What If You Could Eat Anything?

What if you could eat anything you wanted? It’s a question that intuitive eating skeptics ask often. “If I could eat anything I wanted, I’d weigh [fill in the blank] pounds,” some say. “I’d eat ice cream all day long.” “All I’d eat is cheeseburgers.”

“Really?” I want to ask in response. But instead, I usually say, “Try it.” An awkward silence ensues. “I’m serious,” I say. “Give yourself unconditional permission to eat whatever you want – chocolate, cheeseburgers, pizza, ice cream, whatever your ‘scary’ food is.”

People rarely take me up on this suggestion, but I wish they would. If they did, they’d see that giving oneself unconditional permission to eat anything, anytime, really does lead, ultimately, to balanced eating. This lesson was reinforced recently when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. (Yes, I had to be put out to have all four wisdom teeth pulled a month after giving birth – luckily, I had a hefty milk supply in my freezer at home for my munchkin – more on that later).

After the big extraction, the nurse in the dentist’s office told me to only eat soft foods for the first few days – ice cream, pudding, yogurt, chicken broth, etc. “Can I eat oatmeal or cottage cheese?” I asked, hoping for permission to eat something with protein (cottage cheese) and something that wasn’t sweet (oatmeal). Her eyebrows raised and her lips puckered up in disappointment. “Mmmm, probably not for the first few days, but see how you do.”

Not one to break the rules, I stocked up on everything she suggested. Keeping in mind there is only so much chicken broth one can eat, I was pretty much stuck with sweet foods. And I have to say, from the moment I started “eating,” if you could call it that, all I wanted was oatmeal, a plate of eggs and a nice piece of chicken (not all at once).

I’m quite certain that if I was told I couldn’t eat dairy, all I’d want was ice cream, a warm latte or a bowl of yogurt and fruit. This is how our minds work. If we’re told to limit a particular food from our diet, that’s all we’ll crave. And if we’re told we can eat as much of something as we’d like (yes, even ICE CREAM), we’re generally going to get sick of it very quickly.

So, the wisdom from getting my wisdom teeth extracted: give yourself permission to eat what you want, when you want it when you’re hungry. And stop when you’re satisfied. Doesn’t get much simpler than that.