Top 5 Reasons Why Diets Don’t Work

Many people swear by diets. They tell me the diets work, but when I point out tha they go back on the diet when they regain the weight, so essentially the diets don’t work, they shake their head and finally get it.

A diet isn’t just those flashy branded weight loss companies (you know which I’m talking about). Dieting is any form of food restriction such as cleanses, “lifestyle” changes,  restricting foods or entire food groups. It’s all dieting!

Dieting programs and weight loss schemes (yes, schemes!) are a part of a $72 billion industry, therefore it’s no wonder many people fall for its tricks. These companies profit off of telling consumers that “they are not good enough in the body they are in” and they promote “shrinking your body” in order to be happy, healthy, and worthy.

As humans, we naturally internalize these negative and harmful messages and believe we must “fix” ourselves, and therefore give in to the various weight loss products, programs etc. available on the market.

There are numerous reasons why you should avoid diets—they mess with your health, they make you feel shame and guilt about your eating, and they take away from the pleasures of eating.

Let’s look deeper into why diet’s don’t work?

Here are the top 5 reasons why diet’s don’t work:

(1) Diets are not sustainable

Yes, diets may lead to weight loss in the short term. However, once the dieting rules and restriction go away—the weight is regained (plus more)! The literature states that 95% of people who diet end up gaining the weight back that they previously lost. Of the 95%, about 2/3 of those people gained back MORE weight than they started out at.

This cycle of losing and gaining weight brings on the vicious cycles of restrict/binge eating, or yo-yo dieting, which actually causes more harm to your body and your health than good:

  • Impacted metabolism
  • Increased weight gain
  • Increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension
  • Negative body image
  • Increased frustration

(2) Dieting is starvation in disguise 

Purposefully restricting meals or food causes your body to go into a state of fight or flight. When your body is not receiving the fuel it needs from food, it will go into full-on survival mode. Restricting food sends the signal to your body saying “hey we are in a famine right now, it’s time to help me survive” .

Your body will then begin to compensate to keep you going by:

  • Lowering metabolism
  • Stimulating a chemical in the brain to make you consistently think about food
  • Store/hold onto fat
  • Shut down non-essential systems to promote survival (like reproductive systems)

With all of these compensating measures at play, this is why it is difficult to lose weight time and time again with dieting and food restriction; your body is working hard to keep you alive (since it thinks there is a famine out there!)

(3) Dieting can cause disordered eating

If dieting goes on for long enough, this can lead to the development of disordered eating or eating disorders, and more commonly, binge eating.

Binge eating is a biological reaction to deprivation (which we know is because of dieting). Here’s what happens: there is a chemical release of neuropeptide Y (NPY) which is secreted in the brain when there is not enough calories being consumed (specifically CHO since this is the brains fuel source). The secretion of NPY increases the motivation to eat, delays satiety and stimulates food intake which can feel like binge eating!

Binge eating is a survival mechanism resulting from dieting and food restriction.

(4) Diets lead to food obsession 

Reducing food intake not only makes you feel irritable, fatigued, have brain-fog, and lack motivation, but you will think about food… ALL.THE.TIME.

As a dieters, you often blame yourself for this feeling (being preoccupied with the thought of food), but it is actually a natural biological reaction to food restriction. Of course you will think about food all the time if your body is hungry!

This biological reaction is, again, a survival mechanism. Your body is doing its job!

However, the diet industry want you to believe that something is wrong with you. But your body is not the enemy!

(5) Dieting causes intense cravings 

Diet programs and “diet rules” tell you what foods you should and shouldn’t eat, or give you a “good” food list and a “bad” food list.

If this idea of “good” and “bad” foods is kept up long enough, you will begin to think about and crave the very foods you are restricting. As humans, we are driven by our unmet needs. If you tell yourself “I can’t have ice cream anymore”, all you’re going to think about is eating ice cream.

So if you think you’re addicted to (insert food here), it’s likely that you’re not actually addicted to it but it’s the dieting and food restriction causing you to think about it and crave it!

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Are you ready to leave dieting behind? Pop your name and email in the boxes below to get started with your Break the Spell of Diets in 3 days online experience.

 

Intuitive Eating on Vacation

Have I mentioned yet that summer is my favorite season? Yes, it is!

 

The hot weather, spending time outdoors, longer days, time off…I can on and on. I just love it.

 

Whether you’re planning a weekend away, a visit to a tropical island, or a staycation, food and eating challenges might come up, especially for those who are in the process of recovering from dieting. If this is you, then keep reading!

 

If you feel the urge to say, “I’m on vacation, I’ll enjoy myself and start over when I get home”, then please know that you’re not alone. This is what’s called the “vacation mindset.” When you’re on vacation, the sneaky diet mentality and food police might join you.

 

This never pans out well. So, let’s discuss how you can continue your intuitive eating practice while you’re soaking up the sun!

 

  1. Avoid the All or Nothing Mindset

If you go into vacation thinking “I won’t eat anything I shouldn’t, or “I’m just going to eat and deal with it when I get home”, you’re thinking in extremes. Instead, commit to staying fully present while on vacation, and continue to make purposeful food choices, just like you’re doing at home.

 

  1. Pay Attention to Your Fullness Signals

Go ahead and explore new foods and enjoy familiar ones. Remind yourself to check in mid-meal to see how you are feeling. As you become more satisfied, remind yourself that you can come back and order this food again. You don’t need to eat it all, to a point of being overfull and uncomfortable. That just takes away from the whole experience.

 

  1. Listen for Hunger

When you’re out and busy trying to jam all the activities you would like to do into a short time frame, you may forget to stop and eat lunch and then feel overhungry by dinner. Throughout the day check-in with your body and listen for those hunger cues. Make sure you carry snacks with you so you can answer the hunger when it calls.

 

  1. Make Movement Fun

Going to the hotel gym on vacation may not be your cup of tea, and that’s okay. However, there are many movements you may enjoy doing, that you can do while vacationing. Or you may want to try something new, such a hiking as local trail, or kayaking in the clear waters. Find an activity that is appealing to you, and remove all expectations. Just have fun!

 

We all need a break, and the summer is a great time to take a vacation! Tell the food police they are not welcome and enjoy yourself while making memories!

4 Tips to Honor Your Fullness

One of the biggest lies diet culture pushes onto you is that there is an exact calorie or amount of food you should be eating every day. Diet culture also tells you to use outside sources to help guide your eating. Whether it’s tracking calories, points, macros, or using food lists or pre-made meal plans—these are all outside sources telling you “How much to eat”.

 

But guess what? You don’t need anything or anyone telling you when or how much to eat. You have the tools built inside of you, better known as your hunger fullness cues. These are innate feelings that tell you exactly when to start and stop eating. However, the feelings of hunger and fulness can be interrupted by long standing diets!

 

Can Hunger and Fullness Signals Return

 

The answer is yes. Once you ditch the diets and outside rules and learn to tune inward, you can reignite your inner cues!

 

I have found with my clients that attuning to hunger cues happens a bit quicker than fullness cues. There are many perceived barriers and social pressures that can cause you to eat passed the point of comfort. Perhaps you eat out of obligation and feel it would be rude to your hostess by not eating everything on the plate. Or you are distracted when eating out socially and miss that point of comfortable fullness. Or even still, you are really enjoying your meal and don’t want it to end.

 

4 Tips to Honor Your Fullness:

 

1: Be patient

 

When I talk about patience, I am referring to both patience as you eat your meal, and patience in your expectations of when you will attune to the signal.

 

In the fast-paced society we will live in, it’s easy to speed through your meal to get to the next task. Be kind to yourself, and your body, and make it a goal to slow down and not rush through the meal, be patient. Give yourself plenty of time to focus on what you are eating, savoring every bite. In this way, you will pick up your fullness signals more so than if you just focus on finishing the food on your plate.

 

You’ll also want to practice patience when it comes to actually hearing your fullness signals. It will take time for you to attune to it, especially if you’ve been dieting for a long time. There is no rush, it will come!

 

2: Check-in with Yourself

 

If you never pause to check it with how you are feeling, how will you learn to pick up the signals of your body. It’s important to periodically check in and ask yourself if you are getting less hungry and if fullness is starting to emerge. If you are still hungry, by all means continue eating. And if you are starting to feel full, perhaps now is a good time to consider finishing the meal. You are in charge.

 

3: Leave the Clean the Plate Club

 

This is one membership that does not have your best interest at heart. If you are finishing your plate because you are part of the clean the plate club, it’s time to re-evaluate. There are any number of reasons why you are a member of this club, but realizing the damage it’s caused you will help you respect the feelings of fullness you experience during the meal. You don’t have to throw away food! You can always save it for later or the next day. Just imagine how delicious it will taste when you are hungry again.

 

4: Set up a Positive Home Environment

 

Make your home a place for success by clearing space at a table for mealtime. When you have a designated area to eat your meals at, you are more likely to focus on the food in front of you. This space should be free of distractions like television and computers.

 

I recognize that it might take a while for your signals to reappear, and for you to trust them. Take your time, be patient, and enjoy the ride!

Rebound Eating- What is it & how do I stop?

You may have heard the term “rebound eating” and find yourself asking “what is this”?

 

In a nutshell, when you restrict the foods you really enjoy eating until you’ve reaching a your breaking point, the backlash is rebound eating.

 

Think of it as your body’s last ditch effort to get your attention after you’ve decided to ignore what it’s trying to tell you—it’s also saying, “Hey! You’re seriously depriving me over here!”

 

As a chronic dieter, rebound eating is something you may have experienced in the past. Does this cycle sound familiar?

 

Reducing the number of calories you consume to less than what your body needs > deprive, deprive, deprive > hit a wall where you can’t take the deprivation anymore and your restriction takes a nose dive > binge, binge, binge > compensate with intense exercise—“I need to work this off!”> REPEAT!

 

This common cycle is harmful to your physical and mental health, and truly take a toll on your body. It leads to disordered eating patterns, and if not responded to immediately could lead to other health complications (i.e., dehydration, brittle hair/nails, fatigue, brain fog, and more).

 

How to Stop Rebound Eating

 

The only way to put an end to this cycle of rebound eating is to stop the restriction. That means to stop dieting. So what is the alternative you might ask?

 

Intuitive eating!

 

Making peace with food and giving yourself full permission to eat while connecting to your inner wisdom to guide you is the way to stop this destructive cycle. When you embrace intuitive eating and bring all foods back into your eating world, you no longer obsess about those foods.

 

Intuitive eating is a practice you are cultivating, and it’s a lifelong journey (it’s not a quick fix!). If you truly want to end the cycle of restriction-deprivation-rebound eating/binge eating – repeat, then consider committing to stop dieting.

 

Pop your name and email into the boxes below for a free experience to Break the Spell of Diets in 3 Days.

 

Want more? Join an amazing supportive community of women inside my membership called The Intuitive Nutrition Circle (aka The IN Circle) where the are learning to integrate gentle nutrition into their intuitive eating practice. Click here for all the deets.

5 Side Effects of Dieting (and what to do to bounce back)

So why do you keep falling into the mind trap of “I need to keep dieting to be healthy”?

This is a common misconception that many people think! However it’s not the case! There has been major bodies of evidence suggesting that dieting is not a sustainable strategy for weight loss and does not promote a healthier life. In fact, “dieting for health” has been associated with many problems that actually work against you and impact your health negatively. In other words, when it comes down to it—dieting is causing you more harm than good!

Here are some of the common side effects to dieting (and what to do to bounce back):

1.Rebound weight gain. Did you know that about 80-95% of people that diet to intentionally lose weight will gain the weight they had originally lost (plus more!) back? Weight regain after a diet is very common! This is because during periods of dieting, you are restricting your body from specific foods or even food groups. Once you have restricted long enough, you are likely to crave these foods more and more because you are denying your body what it needs! Then the moment your diet is “over” you will find yourself bingeing, or overeating, the foods or food groups you were dramatically restricting.

What to do? Stop dieting. While this might be a scary thought, it’s truly the only way you will cultivate a healthier relationship with food.

 

2.You’ll be obsessed with food. As you go on diet after diet, dramatically restrict your intake, and ignore what your body is telling you it needs, this sends the message to your brain that “I am starving! I need food! Please feed me!”. These signals are a biological survival mechanism that prevents you from starvation and – newsflash – you can’t’ fight biology! By choosing to ignore these messages, you are likely to think about food nonstop. Soon your whole world is going to revolve around food. You’ll find yourself thinking about your next meal, or the foods you can or can’t eat while out with friends or family—this is no way to live!

What to do? Stop dieting. Dieting triggers overeating and food obsession. Once you stop dieting, you will find that you no longer obsess about food.

 

3.No longer able to detect hunger-fullness signals. With whatever diet you find yourself on, you’re usually relying on external cues to guide your eating. Whether it’s food rules, a diet plan, calorie tracking, points, the scale—these things are teaching you to ignore your own natural biological signals that were made to help detect hunger, fullness, and satisfaction. If you choose to ignore your own body signals and allow external cues to control you, your hunger and fullness signals can’t hang on for long. If you don’t use them, you’ll lose them!

What to do? Stop dieting. When you give up dieting and begin to nourish yourself consistently, you will reignite your signals of hunger and fullness.

 

4.Slowed metabolism. Dieting typically means; “I can only eat ____ amount every day”, or “I’m going to eliminate ______ from my diet.” Either way, the bottom line is you are ignoring what your body is asking for and denying what it needs. Without enough calories or energy from food, this forces your body to find other sources to keep the body going. If food is not available to be used for energy, the next best thing is muscle! Yes, your body will break down your muscle to keep it going. With a low level of muscle, also known as low muscle mass, this creates a slower metabolism. A low muscle mass combined with a slowed metabolism causes your body to become more efficient at storing fat and using less energy—both of which are not so great for your health!

What to do? Stop dieting. When you stop restricting and begin to nourish your body adequately and consistently, your metabolism will kick back into gear.

 

5.Negative emotions when diets fail you. Let’s face it, dieting can feel like a never-ending rollercoaster. You start off so strong and high up. You’re following your “diet rules”, eating what you “should be”, and putting all your energy into being “good” on your diet. But the moment you “mess up”, it takes a sharp turn and you immediately feel shame, guilt, anxiety or like a failure. This emotional up and down is extremely damaging to you mental health, as well as deepens the negative relationship you have with food.

What to do? Stop dieting. When you decide to stop this rollercoaster and learn to trust yourself and to value yourself for who you are rather than based on a number, your mental health will improve dramatically.

 

By now you’ve noticed a common theme – my recommendation to stop dieting. Please know that I understand how difficult this can be. I’d like to walk this journey with you. Comment below or DM me if you’d like to chat.

 

4 Steps to Eating Intuitively on Vacation

Chronic dieters are familiar with the all-or-nothing mindset. Either they are following all the guidelines laid out by the diet perfectly, or they don’t. When it comes to vacations, dieters who promise themselves they won’t eat anything they “shouldn’t” miss out on all the delectable foods that this new destination has to offer. Or, more commonly, they adopt the “nothing” mindset and just eat mindlessly thinking, “I will resume my diet when I get home.”

 

I have heard many of my clients vent their frustration that they know they will inevitably gain weight on vacation because they will be eating differently. Often, I hear the terms “good food” and “bad food” thrown around. Clients eat too much of the “bad food” and feel guilty for days when they return home, or even while on vacation.

 

With all that money spent on vacation, it should be enjoyed without guilt. That is one of the reasons I encourage chronic dieters to begin to reject the diet mentality and embrace intuitive eating. When you listen to your body’s hunger and fullness cues and needs, you can nourish your body anywhere without guilt. Your dieting habits are inevitably going to change in a new place; however, your mindset doesn’t need to.

 

Trust your body and enjoy yourself while you are away. Vacation should not be stressful. That is why I have come up with a few ideas that you can keep in mind while you’re away.

 

Here are the 4 Steps to Eating Intuitively While on Vacation:

 

  1. Tune in to your body

 

If you are looking through the menu at a local restaurant and something catches your eye, go for it! Or perhaps you want to end your meal with dessert. If you are truly listening to your body, you won’t overindulge, and you’ll be able to stop eating or drinking when you want to. Some of these cuisines you may not have the opportunity to try again.

 

  1. Trust your body.

 

Trusting your body and the intuitive eating process will help you enjoy your vacation even more. You will most likely eat more than you used to because you’re trying new foods, but you need to trust that your body will respond intuitively and tell you when you’ve had enough. Don’t forget to put your fork down between bites so you can stay attuned to your body’s needs.

 

  1. Make time for breakfast and lunch.

 

Vacations often mean sleeping late, missing breakfast, and an overall erratic eating schedule. You may be the type of person who has a full schedule even while on vacation. If that is the case, your body needs fuel to keep it going. Make it a priority to start your day off with breakfast and pack a lunch to take with you, or plan a lunch stop in your itinerary. It’s easy to get caught up in all the activities, but if you skip a meal, you’re more likely to eat past satiety at dinner.

 

  1. Pack your favorite snacks for a busy day.

 

It can be easy to forget to pack snacks when you’re busy with activities, but it’s important. Your body will need to use the food as energy to do all the activities you have planned. Take the few extra minutes before you leave to pack a goodie bag of snacks. Be sure to include at least 2 food groups for your snacks. Your body will thank you when you’re not starving heading into lunch or dinner.

 

Your vacation is a time for relaxation and happy times and should not coincide with “giving up” your intuitive eating practice. Be mindful and always listen to your body and your vacation will become even more enjoyable.

How to Get Started With Intuitive Eating

Learning how to become an intuitive eater after months, years, or even decades of dieting and unsuccessful weight loss attempts is a journey. Intuitive eating is a marathon not a sprint… no quick fixes here!

 

Intuitive eating goes against what diet culture has taught you your entire life. The messages of diet culture are basically that you must look a certain way (skinny) to be worthy of respect. And to get skinny, you must restrict your food and deprive yourself of what you really want.

 

Intuitive eating, on the other hand, teaches you how to attune to your body’s hunger cues, listening to what it’s craving, provide what it needs, and to give your body the love and respect it deserves. Dieting teaches you how to ignore your body’s signals, it creates a toxic mentally with food, and causes you to obsess about unrealistically shrinking your body.

 

Intuitive eating is NOT about dieting, weight loss, and creating food rules. It’s about unlearning what has been drilled into your mind from diet culture. And although this does take time and it is definitely a process, there are some steps you can take to get started, without the overwhelm!

 

4 Steps to Get Started with Intuitive Eating

 

(1) Identify your burning food rules.

We all have them. Whether its no “junk food”, not eating after a certain time, or avoiding a food group altogether—these food rules are not your fault. This is the result of what diet culture has made you believe.

 

It’s important to notice when these food rules come up for you. Next time you’re in the grocery store, sitting down at the dinner table, or thinking about food—get curious about what food rules you have and start challenging them.

 

(2) Acknowledge that hunger is a good (and normal) feeling.

No diet, meal plan or nutrition label can tell you how much to eat. With all these external sources telling you when you eat and when to stop eating, no wonder hunger is no longer an intuitive feeling. Diet culture and dieting itself teaches you to go against what your body is telling you and to ultimately not trust it.

 

Physical hunger is your body’s way of telling you it’s time for nourishment. This is not a feeling to be ignored! If you’re feeling hungry… eat. And celebrate this feeling!

 

(3) Know the difference between feelings of “fullness” and “satisfaction”.

Believe it or not… these feelings are two different things. Fullness is a physical feeling of eating enough, while satisfaction is the mental or psychological feeling of eating enough. The way to get these two feelings in check is to eat enough food that is also satisfying. Your meals/snacks should be a combination of foods that provide you with energy and satisfy your cravings.


(4) Think of food and eating as a form of self-care.

Instead of thinking of eating as something that is supposed to be “perfect” or “all or nothing”, think of food and providing your body with nourishment as a form of self-care. Providing your body with foods that are nutrient-dense and that make you feel energized and happy, while also giving it delicious desserts and a glass of wine ARE BOTH forms of self-care. You can’t have self-care without a balance of these two!

 

I recognize that even these 4 steps might seem overwhelming. To make it easier for you, I’m hosting a webinar on Monday, June 13th! It’s called 3 steps to Eating for Healthy Living: The Intuitive Eating Blueprint.

 

Click here to register for FREE (replay will be available to those who register).

 

How Do I Know if Intuitive Eating is Working?

One of the most common questions I am asked from my clients after weeks, if not months, of workshops and sessions, is, “How do I know if Intuitive Eating is Working?” This is a seemingly straightforward question that you think would have a yes or no answer, however, it is not that simple. First, to get to the root of the question one must define what “working” is. In the dieting world, you know that a diet is working when weight loss occurs, however, the goal of Intuitive Eating is not to lose weight.

 

The goal of Intuitive Eating is to restore a healthy relationship with your food and your body. I often think of Intuitive Eating as a lifelong journey with little bumps and divergence along the way. And these bumps are so important for your growth. So, how do you know when you are growing and progressing on your Intuitive Eating journey?

 

It’s when you can celebrate “non-scale victories.”

 

Now, you may be wondering what these non-scale victories are. Well, I have found seven small triumphs that my clients often experience on their Intuitive Eating journey, and I would like to share them with you.

 

Here are the 7 non-scale victories you can celebrate:

1. Feeling Free from Food Prison

You are no longer following food restrictions that trendy diets put into place. Instead, you are allowing yourself to eat the foods that you are craving. You are giving yourself the freedom to make the food choices that you desire.

 

2.Having Neutrality Around Food Choices

When you look at previously forbidden food, you are no longer labeling it as good/bad, legal/illegal. For example, that piece of chocolate cake – it’s not a good food or bad food anymore. When you label foods, you are elevating them and give them power over you. When you view foods as neutral, you are taking the power away from the food.

 

3.You’re No Longer Binging

Intuitive Eating is all about listening to your body and its hunger and satiety cues. When you tune into your innate signals, you will realize that you stop eating once you feel full. You may realize at that point that you are no longer binge eating.

 

4.You’re Not Obsessing Over Food Anymore

You don’t spend your day thinking about food anymore. When you are dieting, food becomes the central part of your day, how much of it to eat or what to eat. However, when you eat intuitively, thoughts of food zoom in when you are hunger and zoom out when you are done eating.

 

5.You’re Not Dieting

There are so many benefits that are associated with not dieting anymore. You are no longer depriving your body, and you can finally start healing your relationship with your body and food. And guess what – you have NO desire to diet! BAM!

 

6.You’re Listening to Your Body

You’re tuning into what your body needs and listening to it. When you are dieting, you are ignoring these signals and are listening to the rules and restrictions of the diet. However, when you learn to become an Intuitive Eater, you are attuned to the wisdom of your body, and now trust it wholeheartedly.

 

7.Feeling at Peace Around Food

Food is no longer a major issue in your life. You can go out and enjoy a meal without worrying about calorie content or exercising to “make up for it.” Instead, you are at peace, knowing that when you eat, you are nourishing your body.

 

These are just a handful of the non-scale victories myself and my clients have experienced. What are some non-scale victories that you have had?

 

If you would like more information on Intuitive Eating and non-scale victories check out my video here.

 

4 Ways to Refocus Yourself on the Intuitive Eating Journey

If there is anything that you have learned in the past two years, it’s that things will happen in your life that you cannot control. As the saying goes, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Even on the intuitive eating journey, you will find at times that things do not go as planned and you lose focus. 

 

When life becomes stressful you may be tempted to fall back to old habits and divert from your intuitive eating journey. However, it is important to take a step back and refocus. Shift the focus back onto your health and don’t let the stressors in your life take control. 

 

There are ways in which you can control the stress in your life without turning to comfort foods, as tempting as it may be. Find ways to express your anxiety that benefit your well-being rather than hurt it. From yoga to journaling to talking to a professional, there are options, 

 

However, finding other outlets for your stress and utilizing them when you need to is a task easier said than done. When you are feeling overwhelmed, there are some steps you can take to guide you back onto your intuitive eating journey. 

 

Here are the four ways you can refocus yourself to stay on the intuitive eating journey: 

 

1. Ask Yourself Why 

Remember back to when you first decided to start this journey. What was the reason you decided to embark on your intuitive eating journey, the “why”? Did you do it to feel better about yourself and to be kinder to your body? Or maybe you did it to be healthy for your family. 

 

Chances are your “why” still resonates somewhere within you, even on your darkest days. Use it as the extra fuel to keep going on this path. Some days are easier than others but if you keep your “why” in focus, you can navigate the bumps along the way. Instead of letting the bad times discourage you from working to better your health and yourself, use mindfulness to clear your headspace and find peace within yourself.

 

 

2. Prioritize Your Needs  

When you have a family, or even if you’re single, putting your needs first can be challenging. It is human instinct to want to help others, however, you need to make yourself a priority. You can make the most of each day by scheduling time for your priorities into your daily routine. There is a time for work, a time for taking care of the needs of others, and a time to care for yourself. This includes time to sit down for meals and to be engaged, mindful, and do nothing but focus on your food.

 

3. Find Ways to Unwind

Life is hectic, even on the slowest of days, there is something to stress or worry about. Find an activity that you can use to unwind each day. It can be exercise, taking a bath, catching the newest episode of your favorite TV show, or talking with a friend. Remember that you do not have to navigate life alone. At times, life is too much to balance on your own so reach out to friends, coworkers, family, and loved ones for support when you need it. 

 

 4. Listen to Your Body 

When you are unwinding and allowing yourself to have some much-needed rest, take a few extra moments to check in with your body. Write down your motivation and the messages your body is sending you. You will gain clarity and feel motivated to trek on this journey.

 

Always remember, when you are feeling low, there is nowhere to go but up! If you keep your focus and mindfulness, you will find inner peace on even your worst days.

4 Tips to Cooking (and Eating) Intuitively During Passover and Easter

This weekend, people all over the world will be celebrating Passover and Easter. And as per usual, with the holidays comes an abundance of food. For some people, this is exciting and something they look forward to. After all, most holidays have traditional foods that only come around this time of year.

 

But for so many others, the holidays with all the food favorites cause quite a bit of worry, and maybe even fear. Why the fear, you might ask?

 

Unfortunately, the diet industry has taught you to not trust yourself with food. So you have so much doubt as to whether you will be able to enjoy eating without the guilt. This is magnified when there are so many options on the table, it gets downright overwhelming. Oftentimes, even one bite of a food you think is “forbidden” will lead to a “throwing in the towel” and “I’ll start again after the holiday” mentality.

 

Every year I tell myself that next year I will prepare less food, and yet that never seems to happen. As a hostess, I want to be sure everyone has the foods they love and look forward to. But as I begin cooking for this holiday, I am keeping 4 things in mind that I hope will be helpful for you as well.

 

  1. Listen to My “Gut” Instinct

 

I’m pretty good at “going with my gut”. And my gut tells me that I absolutely do not need 3 mains, 4 salads, 5 sides, and 3 desserts. So, I have written my initial menu, reviewed it, and asked myself which dishes my guests, and myself, will really love this holiday. And then I cut down the menu.

 

Items that I can make all year round don’t need to be on this holiday menu! Take roasted red potatoes for example. We love them, but we eat them all year round. So instead of potatoes as a side dish, we will have Matzo Farfel Ring (recipe on page 69 of my book Passover the Healthy Way) which is a traditional Passover recipe for my family (reminds me of my grandma. I can still picture her standing at my stove making the farfel).

 

  1. Trust My Family

 

I want my family and guests to enjoy the holiday food. But that doesn’t mean that they expect an entire smorgasbord. My son will often tell me “mom, there’s no room on the table anymore.” So, I am taking this to heart and will trust that whatever I make, will be enough.

 

  1. Trust Myself

 

A challenge for many people is staying fully present when eating socially, especially when there’s a lot of people and the meals stretch on and on. I get this!

 

My best suggestion is to set an intention before going into the holiday meal. Reminding yourself that you will check in with yourself and your hunger/fullness signals, without judgement.

 

Listen, there are times that I walk away from a holiday meal feeling a bit overfull. Yes, this happens to seasoned Intuitive Eaters as well. Sometimes it’s a conscious decision to want to eat a bit more, and sometimes it’s not.

 

At the end of the day, remember, there’s no perfection in Intuitive Eating. Trust that you will do the best that you can in the moment. I do.

 

  1. Make Intuitive Decisions Around Eating

 

While food is an important part of many celebrations, it’s not the reason for the celebration.

 

This year, the Passover Seder starts quite late (since we changed the clocks), which means by the time we get up to the “eating the meal” part of the Haggadah, it will be late. I have cut down my menu drastically because intuitively, I know that I (and the rest of my family) don’t prefer to eat heavy meals so late at night. It just doesn’t sit right in my/our gut.

 

This decision is allowing me to focus on the reason we are coming together for the Passover holiday. It’s not about the food at all.

 

Wishing you a wonderful Passover and Easter Holiday!

 

Please share with me your biggest takeaway in the comments below.