When I made the decision to stop dieting and listen to what my body wants in the spring of 2010, it was the best decision I ever made. Now when I decide not to eat something, my mind set is different. Although it is always nice to lose a couple of pounds, weight loss is not my main concern. I approach a "diet" as a way to gain knowledge about what my body really wants. For example, when I eliminated gluten from my diet, my intention was to have more energy. It took several months of being gluten free, but I finally started to feel better. I noticed it most clearly when I went to a science museum with my daughter, nieces and nephew this summer. In the past, I would have pretended to enjoy an activity like that and yawned my way through the event. This summer, I felt fully energized the entire trip and truly had a good time. Until I got my energy back, I didn't realize how much I was missing it.
Every time I get lazy and eat something with gluten, I can feel it draining my energy within a day. Now that I have really listened to what my body wants, it is easy to pass on foods with gluten because hours of energy are more important to me than a couple of minutes of eating. This weekend, my family had pancakes, and I didn't feel any desire to join them. I sat with them and chatted, but I didn't need to be eating pancakes to enjoy their company.
Your mind might tell you that you should definitely put that bag of candy corns in your shopping cart like mine did when the Halloween displays came out. That day my mind won. (more about that later) The difference is I paid attention to how I felt after I ate them, which was sick to my stomach and in need of a nap. The last couple of times I have been in a store and gone by the Halloween displays, I remember how I felt and easily walk on by. I don't pass by the display because I am on a diet; I pass by because my mind has recently been reminded that there is no food in a Halloween display that my body really wants.
