What I learned about intuitive eating while babysitting.

Recently, I had the chance to hang out with my favorite 6 and half year old for a couple hours on a Thursday evening. What I didn’t expect was to learn more about intuitive eating.

Six and half years old are adventurous and bright. We enjoyed an after school snack a fresh peach. Her was cut into bite-sized slices, I enjoyed mine one juicy bite at a time. Halfway through she determined she was full, so we packed the snack in a bag for later and headed to our first destination.

I must say, this was the first time I’ve driven a child in my car. So that was a new, and slightly worrisome adventure. I looked back several times just to make sure she was okay. We talked about school. She told me stories. We talked about her friends. Why she only kinda likes reading, but prefers toys.

While hanging out a Starbucks so I could get some work done for my part-time job, she decided it was time for another snack. After carefully examining the display case, a colorful green owl was ours for the taking. She paid the cashier, accepted her change and said thank you.

Within a few bites I noticed we had transitioned to picking the icing off. Then we quickly lost interest and opted for a game of tag. One where I didn’t even have to get up, I just needed to reach her from my seat. When it was time to set out to our next destination, the cookie wasn’t invited along for the adventure. After some questioning we concluded the cookie was good, but not the icing. So I said I would scrape the icing off, and we could have the rest of the cookie for later.

Distraction or Curiosity?

As we’re cruising along, this little blonde ray of sunshine opens the leftover bag of peach and finishes it off. Unprompted. By the time we arrived at the bookstore, it was time to pick out a new book. And maybe, just maybe a toy.

I learned a valuable lesson about children and distractions. Getting a kid to walk past toys as if they aren’t there is mission impossible. Every cool, shiny, or remotely intriguing thing garnered at least 45 seconds of our attention. To touch, pet, shake, or inspect. Finally, we made it to books.

We sat down in the back and sampled at least 5 books. She’d pick based on the cover, I’d let her read to me, and she would determine it was just a litte bit out of her league. We agreed on a Magic Treehouse book (one of my favorite series as a kid), and talked about dinner.

For most of the evening I asked her the same question, “Hey Ellie, what would you like for dinner?” I got the same response for the first half of the night, “I don’t know.” But somewhere between Starbucks and Barnes & Noble we settled on pizza. Cheese pizza. So in the car we went to pick up pizza.

We were on a mission to the frozen section to find a cheese pizza to satisfy our hunger. Being the independent woman she is, she walked right up to the door, opened it, and picked the pizza that looked good to her. She handed it to me and concluded our work here was done. I picked a pizza of my own, and we paid for our dinner.

Being the multitasker I am, I put the pizzas in the oven, while we took a bedtime shower. I brushed out those blonde tangles, and then we could smell the cheesy aroma wafting up the stairs.

Where the magic happened:

She turned on the tv. Got her spot ready at the dinner table, and waited for me to cut her a slice.

I turned off the tv and said I wanted to have dinner with her and talk about her day. From here, I cut her the first slice of pizza.

We talked about the her trip to the library at school, which lead her to reading me 3 books over dinner.

As she finished her first slice, I asked her “Are you done?”

She thought about it, and then asked for another slice of the same size. So I happily cut her another slice.

As she’s reading to me she’s working on her second slice. As she’s finishing, I asked again if she was done. She thought about, and then asked for another slice.

So naturally, I cut her a second slice. She’s sounding out her words and enjoying cheese pizza.

She finishes this slice, and I ask her again, “are you done?”. She thinks about it and says she would like another slice, but smaller.

So I cut her a smaller slice. We laughed at how thin the slice was as she quickly finished it in a couple bites. While asking for another slice.

I cut her the final slice of pizza. I read her about about a dog, some birds, and a bag of birdseed. As she was finishing her final slice, I asked her one last time if she was finished.

She said yes. She looked at how much she ate (I think it surprised her), and determined she had eaten a lot of pizza. I told her it was okay, she was hungry. She said, “yea, I was starving!”

And that was that. We went up stairs to read a bed time story.

So What?

That little girl, without realizing, modeled food freedom so beautifully to me. She decided what she wanted, we cooked it, and she ate until she was satisfied. She didn’t look at the volume with guilt or shame. Just satisfaction that she got cheese pizza on a Thursday night.

As we get older we often times pick up these rules that get in the way of us honoring our hunger. We feel guilt and shame for the amount that we’ve eaten, without considering that our body asked for the fuel for a reason. So I want to encourage (and challenge) you to pick a meal that you want. One that sounds delicious and satisfies a craving that you have. And then eat. Listen for your body to tell you it’s satisfied and full. If feelings of guilt or shame come up, acknowledge them. Try to figure out where the feelings are coming from. Resist the urge to push them down. Resist the urge to let them dictate what you do next.

I would love to know what meal you choose! Let me know in the comments or send me a picture on instagram!

Today is the best day to change your life!