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For the past five weeks, we have reflected on different aspects of eating, guided by questions in the book Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat by Dr. Michelle May.
Dr. May comes from a personal background as a yo-yo dieter. For years, she lost and gained repeatedly as she tried one program after another. Eventually, she asked herself whether there wasn't a better way. Her book and the program elements she has developed draw both from the depths of her experience as a dieter and her training as a medical doctor.
I have chosen to spend so much time on this topic because healthy eating lies at the core of our health and well-being. Healthy eating fosters a body weight that optimizes our ability to live active lives, to carry ourselves with ease and kindness toward our joints, to enhance the capacity of our hearts and lungs. Healthy eating contributes to emotional stability and mental clarity. It provides a combination of pleasure and nutrients that feeds our happiness and empowers us to live our lives with purpose, intention, and effectiveness.
SO, why is healthy eating such a challenge? In addition to its many benefits, eating has a shadow side. We eat to feel better when we are sad, mad, lonely, anxious, or bored. We eat to socialize. We eat to celebrate. We eat because it's there. We eat because it's free. We eat because we have descended from ancestors who lived in times of chronic scarcity and needed to binge and fatten up when food was available.
Healthy eating is, for some of us, as natural as breathing. For others, it is as unnatural as flying (without an airplane). After a lifetime of dieting, and more than a decade of successful weight maintenance, I find Dr. May's intuitive approach worth trying. If you also are intrigued, I suggest going deeper.
Dr. May's website, www.amihungry.com, is a great place to start. It has a wealth of resources, including recipes and a blog. To size up your own eating pattern in terms of the "overeating," "restrictive eating," or "instinctive eating," cycles, take her brief quiz .
To sample the book, download a free version of Chapter One.
I would love to exchange stories and learn from your experience as well as my own. Let me know if you would like to participate in an online conversation with other wellbuddies who share this interest.
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