I remember the first go-round of weight loss success for myself.  I was 21 (almost 22) and came to a point in my life where I just wanted to be active and healthy.  I was alone  at the time ( no boyfriends) and found it refreshing instead of stressful and worrysome.

People I knew would tell me all the time how “thin” I was becoming.  Yet, inside, it wasn’t the weight loss that mattered.  What mattered to me most is that I felt better about myself.  The food that I was putting into my body and the exercise that I would embark on daily made me… happy.

I just came across an article in the New York Times entitled “To Eat Well, Be Instinctive”.  The article basically hits home the fact that watching what we eat and being conscious about the choices we are making for our bodies is one of the most important factors in losing weight.

Intuitive eating involves returning to basic drives, dispensing with the notion of “good” or “bad” foods and rules about when to eat. Absent a fear of deprivation, the philosophy holds, one’s hunger and taste cues — rather than cognitive rules — provide the most trustworthy guide toward balanced, healthy eating.

In my world, I do a lot of eating just because it’s what I am feeling at the moment.  In fact, a lot of my eating is done in front of the computer or television.  When I do sit down and have a meal with my family, dinner time is usually so hectic that I shove the food in my mouth as fast as I can just to move on to the next thing (i.e. cleaning the kitchen, baths).  But later on, I feel as though I deprived myself of actually being able to enjoy the food, so i’ll sit down and eat again.

So I would say that a lot of times *I* personally feel that I do ninety percent of my eating in a subconscious manner.  Because at the end of the day (heck, sometimes even in the middle of the day) my body feels sluggish and ready for bed.

So I think that watching what you eat is just the tip of the iceberg.  It goes beyond the mechanics and right into putting food at a new place in your life.  Recognizing how to fuel your body and become conscious of every taste, smell and texture.

If we all did that, eating might be a more thrilling experience and therefore we wouldn’t feel as though we had to over-eat or stuff ourselves to compensate.

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To Eat Well, Be Intuitive – By:  Mandy Katz (New York Times)