I made my 6-year old a toasted cheese sandwich.
"Thank you, mommy!", she exclaimed (she's dramatic like that ). "This sandwich is SOOOO delicious!"
Thoughtfully, she asked, "Can I have it again for breakfast?".
I'm SO careful to teach my children mindful, intuitive eating (having walked such a tough road, myself), and so I said, "My baby, you can have that whenever you are hungry".
Seated across from me, my 8-year old said, "I don't really think she ate that because she was hungry. I think she just felt like it"...
And it occurs to me, and I mused to her, that this is really one of the 3 reasons people eat:
- Because we are hungry.
- Because we are "eating our feelings"; another important turn of phrase in our home - (heart hunger).
- Because we feel like it, and choose to (head hunger).
I've known this for decades, but the lesson never gets old, and I learn it afresh so often.
- Am I HUNGRY? Does my body need food?
- Am I mad / sad / bad / glad?
- Am I just craving a particular favourite food, or the sensation of eating?
I honestly believe problematic eating is SOOO much more than "food addiction" or "sugar and flour addiction".
`Eating is a much more complex process than standard substance misuse.
And this is why there's mental and emotional work is CRITICAL for recovery, and maintenance at goal. ABSTINENCE isn't always the fundamental requirement. Sometimes the ABSTINENCE we need is NOT from sugar and flour, but from self-loathing, self-directed mean-spiritedness, shoving down of feelings with food, and eating from habit and craving, not from hunger and desire for enjoyable satisfying of that hunger!
