What is Normal Eating?
Normal eating is being able to eat when you are hungry and continue to eat until you are satisfied.
It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it, and not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to use some moderate constraint in your food selection to get the right food, but not being so restrictive that you miss out on pleasurable foods. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad, bored, or just because it feels good.
Normal eating is three meals a day, most of the time, but can also be choosing to munch along.
It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful when they are fresh.
Normal eating is overeating at times, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. It is also under-eating at times and wishing you had more.
Normal eating trusts your body to make up for your mistakes in eating.
Normal eating takes up some of our time and attention, but it keeps its place as only one important area of your life.
In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your emotions, your schedule, your hunger, and your proximity to food.
Source: “HOW TO GET YOUR KID TO EAT” by Ellen Satter, R.D., MS