Cheezies and Frosting?

My first encounter with Intuitive Eating was in Anne Lamott’s book Travelling Mercies (on my “must read” list by the way). Like many of us, Anne was coming out of a stage of disordered eating and body dissatisfaction. She was told about Intuitive Eating and she figured “what the heck” and gave it a try. For the first two weeks, she ate nothing but cheezies and frosting.

I know what you’re thinking: Cheezies and frosting?! Gross. That was pretty much my reaction, too.

I was also quite skeptical. But Anne said she didn’t eat like that forever, and so I trusted her, and gave it a try.

For me it was Nanaimo bars. For those of you who are not blessed enough to know what Nanaimo bars are, you can look them up. In short, they are heaven.

For the first two weeks (funny how it’s always 2 weeks for people) it was Nanaimo bars for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now this was not as easy as it sounds; I was in Zambia at the time, and the nearest Nanaimo bars are at least 2 plane flights away. So I had to make them from scratch.

And I did it because I was committed.

When people first hear me telling this story, they think I’m crazy – and at the time, I was beginning to wonder if I was. But I just kept trusting. And sure enough, overtime, just as cheezies and frosting had for Anne, Nanaimo bars turned into a balanced diet. 

I can’t quite explain how it happened. I simply woke up one morning, had my Nanaimo bar as usual, and then when lunch came around I simply didn’t want a Nanaimo bar. No, in fact, I wanted broccoli and ranch dressing. Up until that point, I hadn’t even liked broccoli and ranch dressing! Then come dinner, I wanted chicken strips with honey mustard.

And thus my cravings started coming back slowly. Sure, I still went back to Nanaimo bars over the following weeks, but slowly by slowly my diet became more and more varied and eventually balanced out.

I was eating veggies and chicken and brownies and rice and chicken strips and nachos and fruit and everything in between.

But most importantly, I was beginning to rekindle my relationship with food. For the first time in my life I was giving myself full permission to eat – and it was beautiful and it was freeing.

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I don’t know what you are going to crave when you first start out on the Intuitive Eating journey, but most likely it will be the thing you have been denying yourself most. For me that was Nanaimo bars, for Anne Lamott that was Cheezies and Frosting – for you it may be Ben & Jerry’s or pepperoni pizza or creamed peas with maple syrup – who knows!

I can’t tell you what you will crave, I can only tell you this: honour your cravings. They are there for a reason; it is all part of the journey and the first few weeks are a very integral part at that.

And I can assure you, you won’t be stuck eating Cheezies and frosting for the rest of your life!

Happy eating! 

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Twitter: @lauren_b_sag

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For the first time in my life I was giving myself full permission to eat – and it was beautiful and it was freeing. (click to tweet)