“Figure out what you really want to eat. Give yourself unconditional permission to eat it.”
(Tribole and Resch, Intuitive Eating)
We live in a culture with strong puritanical roots of self denial. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and if it’s pleasurable it must be bad for you because pleasure is sinful. Self denial is virtuous. These puritanical ideals make this next principle of pursuing satisfaction with food we eat challenging for most of us. Red flags go up, alarm bells go off….danger! We assume if we pursue pleasure with food and discover what satisfaction means for us, we will dive head-long into all the food we deem as unhealthy, and not come up for air. But, it seems, discovering the satisfaction factor has quite a different impact on our food choices, and in fact supports a healthy relationship with food. Here is how Tribole and Resch describe this principle:
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor The Japanese have the wisdom to promote pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living In our fury to be thin and healthy, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence–the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting and conducive, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself, you will find that it takes much less food to decide you’ve had “enough”.
What this means to me is that finding satisfaction in eating is the key to being clearly able to discern what and how much we want to eat and how we can, for the most part, respond to our body’s hunger and fullness signals. The notion of ‘satisfaction’ is unpacked to include 1) a component of ensuring that we are eating what we *really* want, and 2) that we are eating in an environment they described as inviting and conducive.
I have found it is surprisingly tricky to know what it actually is what I want to eat. I feel as a society, our ability to know what foods we want to eat have been compromised, whether a result of dieting and looking to outside influences to make our food choices, or through relationships with food impacted by self-loathing and emotional eating. Many unhelpful eating habits that we cling to are often to eating foods we might not otherwise choose…or at least choose very much of, when given full permission to eat and please ourselves. For instance, when I have full permission to eat and enjoy ice cream, when I embrace and revel in the satisfaction of it’s cool, creamy goodness, I am much more likely to both hear and respond to my body when it tells me I’ve had enough. Once again, we see the irony of permission and enjoyment allowing for greater discernment and responding to the body’s signals, because we fully embrace and enjoy the experiences and can feel satisfied. When we enjoy food without that base of permission, when we are being ‘bad’ by eating certain things, the feelings of guilt and self-loathing that accompany the eating experience cloud our ability to feel and respond to our body’s signals, and satisfaction becomes an unreachable mirage in the distance.
One tip I found very helpful was to continue to pay attention to how much I am enjoying my food during a meal, not just at the start. Many of us recognise the first bite is usually the best, but many of us ignore the ‘satisfaction factor’ when eating. This has been a big one for me, as I know I would often keep eating after I had stopped enjoying what I was eating – often out of habit or/and because I still needed the emotional comfort of the food. Now that I no longer have to fear losing out eating foods I like because of some impending diet or food plan, I am way more likely to discover when the pizza no longer tastes as good and to stop eating when that occurs. The same holds true with all foods…whether they fall into more nutrient dense, health supporting foods, or less nutrient-dense foods.
Tribole and Resch provide help in learning to discern what we really want to eat by providing a framework to thinking about the sensual qualities of food – taste, aroma, texture, temperature, We are urged to make a habit of asking ourselves questions about these sensual qualities to help us discern what we are looking for in food, in the moment. Do we want something hot or cold? Crunchy or smooth? Sweet or savoury? I found it really helpful to use these categories to think concretely about food – especially when I am feeling overwhelmed and stuck.
I have found giving importance to pleasure and satisfaction a revolutionary step on my intuitive/mindful eating journey. I got over my fears, gave myself full permission to eat and I’ve been delighted at the more relaxed and enjoyable experiences I have with food.
Self Reflective Questions:
As you consider the idea of Discovering the Satisfaction Factor and what it means in your own life to embrace the pleasurable aspects of eating, consider:
- What do you notice? How does eating for satisfaction impact your food choices…both what foods and amounts.
- What do you feel? What emotions arise for you when you think about discovering your own satisfaction factor?
- What does it mean? How would discovering satisfaction with food impact your day to day life? Change how you related to food?
- What will you do? What are some concrete actions you can take? Are you able to give yourself unconditional permission to eat? How will you work to discover the satisfaction factor?
Thank you for reading. Next week we are moving on to exploring Principe #7: Honouring your Feelings Without Using Food I hope you will join me!