Over Eating

Do You Have The “Got To Eat Everything On My Plate” Syndrome?

When you were a child, were you told to eat everything on your plate, because people are starving? Ya, this makes sense. Somehow this is supposed to help these starving people. Because if you waste food, then there will not be enough for them, right?
The concept of “all you can eat buffets” or “supersize” foods is bizarre. There’s definitely lots of insanity when we come to the subject of food. People eat for pleasure and as a part of social culture, we have a hard time communicating unless we eat at the same time.

Hi, my name is Dr. Eric Berg DC, and in my Northern Virgina clinic, we consult and coach people to lose stubborn belly fat. Believe it or not, most of our clients travel from Southern Maryland and Washington DC.

I remember going to an All-You-Can-Eat restaurant as a child called Farm And Feast. So you would have to eat fast so you could get as much pleasure in your body as you can. If you ate slow, you will fill up and the pleasure would change to feeling bloated and stuffed.

So with food, you have pleasure, guilt, and sorts of additional reactive sensation attached to it. Let’s see what the dictionary says about food.

FOOD; that which is eating to sustain life, promote growth and repair of tissues; nourishment.

The derivation word, foda meaning nourishment. The word nourishment means nutrients. We are supposed to eat food to get nutrients to sustain live and help our bodies grow and repair. If you were to follow that definition, you would be pretty good. But of course, you have another definition, which says, food equals pleasure and reward. If you really want to reward your body, you would give it salad. Of course, there is less pleasure sensations.

Over-eating comes from a lack of awareness and letting the body take over. Your body just wants to eat, sleep and have sex. Of course if you let your body do that, you would have lots of kids, be really fat and out of a job. Being aware enough to listen and feel WHEN your body gets full or when its hungry is what you want to do. In other words, only eat when you are hungry. Stop eating when you are full. This is being aware.

If you live in Virginia, Washington DC or Maryland, call us for a free consultation at 703-354-7336 and let see if we can help.