Return to innocence

Part of the Health at Every Size(SM) philosophy includes eating according to individual hunger and satiety (the feeling of being full) cues.  Forget the sexy TV commercials or billboards or our initial panic response to stress, feeling sad or excited, or any other reason to gravitate towards food.  A healthy relationship with eating involves paying attention to our stomach and listening to rumblings as a signal to eat.  Or a comfortable filling that it's time to stop.  Return to the trust that babies exhibit when they make it known they are HUNGRY NOW and when they've HAD ENOUGH.
Easier said then done, right?! 
I think one reason why alot of people eat in a distracted environment is that the honest pleasure of food is too enjoyable for them to admit.  It's almost shameful to have a 30 minute date with just you and your food.  Thirty minutes could be spent checking emails, catching up on TV shows, doing laundry, you name it. 
It's also a little sad to be alone with food.  Many society and cultural traditions emphasize celebrating using food; in a quiet home or at a table for one in a restaurant, it's just not the same experience.
Given the increased processing and chemical manipulation to our "food" supply, getting the task of eating over with as quickly as possible makes it somewhat more palatable and easier to forget that we subjected ourselves to dissatisfying stuff.  Would slowly savoring a slice of frozen pizza really do it for you the way a homemade slice out of a wood burning oven might?  I doubt it.  But noticing that the frozen pizza is too chewy or bland is beginning to trust your instinct that you are not satisfied.  Ultimately we would be ok with not eating that particular pizza at all and search for something more satisfying to please us.
With this in mind, I am constantly reminding myself of the principles of intuitive eating(TM).  At some point in my early years of life, these feelings were inherent and worked for me.  Somewhere along the way, cleaning my plate, Sally Struthers and the starving children in Africa, and boredom beckoned food in a different way.  So I am a work in progress and wholeheartedly believe it's never too late to return to a place of  trusting your instincts. 
 After the fact I relaized this was too much for me to eat at once but I sure enjoyed the meal itself!