Girl, you gotta eat
An introduction to eating intuitively
I don’t own a television much less watch any but over Christmas I stayed with family who do and the onslaught of advertising to which I have gladly not been party to for years but that is being ritualistically force fed to people, my people, astonished me.
I know it’s out there but who actually watches this stuff I thought, as I glanced over at gawping family members completely sucked in by its messaging.
The second January hits it’s all diets and Summer holidays, relentlessly shaming anyone who believes they are ‘less than’ if they weigh ‘more than’ coming into the New Year with their festive frisson on and can only hope to be saved by whatever it is these companies are selling. It’s demoralising and has absolutely nothing to do with health but some of these campaigns are very effective—by which I mean they’re incredibly, persuasively, manipulative. Remember women eating salads and laughing?
In 2021 I contributed to a brilliant book put together by actress, writer and all round excellent human Zosia Mamet called My First Popsicle to raise money for the World Central Kitchen, an organisation which was doing amazing work during the pandemic to get food to people without. She asked each of us to write a short story or an essay about what food meant to us. What came together is funny, moving and in some cases mouth-watering, from an incredible collection of people. Food is such an emotive and personal thing and those who shared really got vulnerable and offered up some truly wonderful stories—and recipes too. For those that are interested in reading further, you can buy the book here (this shouldn’t need to be said but I do not financially benefit from the direct purchase of this book and I genuinely think it’s a beautiful thing to add to any library, especially if you’re into cookbooks!) But to give you a flavour and offer up a counter to the January shame and diet lifestyle that seems to be rearing its lollipop head once again—did it ever really go away? I wanted to share my contribution, a piece on Intuitive Eating. (Side note: I fully credit Zosia with getting me back into writing and reawakening that passion in me. She encouraged me to keep going with this essay which ended up becoming a piece of writing I am exceptionally proud of. Thank you Zosia, I love you.)
There are all sorts of additions I would add now if I was writing it again—you can only imagine what I have to say about Ozempic; and calorie counting; and why it is that eating intuitively will not leave you living like Macauley Culkin in Home Alone; but I’ll save that for now (maybe this is a book-sized idea??) and gift this essay to you as a jumping off point because maybe it’s perfect as it is. Just as you are.
I would also like to pre-empt the alleged oncoming threat of ‘Blue Monday’—coined in 2012 by a pseudo-psychologist who claimed the third Monday in January to be the most depressing day of the year in the Northern hemisphere, who has since withdrawn his comments (yes, they were just comments not a thesis he was working on, but the world’s media ran with it anyway)—by first offering up my post A Slow Start because apparently it’s around this time that resolutions often start to fall by the wayside and if they have for you, I got you. And secondly, if any of those resolutions were food/ diet related? I’m thrilled you’ve fallen off the wagon. Let’s start over. It’s time to let our hearts and our stomachs, be our guides.