Going with your Gut
I am sitting here eating a decadently delicious dark chocolate peanut butter cup and sipping black coffee, and I feel vindicated.
Get ready to have everything learned about your diet blown to bits by this latest big, fat surprise:
Fat is good for you.
In this meaty article, FAT RECONSIDERED in The Wall Street Journal, it turns out that not only was everything the diet moguls told us about fats incorrect - that red meat, butter, cheese and other fatty foods cause heart disease - but turns out they knew it all along.
There never was proof that fatty foods led to heart disease; instead, "personal ambition, bad science, politics and bias derailed nutrition policy over the past half-century." If that's not your entire lifetime, it's pretty close. So...what now?
I was raised on red-meat at every dinner. And liverwurst for lunch.
In my forties, I became vegetarian - not for any specific health reasons, but because I was appalled to learn about factory farming (I was the last person on earth to believe that the meat under cellophane in the supermarket came from cows grazing in open, sunny pastures.) When I learned the truth at 41 - a little later than you, Janis Ian, thanks to Diet For A New America by Anthony Robbins, I simply didnt want to support concentration-camp conditions for animals with my dollars. More recently, about five years ago I returned to eating meat - red meat especially - sustainably farmed and fed. Why? Enough was enough. Once again, red meat felt better to me than a bowl of quinoa.
But it's not better. Or worse. It's what feels good to me, in my gut, at this time in my life.
I highly recommend the one diet that ever made sense to me: it's called Checking In With Your Gut. It requires no medical tests, no advice from nutritionists, no scouring the Internet for what to avoid or cut from your diet after being horrified to learn that your favorite condiment leads to early Alzheimers in white lab rats. This diet requires only one thing which you already have in abundance:
Your gut feelings.
I don't mean how you feel in your belly after you eat something. I don't even mean gauging those foods that make you feel grumbly in your tummy. I mean checking in with your gut feelings, not with your actual gut. I mean asking, what feels good to you right now?
The only diet that makes sense is to eat what feels good- to you. There is, thankfully, no sense to a "best diet" where one size fits all. Diet is about nourishing more than just your body (chocolate soothes my soul) and every body is unique enough to have different dietary needs.
The only diet rule worth following: feel good about what you eat. Enjoy your food. It is, quite literally, a gift to be savored.
How do you know how you feel? The more pertinent question is, how did you ever forget?
You always know what feels best for you; your amazing all-feeling body is a barometer that tells you instantly. I call it The Clench or Relief Response.
Here's how it works (and it is always working for you):
- Think about anything at all, from a food choice to a major life decision
- Close your eyes and picture yourself eating or having it.
- Answer instantly: how does that FEEL?
Before you think about it (hint: if you're saying, "I don't know,' you are engaging your reasoning mind. Don't care what you know - this is about what you feel) before you reason it out, list the pros and cons, consider the consequences, come to logical conclusions on your own or ask advice from others.... HOW DOES IT FEEL?
From the smorgasboard of feelings that drift by, choose one of these two categories: Clench or Relief.
Instantly you know when something makes you breathe a sigh or furrow your brows, even the slightest twitch. It may show up as a tightening of your shoulders, a pit in your stomach, or, conversely, a slight smile, a deep breath. Feel that and you have your infallible guidance.
Relief means, YES, this is good for you.
And Clench? "I'd Turn Back If I Were You," that sign at the entrance to the witch's forest in The Wizard of Oz.
Your mind can and will play some nasty little games with you. You get your answer, but your mind debates it. "But you should eat healthy. You promised! Agh, you have no willpower! You know how badly you're going to feel after you eat that chocolate peanut butter cup (not even the least bit true). And bathing suit season is around the corner." On and on, round and round it goes til you're exhausted from the dialogue, dizzy from the whirlpool and you just feel like throwing up everything including your meal which by the way tastes bland now anyway even if it's homemade mushroom ravioli Savore Ristorante on Spring Street NYC (oh, so good).
When everything on your plate tastes bland, so does everything in your life. So what did you win?
Go with your gut means trust that your BODY has a message for you: what feels good IS good.
In hot yoga, we see that the body never lies. You may tell us you're having a great day, but in the concave of your chest or the slump of your shoulders, your body is telling a different story of low energy or lower self esteem after battling the boss. Your psoriasis often means you let someone get under your skin.
Most-told hot yoga stories about why you cant straighten your leg in Standing Bow Pulling or kick out in Standing Forehead to Knee pose have to do with an old injury or old habit of "I Cant." And these stories are all true, for those who tell them. But what you're telling is the story of "how" your body is reacting to some deeper "why," and that "why" is root out your problem.
And it can be rooted out, easily. Clench or Relief.
In hot yoga, I have found that most people with lower back problems have difficulty being supported by others: the do-it-yourself-ers who would rather open a vein than open the door and ask for help. Poor posture/rounded back? Chances are good you are getting good at hiding a broken heart. Off balance in the balance series? Enough said.
Eating is just like that. Your body will react immediately to food choices and your reaction alone is what should guide you to the diet for your best life.
You are not what you eat; it's all about what's eating you. Take a breath, and take a break from all the diet advice. Especially now when you can see that they were perhaps not really acting in your best interests; and how could they? Only you know what's best for you.
It's not nice to fool Mother Nature - but it is nice to know that your innate sense of your best diet, and best life, always tells the truth.
Eat what feels good and it will do you good. Choose what feels good in your life and forget the well-meaning advice of dietitians, friends, loved ones who do love you, but cannot feel your feelings; that's the job of your own body and heart.
Leave guilt and self-loathing out of your diet and take a big bite out of the life you really want. It's a delicious new way to live.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reader Comments (10)
Thank you for that post! I have been using the checking with your gut method since January and what an education I have been getting. Who knew eating meat and vegetables would be so much better than anything prepackaged or with any kind of preservatives? For the first time in ages, I am enjoying my food and appreciating how it sustains me.
Beautiful, Marguerite: food as fun vs punishment...who knew?
I am reminded how the Native Americans would thank the animal they were about to eat, for the gift of nourishment. Great idea, to make food part of your circle appreciation. All food, no judgement.
And just to be clear, I don't completely avoid everything. Moderation is key for me. I had no trouble eating gelato and drinking cappuccinos with sugar while in Italy, and I felt fabulous!
Fuck moderation! Eat what you want, when you want. You will be surprised: you really don't want as much as you fear you do. Like everything else, you feel for what you want and you stop when you've had enough.
I am practicing following my gut. It leads me to icecream, peanut butter, chocolate and the like!! But much more often, to red meat, veggies, beans and salads. I believe that choosing what feels good is a good way. The opposite of resisting, then overdoing, resisting, overdoing. It makes sense that if I routinely LET MYSELF have what I want. Once a habit is formed and I know there will be no deprivation (that sounds so funny), I will not overdo!!
I totally believe in go with your gut. It knows what your body is lacking and needs, we all just have to learn to listen to it. I am convinced, that at the age of 6 and not yet having heard negative things about food, my daughter has learned to listen to her body and what it is telling her she needs. Out of no where she will go on a grape fruit binge, or cucumber and carrots or apples with peanut butter. She will turn down all other foods and only want that one thing. Once her body has gotten enough of what it needs it is on to the next thing. I think that there really is nothing that is bad for you and our body in some way needs all of it, it is just a game of moderation.
Totally agree, Gabby, moderation. I know that I need to listen to my gut more because I often post about grabbing that "crappy Clif bar" and it totally leaves me dissatisfied! I definitely need to choose something that feels better for me which means listening to my gut. Would dark chocolate peanut butter cups be wrong at 5am? :)
Heather, there is no wrong time for Trader Joes Dark chocolate peanut butter cups - believe me, Ive had them at all times and all equally satisfying
Moderation...that's a slippery slope. It often sounds like a caution against having "too much fun." If you are really going with your gut, you eat as much you want and stop when you want....if you REALLY trust your gut, why would you need to have a moderation rule?
I agree Gabby - I had this same experience from both my children who had some wild cravings but always seemed to be satisfied and healthy...eventually that instinct for that particular food passed. A friend here in Greece told me that she always hated olives - which is practically blasphemy in Greece - but suddenly loved them throughout her pregnancy and couldnt get enough - no moderayion there! - and then she learned afterwards that olives are a great source of iron which is so needed during pregnancy. The gut always knows. This is a case of both mother and baby getting in on the gut instinct!
I started putting a tablespoon of organic virgin coconut oil in my coffee every morning (you blend coffee and oil and a bit of raw honey together in blender for 20 seconds) and it has actually helped trim me down!!
Good fats give you an extra energy boost, not to mention healthier skin, nails, hair... But it actually makes your metabolism more efficient and keeps you satisfied longer - thus eating less. I swear by coconut oil!