Food Fight #20
Weight loss efforts often involve attempts to curb the appetite. If I eat fewer calories, I will lose weight. Even better, if I can avoid an appetite in the first place. This usually works in the beginning but is not sustainable and, in many cases, unhealthy.
To have an appetite means to have a desire. An appetite for food is natural. A problem occurs when I respond to my appetite foodlessly.
The desire to eat is an opportunity to address a nutritional need. If the need is unmet, the appetite will resurface quickly.
Cells need a consistent supply of nutrients just like a car always needs several fluids. When something is running low, a signal is sent. A light comes on. My cells also need numerous nutrients to keep me performing at an optimal level. This is the only way I can be the best I am intended to be. When my cells are running out of nutrients, they send the signal for more. The neurons light up and a message flashes in my brain that it's time to eat. Rather, it's time to add nutrition. Just like a car, it needs what it was designed to receive to keep it functioning properly, otherwise it will definitely malfunction. I dare not try to operate my car with a low level of antifreeze, oil or brake fluid – not even for a day. Why shouldn't I treat my more complex and more important body with even greater immediacy and care?
Would I want to interfere with my car's ability to let me know that it needs more gas or oil or brake fluid? Nope. Likewise, why interfere with the appetite that there to tell me I need something important?
My appetite will vary. Why? Because my experiences vary. They are not exactly the same every day and I do not eat the same amount and variety of food every day. As a result, my appetite will be more or less from day to day. My appetite is the perfect flexible mechanism to tell me what I need and when. All I need to do is tune in to what it's telling me. I need to eat with a nutrient focus. When I do this, I get energy, healing and health. When I eat with any other type of focus, I get quickly fading energy, toxins and disease. I am lucky to get any nutrients. After this happens, my body still needs those nutrients it asked for in the first place and therefore continues to send the appetite signal as soon as the stomach has room. This cycle of filling the stomach but not feeding my cells is the problem. This is a major reason I overeat. I have responded to my appetite the wrong way. I need to curb myself instead of trying to curb my appetite.
I must first make sure I am eating food and not non-food. I must continue to add variety. I must drink water. I must have renewing sleep. My cells have a desire to do their job to take care of me. They need me to give them the rawest of materials. Once I do they will stop asking. My cells never want more nutrition than they need. This means my appetite will not cause me to eat too much or want to eat too much.
Here's the thing. I must reacquire awareness of myself as more than who I am and expand it to all that I am. I am more than name, rank, serial number and such. The cellular is another level of my being. The spiritual is yet another level. I am more than the mind and macrobody I tend to focus on. I must eat to fulfill every aspect of my being.
Contrary to popular notion, a “healthy appetite” is not “eating a lot.” Instead it is meeting the desires of the body in a multiple, beneficial way. When I respond to my appetite and eat as intended, food will taste good, fill the stomach and supply nutrients. It will also supply spiritual energy. My enthusiasm is rising toward my next appetite.
