Why I Choose to Eat Intuitively and How You Can, Too

A friend visited weeks ago and asked how I don't go overboard on all the treats I have stocked in my kitchen cupboard (when she visits, she does a self-acknowledged mini-raid).  "How is it that you're not always eating this stuff?" she wondered, and I replied, "Because it's always here."

When you decide to loosen the rules around food restriction, it's surprising how the forbidden fruit becomes just fruit.

Another friend was visiting recently and while we were gabbing in the kitchen, I grabbed a few cookies from the counter.

My friend interrupted her own speech and said, "That's so great that you can grab a handful of cookies and not feel bad about it in the morning."

I paused, as I digested what she was saying.  She assumed that I don't regret my food choices in the morning, but she was actually right.  My pause, however, was more about the reality that anyone can make this choice, to eat dessert without guilt.  I don't have special powers.  What I do have is an intention to have a healthy relationship with food.  I've decided that for me, enjoying food is more important than fitting into the jeans I wore in my twenties.  I could probably do that if I really, really restricted my diet, but it's just not worth it to me.

Drew Barrymore seems to feel the same.  The actress, gearing up to be a second-time mom, reflected on food, weight, and body image in an issue of Allure magazine: "I cannot live a life where I"m deprived. I'd much rather be five, 10 pounds heavier." Barrymore went on, "With my luck, I'll get myself to that perfect goal weight, and I'll get hit by a bus. Then, I'll be like. . . looking at myself from some afterlife going, 'You idiot. You could have had that agnolotti, dummy.'"

I love the freedom of eating intuitively.  I love the freedom of not thinking about food all the time.  So, the jeans from years ago, well, they just had to go.