Learning how to nourish yourself
I spent a year seeing a nutrition specialist in San Francisco years ago. She was very helpful in identifying what I was doing wrong and how much my emotional state played in my eating choices. For one thing, I am hypoglycemic and so my habit of no fat and lots of fruits and carbs in the morning was sending me into a downward spiral by midmorning. Also, because I get dizzy, can’t focus, and irritable without a consistent diet, skipping meals was killing me.
I began eating smaller portions more frequently during the day. This worked in many ways to get me out of the yo yo effect of hypoglycemia as well as had the side effect of me losing weight without even thinking about it.
I got off track around Katrina and have never made my way back to it in a meaningful way. But yesterday I started again to think in these terms and believe that if everyone ate right for them the world would be a better place.
My diagnosis was a quest for perfectionism that was causing me to stifle too much of my own emotions and eating was one way to comfort myself. That and the hypoglycemia helped me learn a lot about my relationship to food (among other things).
My prescription is to eat four meals a day – when I wake up, lunch time, late afternoon and dinner. The amount shouldn’t be larger than what my two hands, palm up, can hold. And one hand should contain half protein, half carb with 30% fat and the other fruits and/or vegetables. Every meal should be like that. It worked for me before, so I’m looking forward to going back to this way of life.