Why Hello Body- what are you saying?

Therapy went well. More often than not, we talk about issues other than *me* and today we ended up talking about the law that was passed in NY state regarding nutritional information being printed on menus. This lead into her bringing up the subject of intuition (M- are you reading my blog?! :P ) and body cues, the practical aspect of "listening to your body" (ie, you may feel like cooking a roast chicken at 8am but have to rush to work).

I spoke about yesterday's entry and what my thoughts on intuitive eating were and where I stand with that. She agreed that now probably isn't a good time for me to completely stray away from my plan, but we talked a lot about how I feel after eating certain foods. I explained that I had noticed a difference in satiety and energy since switching things around a little (helloooo peanut butter- where have you been all these years?!) and how certain foods seem to leave me feeling kind of drained/dizzy a few hours later (I have blood sugar issues).

She also told me about a study that was done with children under the age of 5, monkeys and rats: basically, for 1 week, they were allowed to eat as much or as little of any kind of foods they wanted. The children, for the first 2-3 days, ate nothing more than sugary snack foods. After the first few days, they veered towards much more balanced meals and snacks. Over the course of the week, their diets were completely balanced and included all food groups. Point being, that yes- initially you may want lots of the things you generally don't eat much off/see as "forbidden"/restrict, but if you listen to your body, it will soon tell you what it wants/needs.

So, I have decided, not to completely "free style" with my meal plan, but to stop planning what I am going to have for my afternoon snack. This is pretty big for me. I have been switching things up a little bit, but still sticking to certain "requirements" (calories, protein...all that lovely stuff my body loves). BUT, my overall diet is balanced enough to allow some flexibility with this one snack. It sounds really small when I write it down, but it's going to be an experiment with me listening to what *I* want to eat- taste, texture, etc, without obsessing for 2 hours about how much of xxx I need to make my jigsaw of a meal plan add up to exactly what my brain says is "okay".

Today's choice: a pumpkin spice Clif bar

Good call, body...good call.

Edited to add: I am still having trouble trying to post comments on your blogs- not sure what is going on, but rest assured I am reading and thinking of you all! Normal responses will resume when the technical side of blogosphere is restored to it's usual state.