..ffffft okay if I’d have had a drink, it’d be out my nose and all over the monitor, now. I’m a bit sad that I’m not the first person to declare that!

It’s not easily to eat intuitively… I’ll often just give in to the crazy cravings in the back of my mind, cash permitting. This week has been a little irritating because I’m strapped for cash and forced to actually… gasp… use all the second-tier ingredients in my kitchen! And it’s actually helped me determine what I actually NEED to eat, as opposed to what sounds the most Ultimately Delicious. So far, it’s been veggies-and-pasta, and I’m happy with that. I LOVE to cook, so I suppose I can view this as an odd sort of treat. Sure, more work, but… I get to eat my own cooking! WOO!

And I know for certain that my weekend-long MUST HAVE SUBWAY OMFG desires are triggered by this one guy that comes to game night with Subway of his own… but the trigger is the SMELL of it. The onions and lettuce and… hm, need to give that some thought.

spacedcowgirl: She only eats a cookie that one time in the entire holiday season? It’s stressing me out.

That person is NOT LIVING, far as I’m concerned. Cookies are NICE THINGS. It’s okay to have ONE COOKIE. You will not die if you have a cookie on Monday, and then Tuesday, and then not on Wednesday cuz you don’t really want anything sweet, and then a cookie on Thursday, and…

Where I’m going with this is that if you DO only limit yourself to a Yearly Cookie Day, you’re being needlessly mean to yourself AND you’re likely to eat cookies until you fall over when you do get to have them. EAT A COOKIE. (This whole thing never seems to sink in to my co-worker, who puts up a big fuss every time our workplace gives out cookies/candy/cake for whatever occasion. I feel so bad for her, that she can’t spare a single “point” from her plan to at least TASTE the thing she so obviously wants.)

I have been hung up since yesterday on this “tip” in Woman’s Day magazine (I know, I know… it has some holiday recipes in it I want to try. And just that fact is ridiculously typical of women’s magazines considering what I am about to say). The woman said “To avoid holiday overindulging, I make sweets that I don’t personally care for, like fudge. I treat myself to gingerbread men and sugar cookies–but on Christmas Eve only.” So now I’m obsessed with the idea that it must be “normal” to eat cookies only one day per year or something. I mean, my logical brain says “surely it is more ‘normal’ to have one or a few cookies now and then throughout the holidays when you want one, or none if you don’t like them,” but seriously? She only eats a cookie that one time in the entire holiday season? It’s stressing me out.

I am on some heavy-ass antibiotics right now, the kind they give you when the bone in your jaw is infected. (Mine is actually in my inner ear, but I know this because someone I know had an infection in his jawbone and they gave him the same pills.)

The nurse actually told me not to bother eating dairy to replace the bacteria in my stomach because they would all just immediately die again, that’s how heavy these bastards are.

Thus I have not felt like eating anything at all, and everything tastes like cardboard or worse, except for coffee (?), and so I eat because I know I have to.

As soon as I read the words “bok choi,” it sounded heavenly. (Specifically my mother’s bok choi soup recipe.) I have actually looked for bok choi in this town before, to no avail. I know I’d probably have to drive like at least an hour to find it. I have finals. No time.

ARGHHGHGHHHGHG

And on the pregnancy front: Lindy, I agree with you. Although I almost feel like pregnancy is teaching me intuitive eating, because I have to be so tuned into what my body is wanting, or else I either won’t eat, or what I do try to eat will make me sick. As some of you have heard from me, I got so caught up “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” at first that I was making myself crazy about all the things I SHOULDN’T do. Now I eat what I can when I can, listening to my body, refusing to let anyone else dictate how I get through this. That having been said, I of course make an effort to get as many of the food groups as I can handle in whatever way I can, but that’s when I can handle it. Some days it just ain’t happening.

But right now I would totally make mad, passionate love to a burrito.

Eating a Chipotle burrito is like eating a hot water bottle, and that is what I want.

Mr. Feasance sweats profusely when he eats those things.

Thanks for this entry! I’m still working out the subtleties of how to eat intuitively, because it really isn’t just drinking lattes every time the thought of a latte pops into my head. There is so much in this post that is making me want to point and say, “Yes, this!” Like, it occurred to me at one point that because I haven’t been eating much meat lately, I might be craving lattes because they have milk, which has protein.

I am taking a vacation from intuitive eating in order to do a challenge and elimination diet (to test for food sensitivities–it has nothing to do with trying to lose weight), though I’ll still have quite a bit of leeway in choosing what to eat and when. I feel like this diet I’ll be on will actually help me with intuitive eating when it’s over because I’ll have to be very conscious of what I eat (since the list of possible food sensitivities is so long and I’ll probably have to prepare most of my food myself), and paying attention seems to be an important part of intuitive eating (and just enjoying food in general). Maybe it will also help me be more aware of how my body feels after eating certain foods–especially in the “challenge” phase when I have to watch for symptoms of sensitivity–which will help me over time to differentiate between different kinds of “wanting”.

@Kitty L: the whole 64 oz of water per day thing is actually supposed to be 64 oz of fluids a day. yes, your body processes water the easiest in terms of absorption but any non-caffinated, non-alcoholic beverage will count toward that. might i suggest a mix of half sparkling water (i like lime or orange essence crystal gyser) and half 100% fruit necter as a yummy way to get some of those fluids? also, i used to tell my massage clients this all the time, nothing says you can’t put fresh herbs and citrus fruits in your water for a little flavor.

@Becky: fresh brussles sprouts are so on my list of fave foods. buy the smalles ones as they tend to be more sweet and nutty. i usually just cut them in 1/2 length wise and saute mine with a touch of oliv oil or butter, some salt, onion and garlic. maybe some mushrooms if i have brown or wild in the house.

I have a tendency towards being anemic and I take one chelated iron supplement a day. I never crave red meat but shortly after I run out of those supplements, red meat suddenly sounds good! Then I go back on the vitamins again and I’m fine.