Discovering Your Picky Palate

More recently I started a book called intuitive eating. This is an amazing book that will help you make peace with food, free yourself from chronic dieting forever, and help you get to your natural weight. Intuitive eating has been the biggest blessing to me. It is all about eating foods that your body craves, and trusting your body to eat what it needs. The ultimate goal of this book is to free yourselves from dieting and how to help you get to a naturally healthy weight. I recommend this book for any girl. I am tempted to say “for any girl who’s been through eating disorders, or struggles with her weight,” but really I believe that anybody can get something out this book. It has been so amazing.

One fun thing that I am doing right now through this book, is creating a picky palate for myself. Now you may wonder “why in the world would someone want to become a picky person?” Well, it’s not that I necessarily want to become picky with my taste buds and stop liking most things, but what I do want to do is start focusing on eating things that I fully enjoy. One thing I have found about myself, is that I actually do like healthy foods more than junk foods. Over the years my taste buds have changed to start liking things like fruits and vegetables, yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, smoothies, etc. I really don’t crave things likethe book talks about- needing candy or fast food. What I think happened with me, is that I got so used to eating healthy, that I started to restrict myself on even healthy foods. I tend to feel guilty when I eat too much. Of course, there’re times I eat “junk foods” too, but that is not a habit for me.

Through reading this book I really realize how unnecessary it is for me to try and cut back so much on healthy food. Arnt I supposed to be enjoying these things? I should be proud of myself that I no longer have things like sodas, big fat juicy hamburgers and fries, bags of chips, and others like these as staples of my normal diet. I tend to just get comfortable with the way I now eat, and I forget how far I have come. For example, my mom used to make breakfast burritos, and any burritos for that matter, all the time. If I thought the burrito tasted good, it was no question in my name in my mind, I would automatically eat two burritos just because the flavor was so good. I was convinced I should eat more. I don’t do those things anymore. If I feel like a Burrito now, I certainly eat one, but usually I eat half and save the other half for the next day, because I am excited about how good it will taste later, too!

With all of that being said, I am reminded of something that I’ve been thinking about… When I’m eating something that I am not fully enjoying, it is actually easier for me to eat everything on my plate. I am not talking about food that literally disgusts me, I’m just talking about foods that are so-so. I know this sounds like reverse psychology, and I think it actually is. When I’m eating something that tastes so delicious and rich in flavor, it’s easy for me to take half of it and put it away for later, because I know that I’ll be excited to eat it again. For example, yesterday I made a sandwich that was kind of drab. Halfway through the sandwich I wasn’t feeling that enthusiastic about it, but I figured since I wouldn’t be eating again for a while I should just eat the rest of the sandwich. I can guarantee you if that sandwich was an absolutely amazing sandwich from my favorite, Urbane Cafe, that I would have wanted to save it. My first thought would’ve been “the sandwich is so good, I’m going to save half for later so I can enjoy it the next time I am hungry, or maybe even tomorrow. Leftovers always taste so good.” I have learned to eat like this and it is so much better than feeling like you have to finish everything all at once.

So back to my picky palate, I am making a list of the things that I eat and trying really figuring out the foods that I love, and the foods that I don’t really care for that much. The foods that I love I will keep in my diet, and the foods that I don’t love I will have much less of, if any at all. The goal is to eat foods that you fully enjoy and in return you actually end up eating less throughout the week, and you will feel like you’ve eaten more because you’re so satisfied. This is how you get to your naturally healthy weight. For example all those bars that I bought the other day… I figured that the only true bar that I really like are LARABARS. They truly satisfy me. I don’t know what it is about them, it must be the fat and the combination of the sweetness. But those things satisfy me like no other bar. Other bars actually make me crave other things. Anything made by Clif bar tends to make me crave other foods. I am not downing Clif bar here, I actually have other friends who love Clif bars and don’t see how that’s possible for me. But for my body and my taste buds that’s the way it works. I also know some people that don’t even like Larabars, but they happen to be my absolute favorite. You have to get to know your own taste buds.

I suggest that you each make a list of the things that you really like, and the things that you don’t care for so much. It’s actually really fun and feels quite freeing. Instead of depriving yourself and telling yourself that you can’t eat certain things, you can turn your eating into an experiment. Eating becomes fun and you begin to appreciate the small amounts of things that you do eat, because you know that in just a couple hours or even 30 minutes later, if you’re still hungry you can eat again. Never tell yourself that you have to wait a certain amount of time to eat. That’ll only cause a sense of deprivation in your being and it will make you feel ravenous.