Too Much Of A Good Thing

I rounded the corner from the pool bathroom to hear my friend shouting to my husband that they were bringing ice. Running toward the scene, I found my son on his hands and knees with blood pouring from his mouth and my husband crouched next to him. 

Last month ended our thirteen year run of having no stitches for any of our kids. Two hours, a lost baby tooth (thanks, seesaw) and three stitches later, my son and husband left the ER with every kid’s dream prescription: lots of popsicles and ice cream. He smiled through his swollen lip at the prospect of all day frozen dairy and happily ate ice cream or a blended ice cream drink for lunch and dinner that first day. 

Something typical happened though, at dinner on day two of unlimited ice cream, he looked kinda green in the face. 

“Buddy, do you want that ice cream anymore?” I asked. 

“No, mom, no more ice cream”. He groaned.

His body is pretty smart and so is yours. When given carte blanche to eat whatever you want, there’s usually a point where the novelty of eating one food 24/7 wears thin. At some point, all day DQ blizzards don’t sound so good anymore (crazy, right?). Not forever will you shun a particular food, but until your body gets whatever else it’s needing and craving, the food on repeat will start to lose its appeal. Don’t worry, three days later when our neighborhood pool got a new soft serve machine, my son was back in the “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream” line. 

This got me thinking about when I used to self prescribe limitations on certain foods or food groups in the name of “wellness”. I’m guessing you’ve done or are currently doing the same thing with your food. 

If you’re game, here’s a little experiment for you this week:

Ask yourself if there’s a particular food or food group you’ve been keeping off limits. 

If there’s something that you’re limiting, challenge yourself to let go of the rules around this food or food group. Allow yourself FULL and UNLIMITED access to eat this food whenever you want. Cake for breakfast? Why not? Cookies for a snack? Go for it. 

Next, see what happens when you actually sit down and let yourself enjoy as much of the food as you want. Instead of standing in the corner of your pantry or hiding behind your refrigerator door, can you get a plate and fork and pull up a seat at your kitchen table and focus on the food experience?

You might feel nervous, and that’s normal. Take a few deep breaths. Put on your curious observer hat and watch what happens. NO JUDGEMENT ALLOWED. 

You might find that you don’t even really like cake with buttercream frosting. You might find that you really love brownies with extra chocolate and nuts. You might not like a full pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Maybe you find a different stopping point that feels right for you. Or maybe you enjoy that pint with gusto. 

Next, I want you to check in and ask yourself how you feel after eating this food. What is your appetite level? Do you feel satisfied? Did your blood sugar plummet? (Remember the best way to combat blood sugar spikes is to ADD in protein and/or fat along with your carbs.) Did your stomach grumble? This is all just one big experiment to get to know your body better and find out what you really like and what your body craves and how your body feels after eating certain foods. 

Finally, notice when you let go of your rules, do you relax a little more around that particular food? Do you notice that you don’t even remember that you had chips in your pantry or ice cream in your freezer? This might sound impossible, but I promise you it does happen. 

Here’s to hoping that you don’t feel like you need a doctor’s note to eat whatever you want. 

No prescriptions needed. Just a reconnection with that inner voice that knows what your body wants and needs. Just don’t listen if that voice tells you to get on a seesaw with a wet swimsuit.