My plates are stuffed with roasted vegetables, cheese, and proteins, all from my "favorites" list that make me feel full and satisfied. Now that I understand what my body needs to feel satisfied, I eat like that regularly. I workout to feel good, not to look good. I now participate in workouts that I love instead of constantly doing workouts to lose weight, and if I skip a workout, I don't feel guilty. Where I'm at feels natural and good, and I don't have the desire to try and adhere to our culture's idea of "skinny" and "healthy." Instead, I feel toned, strong, and beautiful. I am a curvylicious diva, and even though I could cut calories and hop right back into dieting culture to reach the "proper" weight for my height, I simply don't want to. I'll just sit in the gloriousness of having enjoyed such a delicious meal. For example, a night of having beer and French fries does cause bloat, so there's no reason to beat myself up the next morning. When it was no longer about losing weight, I was able to finally understand my fluctuations and what foods caused extra bloat or not. Between all of the internal body functions-digesting food, menstruating, even stress-your weight fluctuates normally. I'm telling you right now, it changes every day. When I finally understood that weight isn't always the same, I started getting on the scale every day to watch the fluctuations. Or it's just your body, right? It just happens." You had something salty, so maybe you're retaining a little extra water. You have your period or you're two weeks out and you're ovulating. "The weight gain could mean you ate later in the day than usual. In reality, weight fluctuations are incredibly normal. If I was up, I would beat myself up mentally and would probably skip my next meal. If I was down, I was "doing good" and I felt proud of myself.
This was all due to the fact that I wrapped up my identity in what the number said. Like any other normal human whipped by dieting culture, I was afraid of getting on the scale. You don't have to do it perfectly right the first time to figure out what your hunger and fullness cues are." Again, give yourself a trial-and-error period. You'll probably have a feeling of nothingness, a lot of people talk of nothingness-neither hungry nor full-and that's kind of a good sense that you're on the road that you're being complete with your meal. "Oftentimes, those fullness cues means your stomach feels full, but you're not getting to the point where you're stuffed and sleepy. "If you eat slowly, if you take a good 20 minutes to eat your food, you will start to experience your body's hunger and fullness cues," said Paul. Or even because it just tastes good! Because honestly, if I overeat, I feel incredibly sick to my stomach, and that's a feeling that I try to avoid at all costs. I shouldn't force myself to keep eating simply to "clean my plate" or because it's a waste of food. During this process, I have learned that if I naturally stop eating something, then I'm usually full.
This was a huge trial-and-error for me as I started to learn how to intuitively eat, and it's still something I'm learning to this day. I no longer punish myself for feeling hungry, but listen to what my hunger is really saying instead. I listen to my body's satiety cues Kiersten Hickman/Eat This, Not That!