The header of her website has this quote. ‘We don’t want to eat hot fudge sundaes as much as we want
our lives to be hot fudge sundaes.’ Well, yes, and can I just dive in head first
and stay? Don’t bother throwing me a
spoon, I’ll just slurp it up.
What this quote really says to me is that I am a sensual
being, and I require a lot of sensory gratification. You know, things like
soft, silky, warm, cool, crisp, icy, peppery, beautiful, comforting,
enveloping, relaxing, energizing … the trouble is, I too often try to find all of these in food.
Which is why those fabulous diet regimens never worked for
me. Tell me I can’t have it, and I want three, just to make sure I don’t miss
out. Geneen’s advice is to eat exactly what our bodies crave, and stop when
we’ve had enough. So simple, and yet we
distort it with ‘eat 4 ounces of this, don’t eat any of that because it’s bad
for you, never eat after this time or before this time, always eat 3 of these a
day’. Augghh!
If I’m cold, I go find a sweater or turn the heat up. I
don’t berate myself for being cold, or tell myself that children in Africa are
sweating right now, so I should be grateful for the cold.
So … why do we do that when we want a hot fudge sundae? If that’s what we want, we should have one, not a celery stick. One hot fudge
sundae will not make or keep us fat. And if we can trust ourselves to reach for
what we truly want, then, maybe when we do want a celery stick we’ll eat one or
two and enjoy the cool crunch, instead of reaching for a bag of something
greasy because tomorrow we’re going on a diet and we can’t have it then so we
have to have it now … Sound familiar? If it does, try one of Geneen’s books, or
just one of her columns. http://geneenroth.com/
Then maybe you can relax, and reach for another of life’s
sensory pleasures … a great romance! ‘Cause they have no calories—yay! Although
some are so satisfying we’d swear they must.
What’s the best sensual pleasure you plan to treat yourself
to in the New Year? (Yeah, besides that. We can’t talk about that here, lol) Leave
a comment!
Happy New
Year,
Cathryn Cade
... red hot romance!
4 comments:
Great advice Cathryn! I need to check out Geneen's blog!
Cathryn, this is great advice but so, so, so hard to follow. I think your quote actually explains the dilemma: "What this quote really says to me is that I am a sensual being, and I require a lot of sensory gratification."
If you are not getting that sensory gratification in your life--spouse or parent or friend not touching you enough/close enough; work not meeting sensory needs; or not getting enough sleep or play then we replace that sensory need with food. That's the problem. We can't stop eating because those other needs are so unresolved.
So, now you need another post on fulfilling all those other sensory needs. :)
We are so sensory... and yet I get in trouble with my other sensory indulgence, clothes. There's nothing like cashmere, or tweed, or silk... it's all fabulous. I also love the feel of my dog's fur through my fingers. And the scent of coffee (hardly any calories there, so it doesn't count)... or lilacs in spring. It's all good.
Nice post.
Thanks for letting us know about Geneen. I'm off to check her website.
Post a Comment