The Last Supper & Permission to Eat
This post is for you if you've ever found yourself scarfing down sweets and thinking, "Ok, tomorrow I'm going to start eating better."
I used to not be able to keep things like chocolate or granola in my pantry, ice cream or thin mint girl scout cookies in my freezer. If they were there. I'd eat them. I'd eat them whilst telling myself I wasn't going to buy them again because I couldn't be trusted.
In reality, I could be trusted... I just:
was restricting my overall food intake and therefore would get really hungry and binge
when I was really hungry I wasn't prepared with options so I'd grab what was quick and ready
and eventually because of my diet-guilt I developed a "now or never" mentality called...
The Last Supper
The Last Supper is the "forbidden" meal you have RIGHT before you start, yet another, diet or restrictive behavior. It's when you give yourself "pseudo permission" to indulge, because in your mind, it’s the last time you’ll ever get to have that food or drink again. It's a "now or never" way of thinking. It feels like an obsession and rush you get when you're given the opportunity to eat a "forbidden" food.
If you're thinking, HEY THAT'S ME HELP ME PLEASE.
Here’s the thing, you’ve got to start by giving yourself… Radical Permission
It's the concept of allowing yourself any type of food, anytime you want it in order to begin getting rid of food obsession, and it’s scary at first, and doesn’t happen over night, but it works.
Cue the people that say, “So you’re telling people to eat anything and everything they want whenever they want… You’re basically telling people to be ‘unhealthy’ and to not give a s***.”
*eye roll* That’s not it...
When we tell ourselves we CAN’T have a certain food, we build up a craving for that food (try telling a child they can’t have something and watch what happens). The forbidden nature of that food increases and we obsess about it more. This usually leads to “uncontrollable” cravings followed by bingeing, not paying attention to our hunger or fullness cue, and eating as much of that food as possible because we’ve told ourselves we won’t have it again. Sound familiar?
The mere PERCEPTION that a food might never be available again, can trigger overeating. Telling yourself you can’t have something gives that thing more power and allure... like telling a child they can't have x, it makes them want it even more. When you give yourself permission to eat, the food still tastes just as good, but you remove the urgency and therefore the desire to need it all, and like, right now, before it disappears again.
There’s a lot of fear that surrounds this particular step in Intuitive Eating, for example, people often think, “If I start I’ll never stop eating.” It might feel like that a first, but eventually, this is where habituation comes in. I could get into the science of it, but I’ll make this short: Humans adapt quickly to a repeated experience and with each repeated exposure, we derive less and less pleasure from it. You’ll know you’re there when you start to think, “I don’t actually feel like eating this today.” When you know it’s there, and you can have it whenever you want, you just start to… Not want it as much. That’s the point of radical permission. Giving yourself THE CHOICE, without the guilt and shame that comes with your decision. Once you’ve made peace with it, you won’t obsess. You’ll be able to actually decide whether it’s what you really want or not. It’s not about “bad” or “good” foods, it’s about neutralizing food all together so you can then start to tune into what your body is asking for. When ice cream is just ice cream and fruit is just fruit, you’ll actually hear your body tell you which is wants/needs in the moment. That’s freedom (and a lot less stressful).
So, if you find yourself overeating a particular food, give yourself some TIME and PERMISSION to truly enjoy and have that thing. Be mindful of how it tastes, feels, smells. See if you can tell when it starts to change in taste. If you eat more than you wanted to, be okay with that. It happens (especially at first). BE cautious of pseudo-permission (that voice in your head that's telling you you "shouldn't" be doing this) because even if your mouth is eating said thing, your mind is still forbidding the action - which completely cancels out the work.
If you’re looking to feel more confident in your body, learn how to let go of dieting for good to enjoy food without guilt, and turn exercise into something you love to do rather than something you “have” to do, submit a client application to get in contact with me! I work with clients virtually all over the world helping those who are frustrated with dieting and want to change their relationship with food, exercise and themselves.
Hi, I’m Azul Corajoria, an Integrative Health Coach, Personal Trainer & Yoga Instructor. I support my clients in making step-by-step changes so that they can live a healthy and balanced life. By recognizing the interdependent roles of mindset, nutrition, and movement I educate and hold my clients accountable for achieving their health goals through lifestyle and behavior adjustments with an emphasis on self-care. Together, we navigate the contradictory world of nutrition through intuitive eating, practice mindful movement, and implement small mindset and lifestyle shifts that empower them to be their best selves in the easiest way possible.
