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There are actually two meals here. Which gives you the most nutrition bang for your buck? Photo by chrismurf

It has been a while since I followed any specific eating plan other than listening to what my body wants and then eating it. I spent far too much time in my life fearfully following nutritional protocols in an effort to heal from illness, before my heart and soul both screamed out, ENOUGH! Listen to US! WE know what you need!

Before you can even hear what it is your body and soul desires, you have to decide that you are going to take care of yourself by feeding your body a wide variety of healthy nutrients. When your body is well nourished with foods that contain a vast compliment of synergistic vitamins, minerals and other necessary biological building blocks with enough fuel to support your body functions and activity, then cravings are a thing of the past. Our body’s crave when we choose for whatever reason not to truly feed them. If the foods you are taking in are filled with calories but without any nutrition, the body will continue to send hunger signals in an effort to get you to eat more, hoping that you will choose to eat nutrient dense foods that contain the substances it needs to be healthy and thrive.

Let’s Try an Experiment Shall We? A Tale of Two Meals.

You can experiment with this yourself by creating two meals that you eat back to back. You can flip a coin to decide which meal to eat first, but in my example I ate the nutrient dense meal first. You can also decide to eat the two meals on consecutive days.

First, choose a calorie level that you have to match (lets say 700 calories), then choose a balance of nutrient dense foods for the first meal, such as grass fed beef, baked potato with pastured butter and cultured sour cream, broccoli with butter and a mixed salad of your favorite raw vegetables topped with cheese, pine nuts, olives, strawberries and olive oil vinegarette. Or you could choose pastured eggs and pastured bacon with wilted greens, sourdough bread with butter and honey.  Make a note of the serving sizes and combination and even take a picture of the meal to compare it to the next meal you will be preparing. Make sure you are hungry when you eat it, but before you dig in record the time and write down the sensations you are feeling that tell you you are hungry.  Also note any emotions you are feeling before you begin.

Take your time to eat the meal and really be present for it. When you are completed with the meal, and please only eat until you are comfortably full even if that means leaving some food on the plate, note the time on a piece of paper, along with the way you feel and any change in emotions, then go about your day. Make sure to drink plenty of water an hour after your meal to allay your thirst and keep you well hydrated. Note any feelings in your body on the paper such as stomach rumblings, gas, indigestion, reflux, mood changes or bowel cramps. Do not eat anything else until your hunger is at the same level as when you began to eat the first meal.

When you are at that level of hunger, please consume a meal of equal calories to the first, but try and make it as calorie dense and nutrient void as possible. You might think you will have a hard time with this, but foods high in white flour, refined rice, any grains or corn, and high in sugar will work just fine. Of course, it will be impossible to find foods that are completely void of nutrition because most calorie dense foods contain something of merit. Examples might be white flour buttermilk pancakes with whipped cream and table syrup (like Mrs. Butterworths or Log Cabin), or Macaroni and American Cheese sauce. If you are trying to be very scientific and measuring the calorie levels of both meals you will not the serving size of this meal seems much smaller, but remember to record it on your page and take a picture if you can for further comparison to the first meal. This is because a nutrient dense meal is usually a higher volume meal than a calorie dense meal. You can eat an entire bowl of sauteed greens and bacon for the same calories as a candy bar and get hundreds of times the nutrients.

Right before your second meal, note any body feelings and emotions. Note the exact time you begin your meal and then eat slowly and really be present with the food. Eat until you are comfortably full and make a notation if you finished all your food, or still feel hungry after you have finished the serving size. Do not eat any more food, but note the time you finished and then go about your evening. Record any changes in mood, energy level, body feelings or intestinal issues. Remember to drink water and stay hydrated. Record the exact moment you begin to get hungry. Then compare the exact amount of time it took to get hungry after the first meal and after the second.  You can really put this into perspective by making sure you do not eat again until those two times are equal, but that would be cruel!

If you do this experiment and are faithful to the protocol, you will notice the stark difference in your hunger levels following the two meals. You will also most likely notice a huge change in mood about 30 minutes after the second meal and may have heartburn as well. The first meal should leave you feeling energetic and with a sense of well being that makes you completely forget about food and lets you concentrate on what you are doing that day. When you have fed your body well and given it all the things it needs to run well, it rewards you with good feelings, constant energy and concentration. When you feed your body empty calories consistently and do not give it any of the specific nutrients it needs, it will do the only thing it can do, CRY OUT for you to put into your mouth what it needs. IF you cannot truly listen, you will only hear hunger and will not hear nutrients. Calories are an energy unit which only tells you the amount of energy present in an amount of food, but that is far from the end of the story.

Some people will say, well, you spiked your insulin in the second meal because you did not eat as much fiber or fat, but you can create the same situation eating a meal of white flour and polyunsaturated vegetable products such as corn or cottonseed oil. Eat a fast food fried chicken meal and see!

Research foods you love and see what they contain in the way of nutrients, then expand your menu to include other healthy foods that balance them out so your body, which is working very hard to be a wonderful vehicle for your life, can do the best job ever! Then, when you begin to eat a diet that is supporting your body, you will begin to lose any anxiety you have around your meals, which is really your body’s signal to you that it is not getting what it needs. You will also start to trust your body as you realize it is only doing it’s job by telling you what it needs, and you can begin to really listen to any inner cues about what to eat as you now know you are giving it all the best. If a certain craving now pops up, it may be because you need more of a certain nutrient at that specific time (such as craving chocolate before your menstrual moon, or cheese in the middle of your cycle), and you will be able to honor that call for nutrients in a non-judgemental way. You can even enjoy a treat once in a while to bring joy to your soul! We will talk about that a bit later on.

So try the experiment and please leave a comment and let me know how it really made you feel! It is always great to discuss intuitive eating and share our experiences! This article is a part of Real Food Wednesdays.

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