Portion Sizes, Following Hunger Cues, and Forging Healthy Food Relationships
Toward the end of 2021, I was feeling stressed, sluggish, bloated, inflamed, and definitely viewing food as the enemy. Don’t get me wrong, I love food, I always have, but grocery shopping and cooking for myself were definitely my least favorite “chores” and I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing. I had gotten too used to eating out and stopping on my way home to get takeout.
***Food is inevitable in our lives for those of us with food security. It’s important to remember not everyone has access to food when they need it, even in the US. If you’re reading this, you most likely have the privilege to control what you eat and when you eat it, so as I always say, use your privilege for good.***
After accepting that I have to embrace the general nature of shopping, cooking, and eating, I decided to do some research to find out what foods or philosophies about food would make me feel better.
My focus going into this journey was simply to feel better, not to lose weight.
If you know me, you know I love learning about different languages and cultures, and while researching “What I Eat in a Day” videos on YouTube (looking for recipe ideas) I stumbled across French nutritionist Lucie Villeneuve and her clickbait-y video entitled: “How French Women Don’t Get Fat”. I was intrigued.
After watching many more videos on her channel “Edukale by Lucie”, I discovered the answer to that question wasn’t starving yourself and smoking cigarettes, it was portion sizing, intuitive eating, having a healthy relationship with food, and following the French eating schedule.
2 months later, I’ve lost 10 pounds without any cardio, or really fitness at all, which I need to work on reincorporating, but still, I believe your body is made in the kitchen as much as the gym.
What is Intuitive Eating?
In short, intuitive eating is eating only when you’re hungry, and stopping when you’re full, as well as listening to cravings you may have as your body might be trying to tell you something. Drinking enough water will help to make these hunger cues more apparent because many people often mistake thirst for hunger.
This also means snacking out of boredom/convenience, stress-eating, and eating to the point of discomfort are all to be avoided. It’s all about listening to your body instead of counting calories and being hyper aware and obsessive over specific foods and practices. The goal is “food freedom”, not food obsession.
Portion Sizing
In the United States, portion sizes are huge compared to the rest of the world, and when eating out, it’s pretty much impossible to control the size of the portion you’re being served. The “bigger is better” and “more bang for your buck” mentalities are king here, complete with cheap buffets and fast food deals.
I’ve been in the situation too many times where I’m satisfied, but seemingly haven’t “made a dent” so, out of embarrassment, I continue to eat to discomfort to “get my money’s worth” and “not be wasteful”. Many people also have to deal with the habit of being forced to “clean your plate” by parents as a child.
When cooking for yourself/eating at home, you have full control over portion sizing and what you put in your food. At first, I definitely had to deal with some feelings of shame, looking at my plate and thinking “that’s not enough for one person, am I restricting myself?” only to find that I had cleaned my plate for the first time in my life, and was comfortably full and satisfied.
Relationship to Food
This category will be different for everyone, but the few things I’ve learned or needed to be reminded of were:
- Food does not need to be earned or deserved. You are a living, breathing person and need to eat to survive.
- There are no inherently “good” or “bad” foods. All foods have a worth and serve different purposes; Your super greens salad serves the purpose of nourishing your body and delivering vitamins, the avocado on top serves as your “good fat” which is necessary for your body to absorb protein, and the one brownie square for dessert serves as fulfilling your craving for something sweet. Moderation and balance make for healthy eating, not restricting certain foods or substituting your cravings for other foods that leave you unsatisfied.
- There is no need and no benefit to punishing oneself after making a decision about food that you end up regretting. Eating too much or gaining weight does not warrant you skipping/restricting your next meal. See my first point.
- Keep in touch with your emotions, as much as food serves an emotional purpose for a lot of us, the pleasure from food only helps to lift our mood for so long, so make sure you’re listening to your emotions and dealing with them accordingly as much as you listen to your hunger/cravings.
- Eating is necessary, even if it isn’t the best thing you’ve ever tasted in your life. Perviously, I’d rather skip a meal or wait until there was an option that I found super delicious rather than eating what I had on hand because the flavor wasn’t exciting or good enough. Not every meal will be the best meal you’ve ever had, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat it.
The French Way of Eating
Schedule
The typical French eating schedule is: Breakfast at 8am, hour long lunch at 12pm, and dinner at 8pm.
This type of schedule integrates perfectly into French schools and workplaces, but doesn’t translate well in America. Most people in the US are forced to eat when allowed in school or at work, where some jobs don’t allow for breaks for meals at all, and 15 minutes will never be enough time to mindfully eat a meal as slowly as one should. Instead of eating at the exact times listed above, I use the time “blocks” allotted and apply them to my own schedule.
Breakfast, then a 4 hour gap, lunch, then an 8 hour gap, dinner. All the eating for the day is done roughly in a 12 hour period.
French Meal Size
This is where the philosophy started to make way more sense to me than American meal sizing. in America, breakfast is “the most important meal of the day” and is typically huge, and daunting if you’re the one cooking it. Many Americans are in such a rush in the morning, since our schools and jobs begin much earlier in the day than other countries, that breakfast is often skipped.
breakfast “petit-déjeuner”
In France, breakfast is the smallest meal of the day, relieving the pressure to have a “proper breakfast” since the “proper breakfast” is simply a piece of bread, some fruit, and coffee or tea.
This small breakfast is the reason why lunch, the largest meal of the day, is eaten only 4 hours after breakfast.
lunch “déjeuner”
Lunch in France is a multi-course meal with salad, main course dish with sides, bread, cheese, fruit, and yogurt, eaten slowly for about an hour. Lunch in America is often the mid-size meal of the day, which often leaves people hungry and more likely to snack between lunch and dinner.
And now that this big meal has been eaten, it now makes sense that the next gap between meals is 8 hours long. Sometimes 4 hours into this gap, people will have a small snack like a piece of fruit, but personally, my schedule doesn’t allow for a snack as during this time I’m at my American job where I’m not allowed to leave my post except to use the restroom.
dinner “dîner”
Dinner in France is the mid-size meal of the day but is close enough to bedtime that it doesn’t have to be the largest meal, like it is in the US. Usually some type of soup/salad combo is eaten with bread, like a typical “light lunch” in the US.
My body responded immediately to this schedule of eating and I’ve been following it ever since I learned about it.
Blood Type Diet
Okay… so this could be complete bullish*t, but (factually) in 1996, naturopathic physician Peter D’Adamo published a book about how different blood types benefit from eating specific foods, and can even be “poisoned” by others. Since then, Harvard Medical and other reputable institutions have published similar studies about food and blood type. It has to do with the body’s ability to digest foods, convert food to energy, maintain weight, and prevent disease.
Foods are put into 3 categories for each of the 4 blood types: beneficial, neutral, and avoid.
So far, the book has been correct on everything my body has problems processing. It’s worth looking into if you’re wondering why a certain food makes you bloat like crazy or causes diarrhea but other people in your family can eat and be perfectly fine.
Conclusion
The second my body began to respond to this new way of eating, the happiness of not being so run-down, bloated, and in pain definitely outweighed any happiness I got from eating certain foods. Each day we’re presented with a million choices, you have the power to take control of your life by making the right ones for yourself.
Drink water, listen to your body, eat mindfully, and enjoy everything in moderation. Health is wealth.
Good Luck & Much Love XOXO,
