If it’s not a Foodgasm, it’s not worth eating (and it’s making you fat)

There’s a little thing known as pleasure that is highly underestimated in the world of weight loss, and I have to admit, I’m guilty of teaching it but not necessarily practicing what I preach.

For the past two years, I’ve focused primarily on what I should remove from my diet versus how I felt about what I was actually eating. For example, when I found out I was gluten intolerant, I eliminated gluten altogether even though foods with gluten made me indescribably happy. For some, they would notice an immediate difference by cutting out an offending food like gluten, but for me, I noticed no difference.

Gluten is scientifically linked to thyroid disorder, so I assumed by 86’ing it, my thyroid would improve. Improve it did, naturally, without meds, yet I scantly credit a lack of gluten as the reason why. There were plenty of times on occasion that gluten made its way into my diet. Unbeknownst to me, consciously or subconsciously, I found myself eating something that had gluten in it, after I ate it, when there was nothing I could do about it, other than hope it would hold harmless my thyroid.

So it would be impossible for me to say conclusively that eliminating gluten is what made my thyroid improve. According to studies, even a communion-sized wafer amount of gluten stays in your gut for as long as 6 weeks and it can take almost a year to heal the damage it causes. That being the case, if going gluten free did it, I’d have to say that’s impossible because I never truly was.

Same goes for dairy. It can create a rumbling in my belly that’s akin to the sound of a jet engine on takeoff, so for years I’ve avoided it. At least by doing so I’m able to pinpoint the source of my dietary discontent, and yet, as with gluten, the times I’ve been inextricably drawn to it and seemingly unable to resist it, why is it that when I give in, if I simply hold the intention that it won’t create the reaction it typically does and ask it to nourish my body in all ways instead, it does? (Truthfully, the same goes with dairy.)

How many times have you been stranded in an airport with no options other than to eat airport food? You have to eat, so what do you do? Gelato, Auntie Anne’s pretzels, Cinnabon all tempt and dare you to indulge, yet you resist with the thought that you’d rather be “good” tha “bad”, regardless of how pleasurable they’ll feel on your palette.

Sure, they’re inferior quality foods, but how do they make you feel? How often do you tune in to the feeling you get from the food you’re eating versus the guilt and shame you bestow upon yourself for finding pleasure in it? If you had to rank your food on a scale of 1-10 in terms of pleasure, what would it be?

When I finally figured out, and really understood, how incredibly powerful it is to make certain that every meal I ate gives me a foodgasm, I had an enormous breakthrough. I was a fraud! I had been regaling the virtues of pleasurable weight loss, but hadn’t truly been living it!

Instead, I spent my time longingly passing the bread and cookie aisles wishing I could eat just one bite. I passed on birthday cake and cupcakes because they had gluten and dairy. And no matter what anyone wants to say, the GFDF versions just don’t cut it.

I then began to notice how others around me who never thought about their weight on a perpetual 24/7 cycle like I did didn’t think twice about what they ate. They just ate. They never felt deprived either. I’m not talking anyone who’s underweight, just normal everyday people who think of eating like riding a bike. It’s something that comes natural to them, they never forgot how to do it once they learn, and they never do too much of it.

And they never feel guilty about doing it either.

How is that any different than knowing how much to eat, when to stop, and what foods to choose that pleased their minds and their bodies sans the guilt-laden internal dialogue about how fat it would make them, how losing weight is hard or how weak they are because they have no willpower?

Whatever conversation you’re having with yourself when you’re eating is the real reason why weight won’t budge. It’s so much less about the actual food than it is about your fear of gaining weight, your belief that you’re genetically stuck with excess fat, or your disbelief in the fact that your body is the ultimate nutritional expertise and knows what to do without the input of your doctor or local diet center.

Your intention trumps everything, so if you are ever stranded, or diagnosed with a gluten intolerance, or tell yourself you’ll gain weight if you scarf down an extra piece of gluten-filled, dairy-filled pizza, then you will.

My test results were a black and white representation of what my DNA proved to be true, but my belief that my body could in fact tolerate gluten proved to be more true. For too long I let a piece of paper control my behavior with food over my own body, and I did nothing more than deprive myself of the foods I loved. The foods that literally bring a smile to my face so much so that I can feel it all the way down in my belly. Food is one of the greatest pleasures in life, but there are no hard and fast rules. It’s bio-individual, meaning you have to figure out for yourself what works and what doesn’t, no matter what your test results or anyone else has to say about it.

You can think your way thin, you just have to trust your body enough to know what to do to do it. When it comes to rules, there’s only one in my book. If what I’m eating doesn’t give me a foodgasm, I don’t eat it. No matter what. We are programmed to seek pleasure and avoid pain, so why do anything else?

It’s true, I’ve become somewhat of a food snob, but then again, my body thanks me for it.

To learn more about the pleasures of eating and how it helps with weight loss, join me June 20th at 8pm EST/5pm PST for What’s Keeping You Fat? 3 Hidden Secrets of Weight Loss That Most Doctors and Diet Programs Don’t Know About. REGISTER HERE –> http://www.wellnesswithangela.com/stopsugarcravings/free-weight-loss-teleclass