Dieting?What About Nutrition?

If you’ve never paid attention to the nutritional content of what you eat, you
may find—once you gain the ability to sense hunger and satiation, and you
give yourself permission to eat any food at any time when you’re actually
hungry—that it’s helpful to educate yourself about nutrition.
If you do so, however, be sure not to make lists of “good” and “bad” foods.
In fact, as you do learn about nutrition, you’ll be surprised to learn that many
of the foods you’ve considered “bad” are foods that do wonderful things for
your body. For instance, canola oil—one of those “evil” fats you’ve been
taught to avoid—is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which can help keep your
brain, eyes, heart, and other organs healthy. (Omega-3 fatty acids are particularly
crucial for early brain development, which is another reason that putting
very young children on diets can be dangerous.) Olive oil, too, can be
healthy for your heart and your mental health. And believe it or not, chocolate
is now gaining scientific praise because it’s packed with particular cellprotecting
antioxidants!
The more you learn about the foods that keep your body healthy, the more
you’ll be interested in eating them. But this time if you select a salad or an
apple, it will be because you want it, not to conform to externally driven eating guidelines that leave you feeling chronically dissatisfied. You’ll be amazed
at how much more tempting a cantaloupe is when you eat it by choice and
not because a diet plan orders you to.
The process of learning to trust your hunger takes time and patience, particularly
if you’ve dieted for many years. How will you know when you’ve
truly recovered from food preoccupations? You’ll find yourself leaving the
last piece of pizza in the box not because you can’t have it but because you
don’t want it. You’ll eat a scoop of ice cream for dessert after a nice dinner andfeel full. You’ll lick the spoon when you frost a cake, but you won’t feel
tempted to eat half the cake. You’ll eat one or two chocolate chip cookies
without feeling guilty and without the desperate urge to finish the entire
plateful of cookies. And you’ll enjoy healthy foods more than ever, because
you’ll eat them by choice.
When you reach this goal, you will have the tools you need to achieve
and maintain your personal ideal weight. With your body dictating how
much food you desire, and diet-induced bingeing no longer sabotaging your
efforts, your calorie intake will adjust to your calorie expenditure. With time,
the extra pounds will melt off, as your body no longer lowers its metabolism
in response to recurrent episodes of starvation—the very mechanisms that
made you gain weight when you dieted.
As you learn to eat without dieting, you will rediscover the relaxed, joyous
relationship with food that you enjoyed as a child. You will no longer feel
afraid to have food in your home, to order what you want from a menu, or
to enjoy an ice cream cone on a hot day. Using your newfound ability to
notice yourself and heed your body’s messages when you eat, you’ll be able to
recognize non-hunger-based eating and realize that you can wait to eat until
you’re truly hungry. You’ll be able to indulge in any food you love without
worrying about losing control—and as you free yourself from yo-yo diets
and chronic weight cycling, you will attain the fit, beautiful body that is your
birthright.