Food For Thought

[Aurora]

I recently came across a great book called Intuitive Eating and it reminded me a lot about TMS in it's approach to eating. I've never had a diagnosable eating disorder but I realized how often I cause myself inner tension with the way I talk to myself about food, "I can't eat that. I'll get fat." "My stomach sticks out too much" " I might as well eat the whole box of cookies since I already ate 2." etc. The book states how this type of negative and perfectionistic thinking hurts you. It also talks about eating beyond fullness in an effort to avoid emotions. I never realized how much I feared feeling hungry until I read this book. It felt like the book gave me permission to be nicer to myself when it comes to what I eat, how I feel physically, and what I look like.

In my efforts to cure my TMS I used to be gluten free, dairy free, and sugar free. With a diet like that I never became pain free and I realize that it's because it caused a lot of inner tension that propagates TMS pain. What's everyone else's experience with trying to make peace with food and your body type.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Hi, Aurora. I'm 85 and always was on the thin side, despite eating anything and everything, although not a glutten. I still eat healthy, seldom eating meat because of additives I read are added to beef. I cut down on sugars almost entirely and have added more fruit and veggies and chicken and turkey to my meals, not watching calories, just eating modest portions. I too could eat a whole box of cookies if I began with just one or two, but I close the lid on the box and figure I will dip into it tomorrow for another one or two. I think that concentrating or worrying about what or how much we eat can give us emotional stress. Not every woman can or should look like the tv and movie stars or models today who are, to my way of thinking, much too thin. I like a woman who looks like she eats and doesn't starve herself. I dated a girl once who was so thin (she lived on grains and beans) she looked like a skeleton.
Before she went on a macrobiotic diet, she had looked healthy and beautiful. So I say Eat and enjoy eating, just don't over-do it.

 

[Forest]

I love this post. Accept, embrace, and love yourself...

One time I was talking to Alan Gordon and he said that his TMS Recovery Program boiled down to helping people learn how to be kind to themselves. If we aren't kind to ourselves, then our brains find ways to avoid things, whether by pain, by eating, or procrastination. To me, the deepest part of TMS is in learning how to pay attention to your needs in the present moment and react mindfully and compassionately. With that and with time, your underlying compassion will decrease and you will heal.

 

[Aurora]

Hi Simplicity,

I just read your post. It reminded me of myself. I definitely recommend that you read the book. The author's son has celiac disease. She doesn't mention it in the book but she says it on a YouTube lecture if you look up "Intuitive Eating ".

Another book I would recommend is Thou Shalt Not Eat. It's written by one of the first Paleo bloggers and he's no longer Paleo. He talks about how diet extremes hurt your health and why you shouldn't trust anyone who just sounds like they know what they're talking about.

 

[Anne Walker]

Hi Aurora. I have been actively and consciously working on my TMS for about three years. I no longer have the chronic pain that I struggled with for the last 20+ years but the weight I have gained over the last 15 years has been a constant source of disappointment and obstacle to self-acceptance. I was always pretty good about maintaining an exercise program, but when I would try to reduce my calorie intake or start a specific diet program, a whole myriad of challenges would come up. The most difficult time for me has always been in the late afternoon and evenings. I am often really tired, shakey and anxious, and when my work day is over, my home responsibilities with my children, preparing dinner and taking care of things around the house, begin. My doctor, homeopath, and lots of others have proposed various solutions over the years and my failures in this regard became a huge deal. About three weeks ago, bolstered by my success with the chronic pain and feeling much happier in general with my life, I decided to tackle the food thing. It may seem like an extreme diet but I think the science behind why some of us gain weight around our mid section due to stress and overload of simple carbohydrates is good. So I cold turkey cut out sugar, processed food, potatoes, rice and high glycemic load foods. The first 2-4 days I had bad headaches and for the next week it was rough going, but now in the third week, I am feeling so much better! I have more energy, my late afternoon/evening time is much better, and quite a bit of my perimenopausal/hormonal swings have improved. I feel very encouraged. I am eating as much as I want and most of my cravings are gone. I had tried some similar types of diets throughout the years - wheat free, gluten free, raw, Mediterranean, South Beach and many others. I think the difference this time is that I am not looking for some magical diet to solve my TMS generated pain. I think all the stress from the pain and "not knowing what is wrong" combined with all of the regular life stressors , created the perfect storm for gaining weight. Its so chicken and egg. I was always aware that I reached for food for emotional, anxiety, self-nurturing reasons, but this did not make it any easier to stop doing it. Forest is absolutely right that so much of healing from TMS is learning how to be kind to yourself. I spent years and years searching for physical rather than psychological causes of my chronic pain - medical, environmental(mercury fillings) diet, thyroid, posture, musculoskeletal, brain wave, craniosacral.... Food is really important. Having a healthy diet can improve and extend your life in many ways. But if we diet in the hopes that it will heal our TMS, then we are only going to be disappointed and beat ourselves up over it.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Hi, friend Anne. I love your post today and your new direction for "dieting." I seldom found that any diet worked for me, or that I kept the pounds off for very long. I have been feeling a lot better in the past two years since I did what you are doing... cutting out sugary things, processed food, although I do have a baked potato maybe twice a week, and try to make that a sweet potato which is healthier than white potatoes. Brown rice is also good for us, much better than white. The main thing is, I cut out meat almost entirely, and eat more chicken (baked or boiled in soup), turkey, and fish, and bought a blender so I make smoothies... morning fruit smoothie (banana, apple, maybe pear and blueberries), and evening veggie smoothie or a salad of lettuce, spinach, kale, carrots, onion, mushrooms or some of those things. And I need to drink more water. I just forget that 8 glasses a day are so important. Now I keep a bottle of water on my desk by my computer and take water breaks more often.

I also think it's important not to think about our weight, whether we are gaining or losing. There is too much emphasis today on women being slim or even skinny. They don't look healthy to me, or even very attractive. But that's all we see in the movies and on TV now. I prefer the way women looked in the movies 20 years ago or earlier. Ingrid Bergman and others had some meat on their bones. I remember what Spencer Tracy said about Katharine Hepburn in one of their films, I think it was "Pat and Mike": "There isn't much meat on her, but what there is is cherse."

So what if you are a little more cherse.

 

[Anne Walker]

Hi Walt! I like your diet. I also really love chicken, turkey and fish. And I have a blendtec and enjoy smoothies almost every day. I recently discovered just how great cauliflower is. I boil it and then put it in the blender with sauteed onions and it makes a delicious soup. With a little cream it almost tastes like potato soup! Hope you are staying warm. I am sitting by a nice fire right now.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

I will try your cauliflower soup and instead of cream (I seldom have any in the house) will add some yogurt.
I love soup, anytime.

Sitting by a fireplace sounds great.
I'm in a Chicago suburb so we missed that East Coast blizzard.