Have you ever drunk a protein shake for lunch when you craved a Harvest bowl and felt unsatisfied? While the shake might’ve been filled with similar macronutrients and equal calories to the bowl, your brain wanted to chew on something! There’s a lot of power in listening to what you’re craving. Prior to my ED diagnosis, I was definitely privy to overeating “healthy” treats and depriving myself of anything with butter, table sugar, and white flour. As I’ve learned in recovery, your body doesn’t know the difference when breaking down a gluten, dairy, and sugar free cookie or a tollhouse straight from the tube! In treatment, the concept “all foods fit” is taught because everything has some nutritional value.
I do not believe it’s healthy to give in to every craving you have at any time. Contrary to what is preached in Eating Disorder treatment (where you are taught to ignore and even counteract every food rule that pops into your brain), dietician Sarah Grace says that restriction can be well-intended. As mentioned earlier about the intent behind dieting, the same applies here. If your intent to restrict yourself from having a third or fourth chocolate chip cookie is to avoid feeling nauseous and spoiling your appetite before dinner, it is coming from a place of love and care for your body. If your intent is to restrict yourself from having anything sweet because you want to lose inches off your waistline, this is coming from a place of hatred towards your body. Notice the difference? In ABA, dinner would be an abative effect, because it decreases the frequency of consuming more cookies. Losing inches of your waistline would be an abolishing operation because it makes cookies less appealing (reinforcing).