Intuitive eating made simple
For thousands of years, mankind was able to use holistic practices and medicines to maintain their health. However, in our modern society, we opt to eat for convenience and comfort. This is a short-term fix, not a long-term one. Learning about Intuitive Eating can help us to really understand our bodies and what food it needs.
FAD DIETING IS NOT A LIFESTYLE
Anything that promotes dieting can often lead to losing weight quickly, but not easily, and definitely not permanently. Fad dieting is not a lifestyle, especially when our aim is to maintain our weight.
Our diet culture promotes weight loss that encourages us to be thin, but not necessarily healthy. We often feel failure every time a new diet stops working and all the weight lost is easily gained back when the diet stops.
We’ve been fed lies about how diets help us lose weight but with no help in how we maintain our weight ongoing. The long-term effects of yo-yo dieting can also be harmful to the body.
Intuitive Eating is by far the best way to look at how we eat food. It will become a lifestyle, not a fad diet. This new Intuitive Eating lifestyle will help you maintain your weight.
HONOR YOUR HUNGER
Learning to honor your food sets up for a healthy diet, and is the pathway to Intuitive Eating.
There are many factors that affect weight and overall health. Sleep patterns, stress, and eating for comfort, are just a few things that can put your body’s biological rhythm out.
Keep your body biologically fed with nutrient-dense foods, particularly balancing protein, adequate energy, and carbohydrates. Essentially, you want to increase your micro and macro-nutrients. Otherwise, you can trigger a primal drive to overeat or binge eat.
Look at eating as a way to fuel and honor your body. Restricting certain foods only results in stuffing when you return to a normal diet again.
When you honor your hunger with nutrient-dense foods, you won’t have cravings as much or feel hungry. Rather than eliminate foods, reduce the foods that are not as healthy in your diet.
CRAVINGS & INTUITIVE EATING
If we have an understanding and connection to our bodies, we know what to eat, and when to eat it. This is what Intuitive Eating is.
When the body lacks a specific nutrient, it naturally craves foods that are rich in that nutrient. If you are craving chocolate, ask yourself why?
Chocolate contains calcium and magnesium, and craving it could be an indicator that you might be low in those nutrients. Whereas cravings for meat or cheese are often seen as a sign of low iron or calcium levels.
Fulfilling your cravings is believed to help your body meet its nutrient needs and correct the nutrient deficiency. Before you reach for the chocolate bar though, consider a more healthy alternative that will also increase your magnesium levels.
A great tool useful for tracking your nutrition and calories is Cronometer. I use Cronometer as a base to get an idea of whether a client (or myself) is getting the right nutrient levels in their daily food intake. Usually, I would only need to track for a few days and have a good understanding of what is required (we’re all creatures of habit and tend to eat the same types of foods we love).
I then design meal plans and recipes around the information Cronometer provides. I also include other factors to make sure the food I’m suggesting is suitable to your dietary requirements, lifestyle, and customs.
Find out more about my services here
DON’T TREAT YOUR EMOTIONS WITH FOOD
Learning to understand the food you’re eating and how it affects your body, is how we start to understand Intuitive Eating.
Dieting can affect us both physically and mentally, and it can trigger a loss of control. When that happens it can trigger emotional eating.
Find kind ways to treat your emotions other than food. Spending time in meditation, connecting to yourself through yoga, or even finding yourself in nature, will help you cope with the feelings you’re having.
Everybody has triggers that cause emotions like anxiety, loneliness, boredom, and anger to rise. While binge-eating your emotions away, might make you feel good, it’s not a permanent solution. Eating for an emotional hunger will create deep habits that will be harder to break, and it won’t solve your problems.
EAT WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY
One of the keys to Intuitive Eating is to eat when you’re hungry. However, filling your body with what it needs is a very important aspect of this.
One thing to always consider when you are hungry is to drink water first because it’s not always hunger when you feel hungry. Instead of reaching for a snack or an extra meal try drinking water or herbal teas.
This primarily helps to distinguish whether you are thirsty or hungry. If the hunger still continues then it’s probably time to eat!
The water though will help to hydrate you and also remove toxins from the body. Another reason why Intuitive Eating helps to distinguish between hunger and thirst.
EAT IN AN ENVIRONMENT THAT IS INVITING TO YOU
Intuitive Eating helps us to prepare food that is beneficial, but what’s very important is to continue those benefits by eating in an environment that is inviting.
In our now fast-paced world, it’s important to have meal times in a pleasurable environment. With an inviting space to eat, it allows us to slow down.
Take it one step further and remove any digital devices that might pull you into a state of mind that you forget to be present. This is key to having peaceful surroundings when eating.
When you eat nutritious food in an environment that is inviting, you will feel satisfied and content. When you experience this tranquility at mealtimes, without any distractions, you’ll find that you will know when you are full and have eaten enough.
Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you’re comfortably full. Take your time while eating and enjoy every bite. Don’t rush eating, instead savor the taste and texture of the food, to prevent repercussions on your digestive system.
Time always slows down when we remove our technical devices and are ever-present and in the now of the moment. This will positively affect your overall health.
RESPECT THE BODY YOU’RE IN
One thing that you will learn when you start practicing Intuitive Eating is that you find that you will accept you are who you are.
This is your genetic blueprint. No one person fits into another. Even if you are the same shoe size as your friends, have you ever walked in their shoes, literally? It’s a weird feeling as if you know the shoe should fit, but something doesn’t feel right. It is equally pointless to have a similar expectation about body size.
It's important to respect your body by treating it as if it were a temple. You will feel better about who you are and the food you are eating. Try to accept this mentality instead of being unrealistic and overly critical of your body size or shape.
YOUR BODY IS A TEMPLE
“Treat your body like a temple, not a woodshed. The mind and the body work together. Your body needs to be a good support system for the mind and the spirit. If you take good care of it, your body can take you wherever you want to go, with the power and the strength and energy and vitality you will need to get there.”
~ Jim Rohn
Your food choices are key to honoring your health. Food should be inviting and make you feel good. Remember that you don’t have to eat perfectly to be healthy. Don’t be hard on yourself if you aren’t perfect with every meal, or every day. It’s what you eat consistently over time that matters. Progress, not perfection, is what counts.
One of the benefits of Intuitive Eating is that your body will fall into a routine, where you will eventually feel genuinely hungry at the same time every day. This routine helps us to plan our meals and eating times.
In saying this it's not all about food, it is also about our thoughts and the way we move our bodies.
MOVE YOUR BODY
Intuitive Eating leads to Intuitive Healing and moving your body plays a role in that.
Don’t worry if you don’t like exercising unless you are training or want to have muscle tone. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie-burning effect of exercise.
Any kind of movement helps us to feel energized. Endorphines circulate and make us feel great. Any kind of movement or exercise only works if you enjoy it. So, find something you like, and include it as part of your process to live in optimal health.
MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES USING INNER WISDOM
Many of us are busy just going about the business of life that we tend to ignore our inner wisdom. We’ve all on occasion eaten too much at a celebration, or eaten too much chocolate cake on a special occasion, only to suffer the next day. While Intuitive Eating is not a diet, it is a lifestyle, so be kind to yourself and listen to what your body is telling you.
Your immune system is always in tune with your mind, communicating with it. Therefore, the more in sync you can become with your inner wisdom, the more in sync your body will end up showing you. If you ignore or consciously choose to avoid those signals, the body will become imbalanced and disease will occur.
Intuitive Healing helps us to lead a balanced life. This means making the right choices and not doing anything with harmful effects, or excessively over-indulging anything.
Balance is the key to healthy living.
FREE INTUITIVE HEALING EBOOK
Get your free Intuitive Healing handbook. It includes the benefits of certain foods, understanding candida and autoimmune diseases, and a breakfast juice recipe.