Eat When You're Hungry E-Newsletter Coming Soon!

Are you committed to the non-dieting way of life? Do you want support in your choice to never diet again? Do you simply want a resource for healthy, supportive, non-dieting messages to balance out all of the self-defeating, diet-filled messages you're bombarded with daily? If you answered yes to any of these questions I have good news for you! I am getting ready to launch the Eat When You're Hungry E-Newsletter!

It's still in the works, but will be coming soon. If you want to sign up for this free non-dieting resource, simply go to my web site and subscribe in the pink box on the right-hand side of the screen. You'll receive an acknowledgement email after submitting your name and email address, and you can of course unsubscribe at any time.

As I'm putting this e-newsletter together, please feel free to send along any suggestions or questions you have as you release dieting from your life forever and embrace a natural, healthy relationship with food. I just may address your question or comment in the next newsletter (with your name left out for confidentiality)! To send suggestions and comments, contact me through my web site. I appreciate your feedback.

Happy Monday...

Kugel, Latkes, Brisket and Pie -- Oh My!

If you read my book you know that my mother-in-law knows how to cook.  Her meals are truly exquisite down to the china they're served on.  And last night was no exception.  We had an early Hannukah dinner which meant we had a feast of delicious food spread before us on beautiful platters and serving pieces that my mother-in-law has collected from around the world.  On the menu last night was brisket stewed in an apple cider, wild mushroom kugel, potato latkes, spinach and pomegranate salad, asparagus, challah and an English apple-blackberry pie.  Everything of course, was handmade.  And everything of course (since it was cooked my my mother-in-law), was delicious.
 
When it came time to fill our plates with food and dig in, I knew to take a smaller than usual portion of everything because there were so many different foods to taste.  There was also a hot apple-blackberry pie and freshly whipped cream waiting for us after dinner, and I wasn't about to miss out on that due to getting full too quickly.
 
When I took only one potatoe latke, my mother-in-law said, "Oh, come on, you can have more than that -- we have so much food!"  I cringed at the thought of appearing ungrateful for such a beautiful meal by only taking one latke, but the truth was that EVERYTHING looked so magnificent that I wanted to have all of it.....which meant one latke would be enough if I was also going to have a piece of challah, some of the kugel, brisket, salad, asparagus and .... the apple-blackberry pie with whipped cream.  "I need to save room for everything," I said.  "I can only eat so much."
 
After lighting the Hannukah candles and saying a prayer (we did it early this year because some of the family would be out of town on Hannukah), we lifted our forks and knives to begin experiencing the wonderful journey of flavors set before us.  Needless to say, absolutely everything was, as my grandmother would say, "Divine!"  "Maaaarvelous!"  I told my mother-in-law that of all the delicious meals she's made this one ranked as one of my favorites.  My husband's cousin agreed. 
 
When we got in the car, Jeremy said to me, "I don't feel stuffed at all."  "Neither do I," I said, "Tell me more."  So he continued, "Normally I would go back for seconds and I almost went back for another few latkes because they were so good, but I decided to wait and save room for dessert.  And by the time we were done with dinner and dessert I realized that my fullness caught up with me, so now I'm full but not stuffed.  I'm so glad I didn't go back for seconds because I am completely satisfied right now.  That really was a good meal!"
 
Today as I was walking from the kitchen to my office with leftovers from last night's dinner, two colleagues stopped and stared in awe at my food.  "This is one of the many gifts my mother-in-law has," I said proudly.  "She is an amazing cook."
 
And the best part about eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full is.....you get to have the meal all over again the next day when you're hungry at lunch time -- and you don't even have to cook!
 

A Common Question

Someone recently asked me what she should do when she finds herself eating past the point of fullness into the place of being uncomfortably stuffed.  This is a question that comes up frequently, so I thought I'd put my fingers to the keyboard and share the advice I tend to offer on this topic.
 
Generally what I ask is for you to consider a few questions....
 
Do you recognize when you are full, and yet you continue eating anyway? And if so, the deeper question is why? (And believe me, that's a hard question for everyone!) But take moment to think about it. What does the eating past fullness bring you? Perhaps it brings you comfort, perhaps distraction, perhaps you simply eat past fullness because the food you were eating didn't have the "satisfaction factor" you needed. Once you can answer these questions, you can begin to consider ways to address your concern. For example, what else is comforting to you, what else provides distraction, or what other foods can you choose that WILL feel satisfying to you?

And most importantly, don't beat yourself up about it. Each day is an opportunity for learning. And little by little you'll get to the place you want to be.

Hard Copies of Book Now Available!

This news is for all of you who have been asking for hard copies of Eat When You're Hungry.....they are now available! To purchase a hard copy of the book, go to https://www.cafepress.com/eatwhenhungry. You'll find the book under "Books and CDs" as well as lots of other goodies dedicated to helping you stop dieting and start living!

Want other Eat When You're Hungry updates? If so, please email me at maggie@eatwhenyourehungry.com with the subject "Update Me," and I'll add you to the list. I won't share your email address with anyone, and you can always email me to say you no longer want my messages. And don't worry....I won't email you every day -- only when I have new Eat When You're Hungry news!

Don't Let the Headline Deceive You

Below is a link to a very interesting article in today's New York Times showing that in fact "overweight"* people have a lower death rate than those people who are "normal" weight, "under-" weight or "obese."

Just some interesting food for thought if you are one of the countless individuals trying to "get healthy" by dropping those last 5, 10 or 20 pounds....and starving yourself in the meantime.

Read on...and don't let the headline deceive you.

NYT

*I put this term and others in quotes because what any particular guidelines deem as being "overweight" is not necessarily what any one of us deems as being "over" the weight at which our bodies are happiest.

What I Learned from a 3 Musketeers Wrapper

I was walking to my car after work today and saw something shiny on the ground that caught my eye. It was blowing across the parking lot and I couldn't figure out what it was until I got closer: a 3 Musketeers candy wrapper. All of a sudden it hit me -- "I didn't have one piece of candy on Halloween this year."

It was at that moment -- 24 hours after Halloween -- that I realized I hadn't thought about candy once the entire day. As I continued walking to my car, it dawned on me that my experience with Halloween candy through the years would be a wonderful example to show what disordered eating, "recovery" eating, and ultimately "Eating When You're Hungry" eating looks like.

So here goes...

Many years ago, when I restricted my food, I would think about Halloween for days and sometimes even weeks before the holiday to figure out how I'd avoid eating Halloween candy without looking like I had any problems with disorered eating. I wouldn't touch a piece of Halloween candy so I never had debates in my head about whether I'd eat it or not. But I didn't want to appear to have an eating disorder, so I would spend a considerable amount of time figuring out how to not eat the Halloween candy and not have people notice anything peculiar.

Years later, when I was in "recovery," I would look forward to Halloween. Why? Because it was a chance to eat candy and be "normal!" So during my years of recovery, I would anticipate Halloween (and other food-related holidays) with excitement because I'd get to be just like everyone else. I'd enjoy it when I could actually eat Halloween candy in front of other people to show that I was "normal." This of course was major progress, albeit still a bit disordered.

Fast forward to today -- when I have no disordered thoughts around food anymore -- and I actually forgot about candy on Halloween. It turns out that just this past weekend (days before Halloween) I was in Chicago, and while I was there, I discovered an amazing ice cream shop and a delicious ice cream flavor: Fat Elvis. The Fat Elvis flavor of ice cream at this particular ice cream shop was banana ice cream (very mild banana flavor) filled with peanut butter chunks and chocolate chunks. Heaven. I loved it. In fact, I loved it so much that I had a Fat Elvis ice cream cone every night I was in Chicago (3 nights). On the last morning of the trip, my sister-in-law recommended breakfast somewhere that is known for their cinnamon buns. I happen to love cinnamon buns, but the thought of eating something sweet that morning did not appeal to me in the least, so I got eggs instead. Clearly, after three nights of large Fat Elvis ice-cream cones, I wasn't craving anything sweet (I was craving protein), which explains why candy was not on my mind yesterday, and why I didn't even realize until tonight as that 3 Musketeers wrapper caught my eye, that I forgot about Halloween candy.

So that, my friends, is a little glimpse into the future for all of you who are committed to never dieting again. Some call it intuitive eating. I call it eating when I'm hungry. Whatever way you slice it, it all evens out in the end.

On that note, Happy (belated) Halloween!

**And one final comment. I told my husband about this blog posting and he said, "I had a similar experience today!" "Really," I said? Yes. He realized today, when he walked out of our front door and saw a neighbor's "witch's pot" full of candy, that he too, forgot about eating Halloween candy yesterday. And he realized that he actually didn't want any.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with eating Halloween candy. You see, my husband was a bit ice-creamed out from our Chicago trip too, and so he wasn't craving anything sweet today either.

So there you have it....that's what eating when you're hungry looks like. Talk to me in a week and I'm sure we'll both be back to wanting some dessert (or candy)!

What does healthy mean to you?

When it comes to eating healthy, there are a million and three different notions of what that means. There are also countless numbers of people suffering with disordered eating who are masking their struggle under the virtuous sounding phrase, "In Good Health." Those are often the people with the most work to do to get to a healthy place around food....ironic, hu?

Don't get me wrong, health is something I'm grateful for every day of my life, and being healthy -- emotionally, spiritually, intellectually -- is something I strive for every day of my life, too. But I want to challenge you today to consider that there's only one source of information for what "healthy" is for you. And that one source is not the news media, not your next door neighbor, not your cubicle mate who counts calories. It's YOU!

As you know if you've read my book, I used to be of the mindset that high-fiber, low saturated fat and tons of fruits and vegetables were the "ticket" to health. But when I finally turned off the television and stopped reading all of the advise "out there" about what being healthy meant, an amazing thing happened. My body told me what it needed for ME to be healthy -- it needed saturated fat and animal protein, exactly the foods we're all told to eat in limited quantities.

Well, it was precisely when I began eating what my body told me it needed (cheeseburgers, tuna melts, eggs and bacon, real milk), that I began to notice a beautiful transformation of my body to an emotionally, physically, intellectually HEALTHY place. Ironic, given all the "un-healthy" foods I was eating...

In case you're struggling with trying a piece of real cheese with all that real, yummy, protein and calcium-rich fat inside of it, take a moment and read Sandy Szwarc's latest entry that just might encourage you to finally trade in that fat free, sugar free, yogurt imitation product for the good, old fashioned real, whole milk white stuff....it's called REAL YOGURT.

Read on...

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2007/10/junkfood-science-exclusive-big-one.html

You Say You Want To Diet?

My words today just don't do justice to the message I'd like to convey, so I'm going to instead share a link to one of my favorite pieces of writing about diets, and not-diets and becoming free around food. You ask what intuitive eating, non-diet and positive body- (and self-) image look like? Read on.

My only warning is that if you're going to be offended by the F-Word (and extreme repetition of this word), this piece may not be for you. But if you can tolerate a few F-Words, please read on. This is just brilliant.

http://www.margaretcho.com/blog/fuckitdiet.htm

What If Nothing Sounds Good To Eat When I'm Hungry?

As the creator of www.eatwhenyourehungry.com I get a lot of questions from people taking the journey into a non-dieting way of life, and I recently responded to a question that I think is worth sharing. A woman wrote to me to tell me that she sometimes feels very hungry but nothing appeals to her. "What should I do?" she asked. "And has that ever happened to you?"

What an excellent question...

In a word, yes. I definitely have experienced hunger coupled with an aversion to just about every food I can think of eating.  You see, sometimes we're hungry and absolutely nothing sounds good to eat. It happens to everyone sometimes.  So what should we do? As you know if you've read my book, I never tell people what they should do because every body is different. What I can share is what I do in those situations.

When I'm hungry but no food appeals to me I usually either wait until something DOES sound good, or I wait until I'm too hungry not to eat, in which case I'll decide what to eat and see if it satisfies me.  Remember, this is a journey which means that every experience is a learning opportunity. And while the goal is to have as much satisfaction in our eating as possible, every meal isn't always going to be 100 percent satisfying, and that's OKAY.  This is all a learning process and an EXPERIENCING process. It's not about perfection, but about getting in touch with what our bodies need....and learning how to honor that.

Sound good to you? I hope this helps...

A Figure Skater Who Eats When He's Hungry

Last night I went to a fundraising dinner for a wonderful organization a friend of mine started called CoachArt (http://www.coachart.org/). Low and behold, I found myself sitting next to a professional figure skater! I wasn't planning to mention Eat When You're Hungry, as I tend to only discuss food and body image with people who bring it up themselves. Well, someone else at the table mentioned my book and this figure skater sitting beside me wanted to hear all about it. I figured that he was interested in the subject matter because eating disorders (and disordered eating) are clearly at epidemic proportions in the skating industry, right? Well....not exactly, which is where the conversation got interesting.

This young man told me that he skated in Denver for eight years, and that his peers and fellow skaters in Denver did NOT obsess about food! Sure, there were the occasional skaters who struggled with food issues, but they were the exception and not the norm. He said that it wasn't until he started skating professionally in Los Angeles that he noticed he was surrounded by people who were obsessed with counting calories, fat, carbs, you name it. This is a young man -- thank goodness -- who has just about the healthiest relationship to food that one can have. He eats what he wants, when he wants it when he's hungry. And I think he tends to stop when he's full. He doesn't monitor every morsel of food that goes into his body.

"But wait," he said. "If I'm being really honest, I guess I do watch what I eat sometimes." "Oh? What do you mean?" I said. "Well, you see, I could live off of red meat, chocolate and cheese alone. Really, I could eat any of those foods everyday all day long. I love them," he said. "But, chocolate really spikes my energy, too much cheese makes me a bit tired, and red meat sometimes doesn't sit well in my stomach, so I do sometimes make sure that I don't eat too much of any of those foods in one sitting."

This, my folks, is not only OKAY, but it is a beautiful example of being in tune with one's body. Eating what you want doesn't just mean eating what your tongue wants (though that's a big part of it). It also means eating what your energy-level wants, what your stomach will react to comfortably, and what won't cause an allergic reaction. Get it?

Anyway, this very healthy young man with not one eating-disordered thought in his mind said that it's becoming annoying to be surrounded by peers and colleagues in Los Angeles who obsess about food -- because it sometimes makes him feel like there is something wrong with him!

And we wonder how eating disorders get started.....

My First Day Blogging

Welcome to Eat When You're Hungry -- the blog! I am creating this blog for the same reason I created Eat When You're Hungry the e-book and www.eatwhenyourehungry.com -- to help as many people as I possibly can to stop dieting and start living.

In this blog I plan to address questions people ask me about the book, offer insights about my approach to food and life, and discuss anything else that comes up along the way. I will write about particularly noteworthy experiences I have with food, with body image and with all of the facets of this wonderful journey I've taken back to a healthy, comfortable relationship with food and with myself.

I have never blogged before so this is all new to me. Please feel free to email me any suggestions, comments or feedback through my website www.eatwhenyourehungry.com. This is a wonderful journey, and I'm so glad to be a part of it.

~ Maggie