Thanksgiving Pie for Breakfast and Being Hungry for More
Last week during a quick trip to the grocery store, I came upon a little stand of pumpkin pies and decided to go ahead and celebrate Thanksgiving early. I wanted something sweet, the last thing I had time to do was bake a pie, and let’s face the biggest piece: I’m the only one in my family who associates Thanksgiving with (actually eating) pumpkin pie. So, along with one of my kids, I ate a slice with dinner and the next morning for breakfast.
Today when scrolling through social media, I came upon Evelyn Tribole’s Intuitive Eater’s Holiday Bill of Rights. I particularly delighted in #7 (pie for breakfast) and felt a little playfully smug because I’d already claimed my right to pie for breakfast last week. But as I read through Tribole’s Bill of Rights again, it occurred to me how much easier and within reach these Intuitive Eating principles can be for someone in body and mind when relational support is available and plentiful.
Resilience, the ability to be authentic, and one’s capacity to reach for deeper hungers are not developed without support. Resilience, authenticity and reaching for literal and figurative food are all birthed through healthy relational connection. Quick fixes and prescriptive plans might make tasty promises, but they leave one empty and wandering.
With Tribole’s permission, I’m leaving the Intuitive Eater’s Holiday Bill of Rights here for you. And, I’ll add:
If you don’t follow these principles perfectly, might you forgive yourself? Becoming curious about these principles is key in lieu of perfection. You’re still allowed to enjoy your holiday or hate your holiday. Or something in the middle.
Matter of fact, the more forgiving we are of ourselves, the easier it is to practice taking up space and saying No as the following IE principles beautifully suggest multiple times.
The more we are able to authentically Know No, from deep in our gut, the more we are able to also know what we crave so deeply.
And, finally, since I am writing this two days before Thanksgiving. I invite you to hold these two things at once—You can be grateful for something and hungry for something at the same time. When we can open ourselves to our deeper hungers, we are often intuitively led to the next step, healthy support and sustainable nourishment.
Intuitive Eater’s Holiday Bill of Rights
by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD
What if peace on earth could begin at the dinner table? Imagine experiencing an inner peace, free from incessant worry about what to eat. It’s hard to enjoy the holidays when you are preoccupied with eating or worried about what to say to relatives who have an annual tradition of telling you what and how to eat.
Consider your Intuitive Eating Bill of Rights, as we enter the holiday season, to help you foster inner peace with food, mind and body.
1. You have the right to savor your meal, without cajoling or judgment, and without discussion of calories eaten or the amount of exercise needed to burn off said calories.
2. You have the right to enjoy second servings without apology.
3. You have the right to honor your fullness, even if that means saying “no thank you” to dessert or a second helping of food.
4. It is not your responsibility to make someone happy by overeating, even if it took hours to prepare a specialty holiday dish.
5. You have the right to say, “No thank you,” without explanation, when offered more food.
6. You have the right to stick to your original answer of “no”, even if you are asked multiple times. Just calmly and politely repeat “No, thank you, really.”
7. You have the right to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast.
Remember, no one, except for you, knows how you feel, both emotionally and physically. Only you can be the expert of your body, which requires inner attunement, rather than the external, well-meaning, suggestions from family. (Note this was originally posted in 2010).
Copyright © 2010 by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD Published at www.IntuitiveEating.org