Intuitive Eating

This is all the rage. If you cruise the web or blogs at all you will run across this topic. Everyone's doing it. I think the idea is sound. I think diets in general force you into an unnatural way of eating; low-carb, no-carb, low-fat, every 3-4 hours, etc. I always think back to our cavemen ancestors. Just imagine, you have killed a wooly mammoth. You eat until you can't move. You wake up the next morning and eat some more. This goes on for a couple of days until the beast is gone. Then what? You may go a day or two without eating or eating only berries, until you kill something else. This is the way humans were meant to eat. But I think there is a large problem with intuitive eating because you have to have a healthy relationship with food in order for this to work. If I turn to food every time I'm upset it's not going to work for me until I deal with my upset issues. You have to clear up the underlying issues before you can trust your intuition to eat right. Also, you have to focus on whole, natural foods. You can't let your intuition guide you to junk food, even if it's only a little. So I think this is a good idea but I think it has some details that need to be worked out first.

Having said all that, I tried to think back on when I was my healthiest and eating the best. I found a couple times in my life when that happened and the underlying theme on all those times is that I was happy. I was doing what I wanted to do and I was really enjoying life. I then sat and looked at then vs now. I have everything I want. I have a job teaching, which I love. I work at a great school with very few of the problems other schools have. I actually bought a house that I absolutely love. I can't think of anything that's missing except the health part. I want to run races and feel like I did then. I think I'm in a position to make that happen now. I need to focus my energy on my eating and get back to the place where healthy eating is more appealing then junk food. I'm getting there but I still have a little ways to go. It's kind of like constructing steel buildings you have to build a good foundation - my happiness - in order to fill in the details - the racing. So I'm on my way. Today I'm not eating for a few hours to get back into that habit..... Now, it's time to work out.