What’s your favorite sufgania on Chanukah?

Recipes flying. Oil frying. Calories multiplying.

It’s that time of the year again, folks.

8 days of oil, sugar, and carbs (and miracles and wonders, of course).

It’s a time of year where our fear of gaining weight runs wild.

A time where many of us want to cling onto any last remnant of healthy eating we can.

(I know I felt like that just a short 4 years ago.)

We are nervous lest everything goes flying out the window if we allow ourselves to indulge on Chanukah.

The truth is, that if you’re currently dieting, then everything WILL likely go out the window on Chanukah.

The diet mentality informs us that all will be fine and we only need a little will power, a little control of ourselves, to not fall off the health food bandwagon.

And time and time again we’re left flat on our backs and the bandwagon has left without us. We wonder why we couldn’t have just a little more control of ourselves.

But what if there wasn’t a bandwagon to fall off of in the first place?

What if I told you that it isn’t a matter of will power after all?

Not a matter of trying to control ourselves?

What if it was a matter of…

…and this might be a radical concept…

…truly taking pleasure from the foods we eat.

Really allowing ourselves to enjoy every last bite.

That would mean that we have to eat them with no guilt. Because guilt does not allow us to fully enjoy what we’re eating.

This is your brain on guilt…

“I shouldn’t have another one but, oh, they’re just so good, and the diet starts tomorrow.”

“The healthy food plan starts tomorrow.”

“Eat what I can today, for tomorrow there is no fried sweet flour allowed.”

Stuff, stuff, stuff.

We stuff our mouths, feel stuffed in our bodies, and we stuff our heads with negativity.

We create thoughts and feelings of not being good enough because it’s too hard to control ourselves from eating these delicacies.

“You’re so bad for eating that.” “Don’t let the kids see you having a third donut.” “You’re such a loser for not being able to control yourself.”

AHHHHHHHHHHHH.

There IS a better way.

A way where there is no guilt about something as innocuous as eating the foods we are MEANT to be eating at this festive time of year.

A way to savor the latkes, the sufganiot, and the 39% sour cream.

It’s the time of year to eat oily foods, to eat dairy foods.

It is not the time of year to be looking over our shoulders hoping no one sees us eating them.

It’s time to let ourselves thoroughly embrace the Chanukah vibe.

Because we’re wired for pleasure in a permissible way.

Eating oily sufganiot and oily latkes and high fat dairy IS the way we’re meant to be eating on Chanukah.

Not baked sufganiot made of almond flour, baked latkes made of sweet potato, not 0.5% sour cream.

Enjoying and delighting in the foods of the day…

…while paying attention to our bodies and the amounts that satisfy us and what feels good inside of us right now.

Checking in while eating that sufgania and asking — am I enjoying this? Is it hitting the sufgania spot? Do I want another bite?

And if the answer is yes, I’m enjoying it and eating it with presence — then you can sit with Menuchas Hanefesh that you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing right now.

And if the answer is no, I’m NOT enjoying it — then giving yourself permission to THROW OUT the rest of the (store bought, stale, chalky, pasty, flavorless) sufganiya instead of THROWING IT OUT inside your very holy body.

Because we’re all heard the phrase, “You’re not a human garbage can.”

Embrace your body as it is this Chanukah.

The divinity of it.

The spirit of the day that celebrates our glorious victory with fried dough.

Knowing that eating this way is EXACTLY as it is supposed to be on Chanukah.

No guilt. No second guessing. No I shouldn’t.

With presence of mind. Checking in to see where my body feels good. THIS is how an intuitive eater eats.

Knowing that there is no good or bad with eating (except if it’s assur).

There’s just us and Chanukah.

Us and the miracles of the day.

Us and the miracle of reconnecting to ourselves as we eat these foods intuitively.

The journey of Intuitive Eating is a truly liberating and empowering experience. This is the way to grow physically and emotionally healthier without obsession or guilt. The journey of Intuitive Eating is a truly liberating and empowering experience. This is the way to grow physically and emotionally healthier without obsession or guilt.

Rediscover the intuitive eater that is inside you. Join me in “A Taste of Intuitive Eating: An 18 Day Journey for Jewish Women”. Use coupon code “Chanukah” to get it for only $8 until the final candle goes out.