It’s all in the eyes. These women are hungry.
With one crazy diet fad after another -- ranging from eliminating whole food groups to catering a diet specifically for your blood type -- women are literally starving their bodies of nutrients and forgetting that food can be a pleasurable thing. Something that can and should be enjoyed by all the senses: the smell of freshly baked bread, the vivid colors of crisp, fresh vegetables, or the texture of a ripe mango as the juice oozes onto your fingers. Learning to enjoy food can help you feel satiated.
Which is one of the most important things dietician Elyse Resch, M.S., R.A.D.A., and co-author of Intuitive Eating, tells her clients. “They need to let go of all that old diet thinking that certain foods are good foods, and certain foods are bad foods. They need to equalize all foods and give themselves permission to eat exactly what they really feel like eating, when they’re hungry. And they will find out, after time, that they’ll end up with a very balanced way of eating that includes plenty of healthy foods and some foods that I call ‘play foods,’ that are just for fun.”
But let’s be clear. This process takes time, effort and awareness.
“The first step is learning how to eat in response to body signals of hunger and fullness, separating out emotional hunger from your biological needs,” says Resch. “Each person has a set-point weight that is genetically determined which is achievable by eating and exercising in a healthy, moderate, non-excessive way.”
This does not mean that anyone can have the body she wants. For example, if a woman is 5 feet 5 inches tall with a large bone structure and wants to weigh 100 pounds, it is simply not supposed to happen if she wants to remain healthy. Her ideal weight will always be much higher than she would like, and eventually that is something she might want to accept.
Very few are able to attain the celebrity or model body ideal. Remember, they are celebrities for a reason. They have chefs who make them tasty low-fat meals, the extra time to work on their bodies and personal trainers who can monitor their every leg press. Or, as stated earlier, they’ve turned to drugs for some additional help. But, most importantly, they more than likely are genetically predisposed to being thin.
