I’ve specifically tried to get in touch with my body’s feedback over the past few years, and i’m 100% convinced that the ability to sense what nutrients you get from food and then want that food when you need those nutrients, is a fundamental thing to any animal that can actively seek out specific foods.
My recommendations to get in touch with this ability is to limit snacking and try to get as hungry as possible before eating (so you have a chance to calibrate yourself, feel the difference between eating things out of habit vs actually craving them) and to try as many foods as possible even if you think you don’t like them, in as many different ways of preparation as possible.
There are so many things i thought i didn’t like until i tried them in a specific way, and there are many things i thought i liked but i’ve realized it was a very surface-level enjoyment. These days when i follow my cravings i’m filled with a borderline spiritual feeling of well-being, the food really feels like it’s good for me (and that includes desserts/sweets, because i’m very specific about which ones i like and how much of them i eat).
Yes, I’m totally with you there! For all the recommendations I’ve seen about snacking throughout the day, I have not found that it works well for me to be able to listen to my body’s hunger cues. Similarly, longer gaps between meals seem to promote better self-cleansing of the small intestine, improved nutritional absorption, and better hormonal regulation.
I find there is a big psychological component to food enjoyment as well. If you decide you don’t like a food in advance, you will go in hating it. Make the grimace that a 4 year old makes eating kale and bite into anything - the muscle activation sets off a cascade of emotional reactions that could make you hate your favorite food. I have enjoyed learning to cook and trying different ways to prepare foods that can be more difficult to love - now I enjoy the Brussels sprouts that I hated so much as a child.
My ground rule that helped me most with weight loss was to avoid single serve packaging and any foods that are shelf-stable that should not be without many added preservatives. If I’m craving sweets, I will make my own granola bars or banana bread - and likely with a fraction of the sugar of a pre-packaged alternative. But when I’m only choosing less processed foods, my body seems to know what to eat when the added-sugar noise is mostly eliminated.
I’ve specifically tried to get in touch with my body’s feedback over the past few years, and i’m 100% convinced that the ability to sense what nutrients you get from food and then want that food when you need those nutrients, is a fundamental thing to any animal that can actively seek out specific foods.
My recommendations to get in touch with this ability is to limit snacking and try to get as hungry as possible before eating (so you have a chance to calibrate yourself, feel the difference between eating things out of habit vs actually craving them) and to try as many foods as possible even if you think you don’t like them, in as many different ways of preparation as possible.
There are so many things i thought i didn’t like until i tried them in a specific way, and there are many things i thought i liked but i’ve realized it was a very surface-level enjoyment. These days when i follow my cravings i’m filled with a borderline spiritual feeling of well-being, the food really feels like it’s good for me (and that includes desserts/sweets, because i’m very specific about which ones i like and how much of them i eat).
Yes, I’m totally with you there! For all the recommendations I’ve seen about snacking throughout the day, I have not found that it works well for me to be able to listen to my body’s hunger cues. Similarly, longer gaps between meals seem to promote better self-cleansing of the small intestine, improved nutritional absorption, and better hormonal regulation.
I find there is a big psychological component to food enjoyment as well. If you decide you don’t like a food in advance, you will go in hating it. Make the grimace that a 4 year old makes eating kale and bite into anything - the muscle activation sets off a cascade of emotional reactions that could make you hate your favorite food. I have enjoyed learning to cook and trying different ways to prepare foods that can be more difficult to love - now I enjoy the Brussels sprouts that I hated so much as a child.
My ground rule that helped me most with weight loss was to avoid single serve packaging and any foods that are shelf-stable that should not be without many added preservatives. If I’m craving sweets, I will make my own granola bars or banana bread - and likely with a fraction of the sugar of a pre-packaged alternative. But when I’m only choosing less processed foods, my body seems to know what to eat when the added-sugar noise is mostly eliminated.