The Seven Secrets of Slim People

So I wrote a few weeks ago about how I was curious about the practice of intuitive eating. I had been searching desperately for an alternative to what I've been doing nearly all my life - counting & limiting calories and losing weight, then overeating and gaining it all back plus more. I knew that the only solution to getting my weight where I wanted it and keeping it there couldn't possibly be maintaining enough willpower to stay within a certain calorie limit every day for the rest of my life, constantly obsessing over numbers and weights. And I knew that surely, most of the people I know with nice, slim bodies (not just skinny people, but anyone who's a good weight for their height) do not go through the same torment I've been putting myself through all these years.

Since the only knowledge I had of intuitive eating prior to a few days ago was patched together from random articles online, I decided that maybe I should purchase a book on the topic to give me a firmer grasp on the basic principles. Prior to buying this book, I had a lot of questions. "Ok if I can eat whatever I want, won't I just binge on cookies and fried chicken all day long and get fat?" "If I can 'trust my body' to eat as much as it needs, then why do I usually eat too much unless I'm purposely trying to limit my portions?" "Isn't it true that I need willpower in order to not overeat?" The book I bought (on amazon for like 4 bucks), called "The 7 Secrets of Slim People" answered all of those questions in very simple, yet EXTREMELY enlightening ways. I found myself going "ohhhhhh I see!" at almost every page.

Just to give a glimpse into it, these are some of the things that really popped out at me. The reason most diets fail is because people think the problem is their weight. They go on diets, take diet pills, count calories, get surgery, etc, because they see the problem as "I weigh too much and i need to change that!" But their weight is not the problem. The problem is whatever caused their weight to be what it is, which is overeating. And the REAL problem is what causes the overeating, which, contrary to what a lot of people think, isn't JUST emotions (although that plays a part too). It's the fact that now, people eat according to external factors such as meal times, pre-planned serving sizes, rules they were taught growing up such as "always eat breakfast even if you're not hungry", or "finish everything on your plate" or, "i don't care if you're not hungry, it's dinner time & you're eating with the family".

In the context of eating, if you are ignoring your TRUE hunger signals (tummy grumbling, a noticeable lack of energy despite having had enough sleep, even slight light headedness) in favor of eating just because you're bored/sad/lonely, or because you feel like you "have" to finish your plate, or because everyone around you is eating, or because it's your pre-determined "meal time", then you're doing it wrong. And most likely, if you're overweight or struggling with your weight, you've been doing it wrong (by "it", i mean eating). We were all born knowing how to eat correctly by listening to hunger & stopping at a certain comfort level, and how to soothe ourselves without using food (notice how if a baby is crying, unless the problem is hunger, they refuse to eat? you have to check their diaper, or give them a pacifier, or do whatever it takes to solve the real problem before they stop crying. but food never works as a substitute for the real solution.). But over time, we were thrown external messages and learned "rules" about food that caused us to start ignoring our hunger and fullness signals, and we learned to start abusing food by eating it for reasons besides hunger.

Another enlightening point was that the goal of eating, besides nourishing the body, is to derive as much pleasure from the entire experience as possible. This means, enjoying every bite (so eating what you WANT to eat, not what you think you should be eating because of some diet or meal plan), stopping when the food stops tasting good (something that very few people know how to do) and when you've reached a level of SATISFACTION, not FULLNESS (when you're satisfied, you're no longer hungry & you could easily get up & be active and carry on with your day. when you're FULL, you feel like you need to stay seated for a while or go lay down for a few minutes, or in extreme cases, sleep for the rest of the day lol.) Also, it's important to take note of how certain foods make you feel after eating them. Sure, you COULD eat a whole package of oreos, but afterwards you'd likely feel sick to your stomach, dizzy, hyperactive, etc. Therefore, doing that wouldn't be in line with eating for optimum pleasure - where your mind AND body will be satisfied and comfortable.

There's much more, and it's almost overwhelming how insightful and eye-opening it all is, but I'm going to practice what I've learned in this book with an open mind & heart, and see what benefits I reap. Hopefully with some time it'll become second nature for me. I just wanted to share this with you guys, it's a very refreshing take on the whole diet & weight issue we're all dealing with here and I think it could help some of you.