Eat what you like

Over the past few years I have finally achieved what I have been wanting all of my life ... that ability to eat whatever I wanted, and not put on weight. 

I always felt a bit pudgy and dieted and exercised to control it - but I was always 6-8 kg over my happy weight.  

Several years ago I stopped focusing on what I ate;  I threw away all preconceived ideas of what I should and shouldn't eat.  I just started eating whatever I wanted - which strangely coincided with my vata dosha eating.

I lost weight - about 8 kg.  No struggle.  

I eat chocolate, nuts, cake, muffins ... but only when I feel like it.  I didn't understand why this change in my body happened ... but then I read an article in the Sunday supplement of the Age newspaper, written by Lucy Cavendish.  It happened to her too. I have but an abridged version of it below for you to read.

I suppose the most important thing is ... just relax and don't beat yourself up with your eating.  If you want to eat ... do so ... but make it quality, not 'make do' rubbish.  

Eat-what-you-like-when-you-like food mindfulness? By Lucy Cavendish

This is what I had for lunch today: nuts. That's it. I had some nuts and a few seeds and then I felt full. For breakfast I had a boiled egg and a square of dark chocolate. For dinner it will be chickpeas and green tea.

I know. It sounds crazy, a weird mixture, but every day everything changes for me.

A year ago, if you'd told me that all I would eat for lunch would be two handfuls of nuts, and that I would have chocolate for breakfast, I would have thought you were mad. Yet these days this is how it is. I eat what I want, when I want, no matter what it is. The only caveat is that I truly have to want to eat it.

I eat whatever I want and I've lost three-and-a-half kilograms.

Instead of being diet-obsessed, I now listen to my body.

At first I had no idea what my body wanted to eat.  Like most women, I have a complicated relationship with my body.  One day and made a commitment to a new way of being. I wouldn't diet. I wouldn't kilojoule-count. I would try to listen to my body and what my body needed.

On the first day of my new regimen I started with breakfast. I looked around the kitchen: eggs, bread, milk, cereals, porridge, yoghurt.

The freedom to choose threw me completely.

After a few days I became convinced I would not be able to achieve any harmony between my physical desire for food and what my brain was telling me. By the second week, I began to calm down and started to listen to my body more and become aware of what I actually wanted to eat, rather than what I thought I wanted to eat.

The most interesting thing was that I ate a lot less. I'd expected the opposite to happen.

By week three I felt I was truly beginning to take on board what my body wanted and, more importantly, what it didn't want. This doesn't mean to say that I didn't have cravings. I had - and still have - them all the time. I still happily eat sweet biscuits, but I only eat them when my body is telling me to.

The mental and physical benefits have been immeasurable. I have energy. I am ready to move, run, jump, take flight at any moment. I love the sense of freedom it has given me.