Normal eating is being able to eat when you are hungry and continue eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and tryly get enough of it-- not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to use some moderate constraint on your good selection to get the right food, but not being so restrictive that you miss out on pleausrable foods. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is three meals a day or it can be choosing to munch along. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have come again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful when they are fresh. Normal eating is overeating at times: feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. It is also undereating att times and wishin you had more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and tatttention but keeps its place as only one importanat area in your life. IN short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your emotions, your schedule, your hunder and your proximiity to food.
-Ellyn Satter, RD, LCSW
I post this because my nutritionist and I went through this definition as an exercise to see how close I felt my eating was to "normal."
I think that my biggest problem is trusting my body and "listening" to it for hunger and sasiation cues.
How about you? Any thoughts on this one?
This is really interesting and good to hear because I've always sorta thought at the back of my mind that I'm not a "normal eater" because I can't always eat a certain way. Everything always goes back to moderation, though.
My biggest challenge is not obsessing over food. I seem to either go for a free for all food wise (that's a mouthful!) or be so stringent about what I eat that I eventually binge on something incredibly bad yet satisfying.
That quote is what I aspire to. I think my eating pattern has typically been more like Carey's - free for all or completely good. Lately, I've given up dieting, because I have decided that while I would like to drop some pounds, it is more important to me to learn to eat "normally". Mostly, it's going pretty well - overeating sometimes, but hey, it says that's normal. But it's still WAY too much of an effort - I won't consider my eating normal until it is second nature, and not a supreme exercise of will.
I think I'm just starting to become a normal eater. I am finding that sometimes I do still "overeat" but without the tremendous guilt that would previously be the beginning of a binge. I also used to be very restrictive with my eating before I started bingeing and that wasn't normal either. I have found that in order to make my eating normal, it can't be the focus of my life. I have no "cheat days" or restricted foods. I just have a constant idea in my head that I would like to lose this weight so each choice I make will effect that. Sometimes I will have a treat but then will keep that in mind the next time I'm offered one.
I think eating normally is very difficult in this world considering the portions we are taught to eat are ginormous and we see pictures of stick thin celebrities all day. It is a struggle just to figure out what is "normal"
Thanks for the definition. I wish everyone luck in their journey to normalising their eating.
I have to say thanks for posting this too. Like Janie and Kate, I am trying to free myself from obsessing about food by being healthy, not dieting. I am looking forward to the day when food is not such a big issue in my life, and I know I'll get there eventually. This definition is a good resource to be able and go back to look at, and a better goal than a number on the scale (even though certain numbers on the scale can be very exciting!)
Definition of "Normal" Eating
It reminded me of what my goal should be: free myself from the obssesion about food.
