Carb Crazy and Italian Inspiration

I’ve already mentioned in the previous post that me being in the first phase of the intuitive eating path basically equals me eating a lot of ‘bad’ stuff to prove to myself that I can have them.

So yes I eat more sweets, but  most noticeable is my bread consumption.
You see, before intuitive eating I had created this habit of staying away from bread as far as I could for most of the week and giving myself a free pass to eat ‘some’ bread in the weekend. I guess it’s not surprising you that that was not how it went in the weekends, once I started to eat bread I just couldn’t stop.

The intuitive eating book has an amazing chapter about how we need carbs as our basic fuel and of how our body reacts to the absence of it. This  made me realise that it wasn’t because of my lack of willpower or my extreme fancy for bread that I acted the way I did, my body was just screaming for the carbs I did not give it and as soon as I would have some all it could do was ask for more and more and more…

So yes, I am eating more bread now, but paradoxically I might be eating less bread when you look at my week’s total! Crazy business indeed.

And because all of you should get your carbs in – you know, in order to not go crazy and consume everything in sight after I while – I suggest having bruscetta for lunch/dinner/now, just because you feel like having it!

‘Easy Bruscetta’

• ciabatta bread
• tomatoes
• mozzarella
• pesto
• herbs and spices of choice: I used a spaghetti mixture with basil oregano and paprika powder
• other veggies of choice

You can use of fresh loaf or ciabatta bread, I used that kind of bread you still have to put in the oven for about 10 minutes before you can eat it.

If you use the ‘not-yet-baked-kind’, bake it in an oven on 220°C (430F) for a couple of minutes before adding the toppings and place it back for about 8 minutes afterwards. Otherwise just add the toppings and bake/grill in the oven for about 8 minutes on 220°C.

Served with spinach, peaches, avocado and coleslaw.
See I don’t just eat bread you guys 😉

Love, M.

Reconnect with your Intuition

One of the great books I read while being MIA was ‘Intuitive Eating’

A lot of things became clear while reading this.
I realised that although I was not on a diet in the strict sense of that word, I still was thinking of food in a very black and white way, eating things I thought I should be eating in the amount I thought that was appropriate, letting my mind dictate my eating habits instead of my body.

The bottom line is that I deprived myself, not just from sweets and stuff, but mostly from those (scary little?) carbs. As a result I felt more and more out of control around a lot of food and overate like there would be no tomorrow. Add the stress of moving and examinations to that and you know how a monster gets created.

I knew something had to change but I also thought that I just had to be more strict and have more willpower to eat the healthy things and everything would be fine in the end. Well guess what, the more harsh you get on yourself, the more likely it is that it is not going to work out.

And this is where I thought about ordering that intuitive eating book I read about a couple of times, couldn’t hurt right?

It turns out to be a life saviour!

It might seem paradoxical but as soon as you are truly willing to let yourself eat anything you want, the undeniable urge to eat  everything in your cabinets vanishes. While I’m still in the first phase of intuitive eating and thus still experimenting with that ‘unconditional permission to eat things’ (i.e. eat sweets just to prove to myself that I really can) I notice I haven’t been craving sweets and carbs like I used to and can eat smaller portions of them than I could ever before and feel satisfied while doing it.

I’ll definitely keep you posted about the process!

Love, M.