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Donuts and Intuitive Eating

On my commute to work each day, I pass by not one but two donut shops. I'm not talking about Krispy Kreme or Dunkin. These are two distinctly homemade donut shops - one in Thomasville, called Nanee's Donut Hole and the other in Valdosta, called Dixie Cream Donut Shop. Each morning I have to fight the urge to stop in and buy a donut, not once but twice on my way into work. Often I think that if I stop in and buy a box of donuts for my students that it is in some way more altruistic and maybe that will pardon the unhealthy decision. The truth is that many of my students don't eat sweets. It seems that college students are a lot more health conscious than they used to be. Whereas, I remember eating just about anything that was free on campus as a student, some of my students routinely decline the free pop tarts the BCM (Baptist Campus Ministry) hands out every Wednesday. But I digress...

Back to the donuts... Nanee's has a few specialities that can't go unmentioned. My two favorites are not always visible in their display case, but can be ordered off-menu. My first favorite is the caramel glazed donut topped with crispy chopped bacon. Mmmm... These delicacies can also be found at Grassroots coffee shop in the morning along with other "fancy donuts" while supplies last. My other favorite item at Nanee's is called an ugly. It's simply a small pizza-sized amount of glazed fried dough. Yum! If you order one, plan on sharing even though you won't want to... At Dixie Cream, all the donuts are cake donuts and delicious. They have a flavor of the day that rotates and I have been lucky enough to try their blueberry cake donut. It's to die for.


The incredible urge I feel to eat all the donuts each day is what the author of Intuitive Eating says is the downside of dieting. Instead, she encourages people to "eat like toddlers" without denying ourselves of any particular foods and to listen to our natural hunger and satiety cues. This is the book I read in February (yes still keeping up with that goal) and it makes sense, but I'm still dieting - avoiding excess carbs, refined sugars, and eating a lot of protein. Apparently intuitive eating is something that we have to relearn after years of disordered eating and a dieting mindset because honestly, my hunger cues say to eat all the sweets. I grew up in a Cuban bakery eating whatever I wanted so what do you expect? I still recommend this book to anyone else that has to recover from the dieting mentality. I personally work well with calorie counts and food restrictions, but that's not real life. There are always work trips, vacations, birthdays, and eating on the run. We have to adapt and be flexible. Besides, food is something to enjoy. I want to model this for my daughter without negative self-talk. I don't want her to learn that there are good and bad foods. Maybe it's better for her to learn that there are "sometimes" foods as my husband says. He has a much healthier relationship with food... Maybe it is genetic, after all. 




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