Listening To Your Body Is Bad Advice – Intuitive Eating
Imagine a soldier coming home from war. During his time abroad he was an awesome fighter.
He received multiple medals and promotions for his acts of bravery. All his friends in war looked up to him.
But now, being in his home country again, he feels lost. All his skills and traits that guaranteed his survival in a war-zone, are worth nothing anymore in our safe society. And this is exactly, what happened to our body in the face of evolution.
During most of our existence we had to work for our food.
For example we had to gather leaves in the wild, often walking miles to get to it.
In that time where resources were scarce, our brains had to develop the tendency to go the way of least resistance.
Because, if your ancestor would have walked 10 miles to get breakfast even if he would found breakfast after 2 miles he probably wouldn’t be your ancestor.
He would burn too much calories and will be a more likely prey to predators.
That’s why it takes so much discipline to go for a run in the morning.
Because there’s simply no need to, it’s not the way of least resistance.
Stop listening to your body.
Trick this tendency, by eating breakfast after your work out.
This will link the act of exercising with something rewarding, making you look forward to it.
We live in the time and age where we have more than enough.
You don’t have to physically work for your food, you get everything that you need and more in the supermarket around the corner.
There’s little to no force required to get the food that you like the most.
And the food that you like the most is usually the food that you shouldn’t eat.
Why? Because if your ancestor found food that was high in fat and sugar, his brain would go nuts.
It’s enough to let him survive for a couple of weeks. Time to party.
These foods may be great for survival in scarce times, but will lead to obesity in the modern world.
Stop listening to your body.
Realize that your body will be naturally inclined to crave such foods.
But only eat them sparingly and with full consciousness to enjoy them the most.
Have you ever wondered why unhealthy foods are often smooth, not needing you to chew a single time?
Yes? Let me explain.
Your body values the food that you will eat with multiple tactics.
He smells it. He touches it. He looks at it and only then it tastes it.
Consider a banana, if it smells weird, if it has a kinda odd texture if it is black at some point you don’t eat it.
And if you finally put the banana in your mouth, the fruit, and it tastes weird you spit it out again.
These are all defense tactics from your body against possible diseases.
The bad thing is just: The nutrition industry knows about that.
So what do you have to do to sell a product that is completely unhealthy?
You have to make it look good, you use food colorings.
You have to make it smell good, you use artificial flavourings.
You have to make it taste good, you use artificial sweeteners.
These are all artifical ways to trick your bodys defense mechanism.
Stop listening to your body.
Realize that the nutrition industry is worth billions of dollars.
Just because something tastes good, does not necessarily mean that you should eat it.
Instead focus on natural, unprocessed plant-based nutrition for optimuum health.
Listen to your body is bad advice.
It’s like telling a person that is depressed to just be happy. Or a heartbroken person to just move on. It puts the blame on the person and gives them nothing to act upon.
The truth is, we live in a body that is made for the past and will not adapt anytime soon. The first thing we have to do is accept this and search for actionable ways to play with the cards that we’ve been given.