The idea of Food Legalization comes from the book, "When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies." The theory is that when you go on a diet, it makes certain foods "forbidden" and therefore these specific foods become more desirable to you. You always want what you can't have, even if it's only yourself that's not allowing you to have it, sometimes, it's worse when you are the one who is depriving yourself. It's easy for you to rebel against you.

By allowing all food to be legal, you take away the "Garden of Eden" appeal from the food. However, there is more to the legalizing process than just eating whatever you want. Also in the book, "When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies," the authors address the difference between Mouth Hunger and Stomach Hunger. This fundamental concept is also addressed by Ganeen Roth in her many books about compulsive overeating.

Basically, there are two ways to be hungry: Emotional Hunger/Mouth Hunger and Physical Hunger/Stomach hunger. Most of us have encountered both types of hunger. When your mother calls after a long day at work and gets under your skin and you get off the phone delve into a half a gallon of ice cream, even though you just ate dinner 30 minutes before, it's pretty obvious that you're eating from emotional hunger and not stomach hunger.

For me, legalizing was a bit of a mystery in the beginning. Learning when to eat and what to eat was a challenge in and of itself, not just because I had to be aware of mouth hunger or stomach hunger, but because I had to learn how to feed myself all over again; I didn't even know what I liked.

I was shopping at the grocery store one day shortly after I had overcome the purge and was almost though with the binge, and I realized that I didn't even know what I truly liked to eat. I had bought food that was either purge friendly or binge driven for so many years, that I didn't even know how to shop for stomach hunger or nutrition.

It was at that point that I started to try to listen to my body. I had spent so much time trying not to be hungry, being hungry and avoiding it, not being hungry because I was purging or not being hungry because I was continually eating…that I had forgotten how to listen to my body.

As babies we have hunger triggers and full triggers, it's only as we grow older in society, try to fit into a size 2 and go on the Grapefruit Diet that those triggers disappear. Your body will tell you when it's hungry, and when it's full, you just have to listen. In the beginning…I did not.

I would eat food that was forbidden, even if I didn't want it, just because I could justify it. I was like a kid in a candy store, I went overboard to try to make up for all the years I lost. All the years I denied, ignored and deprived. I ate because I had never allowed myself to eat without guilt or punishment. I had never eaten when I was hungry without thoughts of weight gain, weight loss or evacuation.

I ate because I was angry. I was angry at myself for all those wasted years. I was angry at society for telling me what to look like. I was angry at my grandmother for telling me I looked fat when I was a size 5. I ate because someone finally told me it was okay to eat. I ate and I ate. I didn't listen to my hunger or to my full. I just ate…and I gained weight. I gained 35 pounds.

Most people will gain weight during the healing process, maybe 5 pounds maybe 35 pounds, everyone is different, but either way you have to be forgiving with yourself whatever your experience.

Tip — See The Anatomy of a Binge for helpful nutritional information that will help to eliminate cravings and balance moods to reduce the amount of weight gained during the healing process.