Babies don’t curse their appetites, so why should you?

Are You a 3 mealer, a 6 mealer or an all day grazer?

A couple of weeks ago, my daughter decided that she needed to detox.  She was feeling run down, exhausted and wanted more energy.

After all, Samantha is graduating college and moving to Dallas, Texas to begin her career in commercial real estate.

The first few days were hard.  She was hungry.  She was afraid of her hunger and when she ate, she was the Tazmanian Devil, devouring her food so fast that she didn’t even notice.

Do you eat like a tazmanian devil?

After a full day of travel and apartment shopping; I was tired and when I am sleepy I am not so sweet.

So, when Samantha said she was hungry, I snapped. (One of my not so brilliant mommy moments).

Then Sam lost it!  She curled up on her bed and cried.  She hated that she was hungry all the time and she wanted to be “good”.

The good word clued me in that clarification was in order.

I explained that when you are transitioning into a healthy lifestyle, 3 things are going to happen:

1. Your body will fight it because it wants everything to be balanced.

2. Your ego will fight it because it does not like change.  As a result,  situations will arise that tests your choice.

3. You will begin to lose your will to move forward because you are believing 1 and 2 to be true.

So we ordered some vegetables and dip from room service and that seemed to do the trick.

As she was sleeping, I began to think about appetite and how we are told that it has to be a “certain way.”  I began thinking about the  history of my daughter’s appetite.

• As an infant, Samantha never had more than a couple ounces of formula at a time.  Luckily she was my first child so I bowed to her first hungry cry.
• As a toddler, she refused to eat food.  She loved her bottles full of milk.  She hated baby food and she would throw finger food on the ground.  By 18 months I had to take the bottles away for good and she finally began eating.
• As a preschooler, she was a VERY PICKY EATER.  Samantha only enjoyed McDonalds (Ok, Mother of the Year Candidate once again).
• As a grade schooler, vegetables were the devil and sugar was her first love.
• As Samantha grew older and we discovered her allergy to gluten, she was forced to give up some of her favorites and to become more flexible.  Salads became a part of her meals and she became one of the best gluten sniffer-outers around Missouri.

While I was mentally annotating her life with food I realized the overall theme was that Samantha loved to eat all day in bite size chunks.  She is the queen of the grazers.  Her body works best when she is eating a little all day long.

Her grazing ways must be honored.

The next morning I apologized for losing it and shared what I had discovered and that she had to honor her appetite.

Yet, how she honored her appetite had to change because she has a major gluten allergy and a propensity towards stomach problems.

Samantha had to up the quality of her food and eat more macronutrient balanced meals.

In other words, more vegetables need to be incorporated along with a unique mixture of protein, carbs and fats.

Now that she is honoring her body and her appetite, Samantha is working out again, enjoying more energy and is ready to take on her new career.

So what about you?  What is your appetite like?  Do you honor it or curse it?  Please share your thoughts below and I will give you an ATTA GAL!

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