In order to make peace and become comfortable with food, Tribole and Resch (Intuitive Eating) suggest the following:

Pay attention to foods you find appealing and make a list of them.

Make a check by the foods you currently eat and then circle the foods you’ve been restricting (the rest of food on the list).

Give yourself permission to eat one forbidden food from the list, buy the food or order it in restaurant.

Check in and see if the food tastes as good as you imagined.

If you really like it, continue to give yourself permission to buy or order it.

Be sure to keep enough of the food in your kitchen so that you know it will be there if you want it.

If that is too scary, go to a restaurant and order the food as often as you like.

Continue through your list until all foods have been tried, evaluated, and freed.

So, once again, not listening to Chatty Kathy and her alarms, I need to make a list. Due to time and space constraints, let’s just list the foods that are on my forbidden list (though probably not near complete):

Hot fudge sundaes

French fries

Milk shakes

Mexican food

Cake: (carrot, cheesecake, German chocolate, coconut, lemon)

Wings

Cookies

Fried chicken

Candy bars (Heath, Reese’s cups, Payday, Snickers)

Peanuts

Tortilla chips

Bread sticks

Biscuits

Ice cream

Pastries (probably need to be more specific)

Doughnuts

Bologna

Soufflé

Caramel apples

Caramels

Pasta

Pasta salad

Fried shrimp, clams, fish

Pie (apricot, apple, lemon meringue, peach, chocolate, pumpkin)

Starbucks fancy coffee drinks

Starbucks scones – pumpkin in particular

Muffins – almond poppy seed, blueberry, morning glory

Pecan pie

So what am I feeling as I look at this list? Honestly, fatter just thinking about these foods. But I know that food does not have power. It is just food. There is nothing “bad” about these foods. They are just foods that I have learned to label as forbidden, unhealthy, wrong. Foods that I have learned to feel guilty about when eating. Some of these, I have not allowed myself in years. Others, when I have allowed myself to eat them – I have eaten too much and have felt guilty, shameful afterwards. Or, I have allowed myself to eat them because I believed something had happened to allow me to “deserve” them.

So my job over the next several days/weeks is to be curious. I will be trying these foods and see if I really like them and how my body feels when I eat them. I will definitely keep you informed as I move through this exercise.