder. I denied my body nothing- It got EXACTLY what it needed- physically I was in perfect health…but mentally i was a mess. I weighed and measured it all… ate EXACTLY on the dot every 3 hours…i left a comment about this on your last post. check out ortherexia…taking healthy eating to the extreme. to the point of where it becomes an unhealthy obsession. Not a fun place to be!!!
Great post! I think it’s so important to listen to our bodies, they are a much more reliable source for eating healthfully than we give them credit for. Sniffing vanilla to curb hungry? What? I’ve never heard of that, but it sounds pretty wacky.
Your tortilla pizza looks scrumptios. Avocado is better than cheese, I say.
Very well said!! Have you ever considered giving out actual speeches? I mean that would be amazing considering how well you put everything together. I don’t think anyone else would’ve been able to say it better! Don’t get me started on those “tricks.” Especially the water one. I can get sick just thinking about how many water glasses I used to chug down. I’d freak out when I didn’t have gum with me! I’ve never heard of the vanilla one before though 😀 My metabolism was definitely messed up. Now I eat a ton more and I’m hungrier than what I used to be. I notice I get extremely moody and lightheaded when I’m hungry. I can’t imagine not having my snacks throughout the day. No wonder I was irritable all the time. Now I eat well and I’m energized and happy :] No more digestive complaints. Except for yesterday. I ate something my tummy apparently didn’t agree with and those came back. They reminded me of the not so happy times.
Best post ever.
It hit home with me.
“You’re now on your own, trying to figure out whether you’re hungry or not, whether you need to eat more or not.”
I still deal with that! I screwed up my body. I can never tell when I’m hungry now.
Wow I lovee this! I would take that awesome pumpkin tortilla pizza over the gallon of water and half stalk of celery that I used to call a meal any dayy 🙂 I used to have so many of those awful little tricks that I played on my body. I chewed gum 24/7, chugged diet soda, and stuffed myself silly with bulky veggies to avoid listening to my body. Eventually, I lost all touch eith my hunger cues and it was a long and difficult journey to get them back again, but it was worth every step 🙂
I wish Yahoo would publish this post instead of articles containing those dumb tricks on their front page. You rock, Amanda! Who needs to trick their body, when eating is just as easy and wayyyy more beneficial to your body.
I agree with everything you said! An ED doesn’t necessarily mean you eat nothing at all, but for me it meant that I always tricked my body.
By the way I made your banana bread and it was great! Thanks =]
Like you said it’s so simple, yet it’s so hard to actually apply to your life when those thoughts are still so prevalent. I started eating more intuitively the past few weeks, and I’ve felt better than I have in a longggggg time. So obviously I know it works, yet there’s still a part of my mind that tries to convince me eating only every 3 hours is okay, whether I’m hungry in between or not. There’s still a part of me that says eating 8 cups of salad is necessary to prevent weight gain instead of eating carbs in any form, even though it will leave me unsatisfied. I do completely agree though that listening to our bodies and giving it what it wants, even if it doesn’t “make sense” to our minds, is the best road to health.
Honor and trust, just like you do in a relationship ; ) always have a healthy relationship with your body and with your mate! its how I look at it : )
Love you!
p.s. I would totally be down to send you some sprinkle coffee grinder yum i got from trader joes! Im actually doing a giveaway tomorrow with it and some other goodies!!!!
Amanda, how long did it take after you stopped restricting for your hunger cues to come back? I am still waiting for mine 🙁
A long time. I’d say probably a good 6 months or so, and they’re still not perfect even now. Just do the best you can and try to pay attention to all the symptoms of hunger that aren’t necessarily a growling stomach… irritability, fatigue, stomach complaints, not sleeping well… all of those things usually mean that you’re not eating enough.
Vanilla smells good. Good smells stimulate appetite. I fail to see how sniffing vanilla will curb one’s appetite… but okay, that’s just me.
What’s really silly about such “tricks” is that when your body wants something badly enough, eventually it’s going to make sure it gets it, no matter what… so then you’ll end up eating whatever it is you were trying to avoid, PLUS you’ll feel like crap for having done all these weird things to avoid whatever it was you were trying to avoid. Doesn’t sound too pleasant to me…
<3 <3
Yeah I don’t really understand the vanilla thing either. I was always under the impression that smelling something delicious will make you want to eat something delicious, but apparently, logic doesn’t apply when it comes to this sort of thing…
Thanks so much for this post!! I recently discovered your blog and love it. I have struggled with disordered eating in the past, and while I am past that now (my mantra: strong + healthy = beautiful) women like you and posts like this are a great inspiration. I think that I (and all of your other readers) really benefit from posts like this one. It helps to be reminded of what it means to really take care of yourself, the importance of honoring your hunger, and so on. You are truly an inspiration.
Amanda, this post nearly made me tear up – you are so, so right. I especially love this part: “And if you already ignored your body long enough for it to start giving you the silent treatment, don’t fret – it’s pretty forgiving, it’ll start talking to you again. But you have to be willing to listen and do as you’re told.”
I equate this with losing my period at sixteen and its lingering absence today from the damage I did as a young, stupid teenager. I know that by listening to and trusting my body, one day, it’ll return. You are so, so wise beyond your years, and reading about your perspective is truly a gift! 🙂
Oh, yes, been there, done that. I relied on all those “tricks” and screwed up my intuitive eating patterns to the point when I still have problems discerning hunger. I chewed multiple packs of gum a day; I chugged water; I stuffed myself to the brim with raw veggies, yet never felt satisfied, even if I did feel slightly overstuffed. Those were frustrating days.
Now, I’ve figured out, if I’m craving a dense food, just eat it, don’t eat “around” it, per se, or else you’ll never feel mentally satisfied–in the end, even if you’ve eaten low-calorie foods in an attempt to squelch your craving, you’re probably *still* going to want that denser treat, so just indulge the first time! 😀
So my boss’ husband came in to work one day and – because I knew he’d been working out and whatnot – I told him he looked really good and he’s like, “Oh, well the key to losing weight is to not eat. I don’t eat breakfast and lunch any more. I just drink coffee all day until dinner. Oh, and drink fiber…that stuff that dissolves in water. And I go to the gym and run and lift. Just do that and you’ll drop weight like *that*” And he snapped his fingers and everything.
I was in s.h.o.c.k. I wanted to say, “And, uh, what would you do if your daughters decided to do that…?”
Even at the worst point in my ED I would NEVER give someone advice like that…
Eeee stuff like that makes me cringe. And I doubt he’ll be able to keep it up in the long run. It’ll all catch up to him in the end.
You tell it, girl! I’m so glad I now know that when my body tells me its hungry, it’s not just trying to fool me – it actually needs nourishment! It’s so stupid how magazines and the media try to convince us to listen to our head instead of our stomach. Our bodies are smarter than we are. Period. So I always make sure to listen to it. 😀
Fantastic post, amen girl. I wish I had read this a few years ago before completely messing up my body’s understanding of hunger and when to eat and when not to. I don’t understand why I fought against food for so long, when it is something that is NECESSARY FOR LIVING. Helllooo! I am finally getting it at this point and now the learning process begins of how to eat intuitively. Great.
Thank you for this post Amanda 🙂
I think I like you up there on that soapbox.
Please can someone invent a microphone that enables the whole world to hear this amazing girl talk?!
Seriously, just everything you say is just perfect. Every word. And I wish SO much that everyone could hear this because it’s so true. I spent way too much of my life tricking my poor body, depriving it when it was desperate for nutrients, slowing wasting away inside, all my organs shutting down, my bones wasting away and becoming weak – simply because I tricked it so much that it gave up asking for food. I would drink diet coke all day long until sometimes I felt physically sick from the amount I had in my body from all the gas. My metabolism was SO messed up. Whilst I still like my diet drinks, I do because of the taste and in no way do they get in the way of my hunger! Now that I eat regularly and my metabolism has quickened, man I am hungry all the time and I can’t NOT avoid it! I get so moody and I am not pleasant to be around when I need food!!
I have to say though, I’ve never heard of the vanilla trick!
I think your bang on with so many points in this, however as someone who has been extremely overweight and successfully lost it, ‘tactics’ like filling up on fibre rich foods has really helped me. I know that most of it is rubbish – especially the vanilla thing – but for some people little tips and tricks like eating more fibre are really important in trying to help them get to a healthier weight, then start to tackle the intuitive eating thing. If I had ate when I was hungry a couple of years ago I would have been morbidly obese, and I know that wasn’t ‘true’ hunger, more a mental thing but I would have still struggled. Very though provoking post.
Can I just say… Amen!
Amanda<3
This was THE post I need the most today! I teared up while reading it! Seriously, I tear up for everything these days!
Im so sick of never feeling satisfyed. Im so sick of knowing that I am the one who breaks down my body!
Yesterday I tryed to eat 3 MEALS again. Like with grains and veggis and fats- all mixed up :O As I was walking home from work, I knew that I was supposed to eat when I came home. I really didnt want to get home. I just wanted to cry.
What I ended up doing, was to have a conversation with my body. Not with ED, because he will be there for a long time, and he will not allow me to eat anyways, He wants me to feel tired, unhappy,hungry, bloated. And he want me to binge, because he knows how much I hate it!
Anyways, I tried to talk with my body. I was like "If I give you oatmeal, will you please please please not make me bloated? Will you make me fat? Will you let me run?".
The weird thing is that my bodys voice is so calm and gentle and.. nice! While EDs voice is mean, stressed and just pure poison to listen to. I cant believe I tend to always go with EDs voice..
Anyways, I ended up eating oatmeal last night 😀 I wont lie, I cried all night afterward. And when I woke up today I felt so ashamed. But guess what- I have eaten oatmeal for breakfast today 😀 It was so hard, I started to cry (again) while I was preparing it, and now that my bowl is empty I feel like shit. But i know its only because ED isnt in control, and he hates it! I have to fight through!
Sorry for this long long commet 😛 it just really helped me sorting out my feelings!
Again- thank you for spreding your word 😀 I love it, and I love you <3
I know how hard it is, hun. I can’t even tell you how many tears I cried while cooking and eating. But I promise you that it is 100% worth it. The tears mean that you’re going in the right direction, so stay strong. Remember that you deserve to feel happy and satisfied, NOT hungry and deprived. You deserve it, hun, because you’re amazing <3
How is it that every one of your posts hit the nail on the head. I was the stupid person u described and part of me thinks i am still kinda stupid! It’s a hard habit to break but I know you are right and I know I’m heading in the direction. More than physical discomfort, eating a whole plate of brocolli is quite smelly too if u catch my drift ;)!
Haha oh I hear ya on that one. I was gonna put that in as well, but thought it would be TMI 😆
Oh my gosh, yes. Amanda, how do you always say it so right, and so well?
Surprisingly, during the most intense parts of my eating disorder, and at my lowest weight, I ate tiny portions of moderately calorie-dense foods, plus fruit. I was so afraid of calories, I didn’t care if it came from a carrot stick or cereal.
When I went to college, The salad bar world was revealed to me, and a light went off in my head. I can just have a huge plate of salad for a meal! I thought. Low calorie and filling! Great! Err… Not. I would finish that salad feeling bloated yet unsatisfied. It became a way for me to justify having extremely extravagant desserts (read: big piece of brownie covered in ice cream) and feeling absolutely awful afterwards.
During treatment, I started eating balanced, denser meals, containing proteins, veggies, starches, and fats, and I felt so much more satisfied after and not guilty for having ‘binged’ on a ‘sinful’ dessert. Don’t get me wrong – I still have desserts, twice a day, usually, but I have more moderate, comfortable amounts.
Lately, after a certain very triggering friend stayed at our house, I started eating salads for meals again, and my desserts began growing to compensate. It’s so true – all those tricks to lose weight, like chewing gum, eating volume, applying lipstick when you’re tempted to eat, drinking lots of water, buy non-fat this and low-calorie that… they don’t work! If your body isn’t satisfied and fulled properly, it will keep searching for food, thus forcing you to think about food rather than the things you love in life, and causing you to ‘binge’ on high calorie foods to get in the calories it was missing from when you starved it.
I agree with you, totally!! Sniffing on some vanilla, really?!? I almost can´t believ people do this…but actually I know people who do this. And a lot of even worse things as well. It is so sad how far can someone go in an attempt to be “pretty”, “sexy”, “popular” etc. Really, fainting and sticking bones are not pretty, sexy, healthy, they won´t give you energy for life!
I wish this could be a public announcement, seriously EVERYONE needs to read this! You should write for health magazines because you preach the truth, your words need to be in place of those “eat less, exercise more, loose 10 lbs in 10 days” stupid “tips” that people believe are health, when they are def not! You totally rock girl, and you are going to go way far in life with you smarts and I am sure you will help tons of tons of people with posts like this. Genius 🙂
Gush. Thank you Lilly. That’s so sweet <3
Amanda, you are so incredible! You hit the nail STRAIGHT on the head girl! You are so articulate and indubitably AMAZING! We need to be able to listen to our bodys, not trick it. If it is trying to tell us something, we should listen to it!