The lesson of indulgence

Don't get me wrong. I am not suggesting that eating 'junk food' with awareness or until satisfied on a regular basis will help you lose weight or achieve optimum health.

The key and critical message is for you to start to reconnect with your body in an honest way. You may be surprised to learn that when you do so, you will reach a point when you are conscious of the fact that you are no longer really enjoying the food you are eating, and then it is easy to stop. You are not stopping because you feel guilty. You are not stopping because some diet or book is telling you to do so. You are stopping simply because you have had enough.

You may be even more surprised to discover that the more you do this, and the more conscious you become about how your body feels, the less you will crave junk food for periods of time after you have eaten it. This is because your body intuitively knows what is good for it and what it needs. I have experienced this myself and see it constantly in animals.

For example, if I eat really badly for a couple of days, I start to feel less light and streamlined as I put away a bit of extra fat, bad tempered, my urine becomes odorous, my sleep becomes less deep and refreshing and most of all, I notice that the skin on my face loses its usual shine and smoothness. After just a couple of days, I reach a point where the idea of eating another chocolate or chip completely loses its appeal. In fact it becomes repulsive as my body rejects this food. This reaction is not to be confused with guilt. It is literally just my body saying no and my awareness of my body.

Unfortunately, as humans we often override the cues and signals our bodies give us. If you have been overriding what your body is telling you for a long time, it will take some time to reconnect with it. But there is SUCH a simple and flawless way to do it. Simply start introducing more healthy foods and activities into your life. You will start to FEEL and EXPERIENCE how good this feels. The more you do this, automatically you will FEEL the contrast when you overeat or eat too many junk foods...