Weight Loss Wednesday – Food Scarcity…Really?

Unfortunately, as I continue to learn how to live by my interpretation of the intuitive eating rules vs. the regular weight loss/weight management diet rules, I find myself struggling with what my brain perceives as food scarcity.

If you read Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch, you will see that when we find ourselves in a constant battle with food – labeling it as good or bad and going through multiple diets trying to find the one that helps us lose weight, we’re engaging in disordered eating.  The book goes on to add that this is a completely learned behavior, since we’re born with the ability to tell when we’re truly hungry and when we’re full/satisfied.  Think about it, a baby will definitely let you know when it’s hungry and by the same token, will let you know when it’s full by pushing away or stopping the feeding.  They manage to eat exactly what their bodies need without anyone telling them what they need. Unfortunately, as we get older and our society continues to praise those that are thin, constantly dieting/restricting their eating, we no longer really know when we’re hungry or full because restricting leads our body to believe its gone into starvation mode.  This then puts it into primal mode, which will cause you to binge and eat everything in site because you’re body is telling your mind that food is scarce so it needs to be hoarded and eaten as soon as possible.  It makes you act as if you’re living in a third world country, unsure where your next meal will come from, vs. the reality of living in a first world environment where you can have whatever you crave/need delivered to your front door 24/7.

My initial kick off post into my Weight Loss Wednesday series, where I confessed to having gained back 6 lbs., has kicked me back into food scarcity mood because of course I am doubting the abilities of intuitive eating and grabbing at straws again trying to find a magic pill/diet that can make those 6 lbs disappear again.  When the feeling crept back into my life, I wasn’t really acknowledging it, much like I had been failing to acknowledge and deal with my emotions, which lead to the 6 lb. weight gain.  But now I have acknowledged it and have realized a few things about myself.

• I still need help in finding other avenues to let out my emotions, rather than turning to food for comfort.
• I still need to find tried and true methods to live in the moment in all parts of life, especially when dealing with food because failing to do so leaves me ignoring the main guidelines of intuitive eating – listening to my hunger and fullness levels every time I’m around it.
• I need to figure out how to stop hoarding food, which makes it easy for me to binge when I fail to stay in tune with the first two items on this list

As everything else in my life, it’s a work in progress, but here’s to getting to where the good days come more often than the bad days/slips.  Being able to kick the diet mentality, which fails us 95% of the time, and finding how to live in the intuitive eating mentality, which has never failed since birth, will make me oh so happy.

Have you figured out how to deal with your emotions, rather than turn to food for comfort?   What helps you stay in tune with your hunger and fullness levels?

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Rocio Chavez

Digital Content Creator & Multimedia Designer at Your Sassy Self

I'm a Mexican-American, Sassy, Bilingual, Professional Woman with a passion for life long learning, sharing, and living my best life. I'm the founder and digital content creator for Your Sassy Self and work full time as a Multimedia Designer. Let's connect and see how we can change the world...or at least change our perspective of it. 😉

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