I was wondering how to be a normal eater; what defines it. Then I found this photo of me, Laura Lloyd, aged 3.

Lunchbreak. Freshfaced and eating disorder free! 🌞 

This photo delivered me such a breakthrough. Let me explain. 

The woman’s legs on the left are my mother’s Nanny. Nanny Radford.

Now, Nanny was in my mind the keeper of a tin of pink wafer biscuits. 

She was Old-skool, post-rationing, and loved to treat us. 

If I had to guess, I’d say Nanny has fed me custard in this photo.

Whatever I’m eating, it’s probably a first, because my mum would feed us sugar-free. It’s clearly heaven. 

I can see that I feel like the luckiest human alive: a living bundle of gratitude. 

Living worthiness. Deserving of pleasure. 

Looking at this photo, I realised there’s an innate part of me that was once well around food and knew exactly how to be a normal eater.

It hit me: I AM put on this planet to enjoy food.

I don’t need to earn it, or reason why I deserve it.

Loving food isn’t shameful.

Of course, struggling with food has layered on so many conflicting feelings about it… 

…but this part of me that enjoys things, then goes to play with my penguins again, is still in me, I’m sure.

I want you to ‘try on’ the idea today that Vitamin P – pleasure – is your birthright too.

Allowing yourself to be Foodie can be part of re-learning how to be a normal eater. 

I want you to consider how being a Foodie, a food-LOVER, can help you in your journey, not hinder you. 

For instance, when I let myself be Foodie, I plan my meals more, because I love knowing what scrumptiousness awaits.

• It makes it easier to wait through mild, comfortable hunger for a mealtime, when I know something awesome is lined up. 
• I also notice that when I put more creativity into my meals, I don’t rely on snacks to be the ‘fun’ part of eating. I get enough pleasure and entertainment from the main. 

So, I have a question for you.

Feel free to reply in the comments, because I am personally right here writing this to you now – not a Virtual Assistant, not a Chatbot or Whatnot, but me, Laura.

(That’s how I work, 1:1 with real personal connection to each and every client.)

So tell me: What food would you eat (and what would the perfect setting be) that would make you make this face today?

Looking for some guidelines to how to be a ‘normal’ eater? 

Most eating psychology philosophies are based around the simple principle of learning to eat when your body is hungry, and stop when you are satisfied. 

Mindful Eating is one such philosophy: The book Mindful Eating by Jan Chozen Bayes is a good place to start, with plenty of stories to keep you reading. 

Intuitive Eating outlines 10 principles of things to do, and to stop doing, that will bring you closer to that innate original self. 

Geneen Roth has a set of Eating Guidelines: 7 common-sense ways of going about eating which help you step away from the What Do I Eat and move towards the How Do I Eat and Who Do I Want to Be when I eat? If you want them brought to life, her talks are entertaining – hilarious, actually. 

As with all ‘how to’ guides around food and weight, the main challenge isn’t knowing what to do, it’s how to train yourself to willingly do it. 

Coaching is the process of figuring out how to actually implement principles that sound nice as bullet points, into your real life. 

If you’re fed up with DIYing your weight journey, consider this blogpost a sign. Get on my mailing list by signing up for the free video below, and I’ll let you know when coaching slots become available.