The First Step Towards Becoming Naturally Thin…

By Jean Antonello, RN, BSN, obesity and eating disorders specialist and author of The Great Big Diet Lie, How to Become Naturally Thin^® by Eating More, Breaking Out of Food Jail and Naturally Thin^® Kids, www.naturally-thin.com

Breaking a cycle of pathological eating patterns is no easy task. There are many challenges for you and your body in this new approach to eating, but you are not alone. Everyone who wants to reclaim a healthy relationship with food is faced with these obstacles, and anyone who is willing to work hard and face her fears can successfully get off the Feast or Famine Cycle. It takes time, but be patient. You and your precious body are worth it.

There are two main goals we’re aiming for. The first goal is:

Stop under eating completely.

This means learning to stop dieting, and to stop over-regulating the amount of food you eat and when you eat it. This is about giving up the intellectual controls for eating. So, you’re probably asking if our intellects don’t control our eating, where will the control come from? This is where the second goal comes in:

To learn to eat, and to stop eating, in response to body signals alone.

I call this “body-controlled eating.” It is the key to solving the loss of control problems and normalizing the excessive appetites you’ve experienced with disturbed eating patterns.

And why, you may ask, would you be willing to turn eating controls over to your body? I’ll tell you: Because the reason your body has been so crazy about food is your trying to control your eating intellectually. Once you remedy that cause, you know it can gradually normalize and get into healthy, normal, body control. Bodies are designed to manage food intake and maintain lean, healthy body weights. When bodies are given back the controls they are designed to have and should have kept all along, the people they house are free to do other things with their minds. Isn’t this a good idea?

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