“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.” ~ Lao-Tzu
It’s dinnertime. Will a half cup of pasta do it for you? How about a piece of chicken the size of a deck of cards? Surely you’ll be satisfied with one “Body Watchers” or “Skinny Cuisine” frozen meal. Dessert? One cookie the size of two poker chips should be plenty!
With the “Portion Control Patrol’s” relentless focus on portion size, it’s understandable why so many of us rely on label serving sizes or diet-plan portion recommendations to know how much to eat. Bombarded with the dangers of super-sized meals, we begin to believe that on our own, we are not capable of recognizing the correct amount to eat. We begin to believe that we need to control ourselves. And we believe that portion control is the answer.
[private_membership circle]How do the makers of that “Body Watchers” frozen meal know how hungry we are? How can a portion be the same for every body? What if the dictated serving is more than our body needs to feel comfortably full? Or not enough?
How often have we eaten the “proper” portion and still felt hungry? Or, if we did feel satisfied, how often have we noticed that in less than an hour, we were hungry again? And then, full of self-doubt, we question ourselves. “How can I be hungry?” “I just ate lunch. I shouldn’t be hungry.” Then we ignore our body’s natural signal and walk around feeling hungry. Or, we “give in” and eat, believing and fearing that eating more than the “correct” portion means we’re overeating.
But are we?
What if, instead of thinking that we are insatiable, we trust that we are capable of satisfying our hunger? And, instead of believing we need to control ourselves by complying with portions established by the Portion Control Patrol, we tune them out and tune into ourselves and our bodies instead?
Asking ourselves, “What do I want?” “What does my body want?” “How hungry am I, and how much of this food might satisfy this hunger?”, we decide what our serving size will be. And then, as we enjoy our food, we tune into our fullness and taste-satisfaction signals, allowing them to tell us when it’s time to stop eating, trusting that we will have eaten the perfect portion.
Affirming Statement: “Staying attuned, I eat the perfect portion.”
Nutrition therapists Amy Tuttle, RD, LCSW and Karin Kratina, RD, PhD provide no-diet articles and resources including “Stay Attuned: The E-zine for Nourishing Connections” at their Nourishing Connections website. www.nourishingconnections.com
[/private_membership circle]
