...time to update ye olde blogge.
No real excuse, except perhaps indifference, a touch of pre-moving stress (a friend in Portland, Oregon, to where I will be moving at the tail end of September, said something to the effect that he thought this was probably the longest transition anyone has ever made moving from one place to another, and who knows, he may be right. I mean, I've known since January of this year that I was going to hightail it on outta the Midwest sometime during the summer or shortly thereafter. "Shortly thereafter" won out, cause I figured, why suffer through something like 8 months of winter just to ditch out on the summer? Even if it's humid? The days are bright and long and the sun is a blessing. And I love the Farmer's Market which stretches along a main street of downtown, right in front of my office, so I can buy a few things on Thursdays, like fresh green beans and bread and black plums), and a lot of time spent participating in an online Intuitive Eating (IE) support group, which I've really liked. It's how I want to encourage my future Life Coach clients--those who come to me seeking solutions/direction regarding their potentially unsatisfactory relationships to their bodies and food and the self-loathing, punitive and sometimes dangerous practice of "dieting"--to eat.
I know a lot of people--myself included, and primarily women--who have had very dysfunctional relationships to their bodies and food (most of whom have dieted unsuccessfully, only to regain their weight), and Intuitive Eating seeks to examine the root cause of unconscious eating, how food is used emotionally and as comfort, rather than as nutrition. The outcome is a healthy relationship to food, mindful eating, increased enjoyment in the process of eating, and, finally, a natural release of weight.
Not "thinness," because everyone's body is different and "thin" is an artificial construct perpetuated by crappy, bulimia-inducing pop-culture chick-mags like
Cosmo and a bunch of bratty, wealthy, bored, narcissistic chickie-babes with too much time on their hands (think Paris or Nicole).
IE is an interesting process but one I deeply believe in--even when I was struggling with weird off-and-on diets all my life, I still read "Thin Within," "Diets Don't Work," "Eating Awareness Training" numerous of
Geneen Roth's books, and most recently, "Intuitive Eating." All are excellent.
I do feel most women have some level of disordered eating, and I am convinced it's rooted in emotion. I had very disordered eating most of my life and only now, at 41, have really begun to let go of it, probably because I am already in recovery and this is one more "leftover" dysfunctional practice that doesn't serve me anymore.
A lovely outcome of IE is a renewed, positive relationship to one's body (and no more diets!). I no longer see mine as something imperfect and disgusting that needs reigning in or to be "controlled" or punished (the hallmark of diets). It's served me very well for my entire life and it needs love and nurturing. As Geneen Roth says,
"Many people want to lose weight because they believe it will make them happy and stop their pain. So it's not so much the weight they want to lose, but the pain."Examining that pain--the reasons we eat that have nothing to do with true body hunger--is the crux of IE.
Most people don't trust IE or its practices; I have a friend who has expressed discomfort with the idea of eating quietly, without distraction (in this case, the TV in the background); she said she didn't like to
hear people chew, and I thought a lot about that in the ensuing days.
Anyway, the recent bridge collapse here in Minnesota (for a change, it wasn't something collapsing in California) served as a stark, tragic reminder that life is short and shittily random, and I'd hate for my last day's worth of meals to be some horrid, low-fat, low-carb, low-salt, low-suger, high-fiber, under-1200-calories misery. I mean, what IS that?
There is a saying that goes something like,
Life is unpredictable so always eat dessert first.I would rescind that to say, eat what makes you
hum.
And, just quickly, back to the bridge: yes, we all hate paying taxes, but when they're earmarked in ways that positively support a society--good, accessible, affordable education and functional, well-stocked schools, say, and a sound, reliable infrastructure--then they're necessary.
Levees and bridges
shouldn't collapse (this bridge was in need of repair but our moronic twice-elected current governor vetoed "upgrade funds" in favor of other pet projects like, oh, a new stadium...
ahem)....
And human beings were
not meant to diet.
And that's where I'll conclude this entry.
