My body is smart. But I am stubborn.

My body does not like lentils. At all. And noticing this over and over is reminding me how much diet dogma we all have to clear out in order to have a happy, healthy relationship with our bodies.

Because, duh, everyone knows lentils are good for you. And so my brain thinks I should keep eating them even though my body is constantly offering all kinds of evidence to the contrary.

Intellectually, I understand how important it is to listen to your body. I know all of our bodies are different. Some bodies love fruit, some don’t. Some bodies can handle milk, or gluten, or peanuts, and some can’t. But sometimes old dieting rules cloud my thinking, and sometimes my own inner guidance crosses signals with some “expert” advice.

Lucky for me, helping other people connect with their bodies is part of my job. Because when I’m teaching these concepts, I can’t help but keep refining my own stuff.

I had a conversation with a client recently whose body was telling her, in no uncertain terms:
Enough with all of this stuff that you think you “should” be feeding me. Enough.

And my body is saying:
Enough with the lentils already. I hate them. How many times do I have to tell you?

I think this is so fascinating because, ostensibly, we are trying to eat healthy food in order to nourish our bodies. I say ostensibly because if we peer closely at our reasons, there’s often a thinly veiled impulse to restrict and lose weight or to follow some arbitrary, externally mandated rules.

So my mind wants to eat lentils because they are supposedly super healthy for my body. But my body doesn’t like the lentils, dammit. And, crazy enough, isn’t your body the real expert on what’s good for your body?