Tag Archive for: Health

3 MUST HAVE Intuitive Eating Ingredients for 2022

It is almost New Year which means that my inbox (and probably yours too!) is being flooded with dozens of emails about the next latest diet. While all these diets are comprised of different rules, they all promise the same thing, quick weight loss.

 

When you see the before and after pictures attached to these emails you may be tempted to give in and try whatever diet they are promoting. You may even find success in your pursuit of losing weight in the first few weeks. Then a month or so later you notice your weight has plateaued and you stop following the dieting rules. Before you know it you say, “forget it” and drop the diet completely. Eventually, you regain all the weight you immediately lost and go back to your old eating habits.

 

If you have found yourself in this cycle, you are not alone. Most people who are chronic dieters find themselves in this never-ending loop. Studies have shown that this constant weight fluctuation that your body goes through is not good for your overall health. It is healthier for you to stay at the weight you’re at and practice healthier habits.

 

There are 3 essential ingredients I believe you need to have an overall healthier lifestyle:

 

1. Create a healthy mindset. 

 

Do not listen to all of those around you telling you what to do. Instead, focus on your body’s needs and wants. What makes YOU happy? What makes YOU feel good? What eases your mind and fills your stomach? Don’t let dieting books, relatives, and friends dictate what you need or what you should eat. Only you know how to make yourself the best you can be. Re-learn to trust your body. You may be surprised what you get out of it.

 

>> Join me today on Bonnie.Tube to learn how you can spot a diet a mile away!

 

2. Find caring love and support. 

 

Being on this journey alone can feel impossible, especially when your closest friends have all decided to diet. So, what are your options? There are plenty of support groups online full of people who have had a similar experience to you. Having a proper support system can help you stay on this journey and provide the help you may need along the way.

 

>> I’m personally inviting you to join a private group of women working towards creating a healthier relationship with food through Intuitive Eating. Accept your invite here.

 

3. Be open to learning about nutrition from a reputable source. 

 

While the internet can be a great resource for many things, it does not replace the information provided by an expert. It’s key to connect with a reputable nutrition source such as a registered dietitian nutritionist to learn about nutrition. Get to know what you’re putting into your body. The more you know, the more you will find yourself being more conscious about what you’re eating.

 

This year, focus on your health, not your weight. Say no to dieting and yes to body empowerment.

 

>> Get started with Intuitive Eating here.

Dieting is NOT the Answer to Better Health

After going on diet after diet, do you truly feel “healthier”? The answer to this is probably no!

So why do we 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 is 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 healthy lifestyle. 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 more harm than good to our bodies!

Here are some of the common side effects to dieting:

  • 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 binging, or overeating, the foods or food groups you were dramatically restricting.
  • 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 us 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!
  • No longer able to detect hunger-fullness signals. With whatever diet you find yourself on, you are usually relying on external cues to guide your eating. Whether it’s made up “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!
  • 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 our health!
  • 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 both our physical and mental health, as well as deepens the negative relationship we have with food.

 

If any of this sounds familiar and you’re ready to give up dieting for good, join me in my free webinar—3 Steps to Eating for Healthy Living: The Intuitive Eating Blueprint. 

Date: October 12, 2021 at 5 pm EST (replay will be available).

Click HERE to register for free. 

(If you’re reading this blog after October 12, 2021, you can get on the waitlist for the next webinar by clicking here.)

A Focus on Habits, Not Weight: A Case Study

Some people think that because I don’t “sell” weight loss, I’m against if you lose weight.

This is just not true.

What I don’t support is intentionally pursuing weight loss through dieting and restriction.

The reason? Because dieting causes weight gain. Think of all the times you’ve lost weight on a diet. How long did that weight stay off? My bet is that within a few years (if not sooner), that weight came back, plus some.

When you restrict your food, count your calories, and track every morsel of food you eat with the sole focus on losing weight, the focus is on all the external forces that manipulate your food intake and how you can shrink your body. The focus is not on the reasons why you eat and how you eat. The focus is not on behaviors that support or don’t support good health. And that’s why the pounds inevitably come back.

Let me explain further with a case study.

A Case Study

J.B. is a 60-year-old man who contacted me at the start of the pandemic. He shared with me that for the past 30 years, his wife has been nagging him to change his eating habits and lose weight. But he had no interest.

A health scare changed all that. He wasn’t feeling well and visited the urgent care center. The doctor took his blood pressure and asked him what medication he was on. He said he hasn’t taken his medication in over a year. The doctor’s response: “do you want to make your wife a widow?”

That was enough for him to reach out to me and make an appointment. I told him at the first session that we will NOT be focusing on weight loss. Instead we will focus on how to best nourish himself, identify his habits that have not been supportive of good health, and also look at how he handles stress, his sleep pattern, and of course, movement. We did this within The 5 Step Nutrition Pillar Program.

Fast forward 8 months, J.B.’s blood pressure is within target levels, his blood glucose has come down to normal levels, and he has lost 43 pounds. The only reason he knows the number of pounds he lost is because he went for a check-up at the doctor and he got weighed. Otherwise, not once in the 8 months did he get on a scale or did we discuss weight loss.

J.B. is amazed that he can turnaround his health without feeling restricted. He is eating delicious satisfying meals and if he wants dessert, he eats it. The difference is, now he is skilled at tuning into his hunger and fullness, respecting those cues, and has more energy at 60 years old than he has had in years! And he takes his time eating, often eating even slower than his wife! This helps him have the greatest pleasure in his meals.

Weight loss is not a behavior. It’s an outcome of habit and behavior change.

In Summary:

Pursuing weight loss → leads to yo-yo dieting and disordered eating → body dissatisfaction → worsens health

Focusing on habit changes → leads to nourishing your body → body appreciation → improved health

If you’re ready to improve your health, without a focus on weight, check out The 5 Step Nutrition Pillar Program, and Contact me.

 

 

 

 

Is Weight a Symbol of Something Deeper?

Isabel walked into my office having made the decision to make changes in her eating behaviors. She recently went to the doctor for her annual exam and her doctor put the scare of life into her. Her diabetes was “out of control”, her blood pressure was elevated, and she was just diagnosed with gastroparesis (delayed gastric emptying, a complication of uncontrolled diabetes). She was distraught but committed. The doctor sent Isabel on her way with a prescription to lose weight.

This isn’t unusual. Most doctors will prescribe weight loss to lower blood glucose, cholesterol levels and blood pressure. And while you may see a reduction in these values if you lose weight, the problem is that weight loss is not a behavior you can just tell someone to do. If you’ve been a dieter, you know what I mean.

Is Weight Loss Through Dieting Sustainable?

Anyone can lose weight when they “follow” a diet. But the question is – can you sustain that way of eating for a lifetime?

Research shows us the answer is NO. About 95-98% of people who lose weight on a diet regain that weight and up to two-thirds gain back even more.

You may be thinking “Bonnie, I know someone who lost weight and kept it off”. I bet you do. But the 3-5% that do keep it off most often do so with disordered eating behaviors such as tracking their foods, counting points, eliminating certain foods, not allowing themselves full pleasure in eating what they want and spending a LOT of time in the gym (to name a few). Most people really cannot live a “normal” life of “normal” eating and “normal exercising” if they are trying to maintain a weight loss achieved through dieting.

When I explained to Isabel that we will not be focusing on weight loss but instead, we will focus on habits and behaviors that will enable her body to better use the insulin she is producing and ultimately help her improve her health (which SHE really wanted to do), including learning how to minimize the symptoms of gastroparesis, she was relieved. And then, she started to cry!

Using Weight as a Cover Up

All is not always how it looks. Many times, when working with a client on improving their relationship with food, it becomes apparent that there’s a reason why they’ve struggled so long. With the realization that the odds are low that they can lose weight and keep it off, they self-sabotage their own efforts in order to keep the weight on.

Why you might ask?

Having “failed” so many times, they are embarrassed to continue to yo-yo diet. So, they cover up the shame and embarrassment by making jokes about themselves and allow others to joke about them too.

This is what happened to Isabel. She was known in her group of friends as the “fat funny one” and she took on this persona, making jokes at her own expense, when deep down she was hurting terribly.

Isabel never told anyone this, until she broke down and cried in the safe space of my office.

Weight-Neutral Nutrition Therapy: A Focus on Behaviors, Not Weight

A weight-neutral approach to nutrition therapy, including diabetes, blood pressure, and cholesterol management focuses on the habits and behaviors you can change which ultimately lead to improved health, regardless of body weight. These behaviors include balanced eating, joyful movement, stress management, improving sleep, taking medications as prescribed and engaging in mindful eating behaviors.

This approach takes the emphasis off weight and brings a sense of relief to those who’ve tried to diet to lose weight as the treatment prescribed for health. It promotes positive behavioral change without the shame and guilt often felt and it empowers them to continue along the path of healthy living.

Is Losing Weight “Bad”?

Let me assure you that I am not against weight loss. I want to make this perfectly clear. What I am against is intentionally pursuing weight loss in an effort to shrink your body to meet the warped societal standards of the “thin ideal”, and as the treatment of medical conditions.

If in the process of learning about your disease state and making sustainable habit and behavior changes (including managing your stress better and having better sleep), you lose weight, then that means it’s what your body needed to do to return to it’s natural healthy weight. And in this case, I DO believe that this will be sustainable.

Remember, weight loss is not a behavior. It is an outcome of habit and behavior change.

Take Action

If you are ready to improve your health without a focus on weight loss, reach out to me here!

 

 

 

 

Intuitive Eating and National Nutrition Month Collide

It’s interesting when people hear that I’m a registered dietitian nutritionist, yet I don’t promote diets. This is something many people don’t understand since most people are influenced by society’s message that to “manage” their weight, they have to diet and “control” their food intake.

No, it’s not about control, it’s about “taking charge”. By saying NO to diets, you are saying YES to putting yourself back in the driver’s seat and making your own food choices. Because you know what? You know how to do that. I realize that maybe you think you don’t, since you’ve been dieting for so long. But given the chance, you will step up to the plate.

I’ve said it may times – intuitive eating is not “see it, want it, eat it”. With intuitive eating, we pause to determine if we are hungry or not, to think about how eating that food made you feel last time you ate it (sluggish, tired, energized, blood sugar spike/crash etc) and then use that information to make an informed food and eating decision.

Is nutrition important? Yes, of course it is. But choosing foods that are nutrient-rich or nutrient-poor does not make you a better or worse person.

There is a way to balance both, and to have full satisfaction when doing so.

National Nutrition Month – Eat Right, Bite by Bite

This year’s theme has the following message: “Good nutrition doesn’t have to be restrictive or overwhelming. Small goals and changes can have a cumulative healthful effect, and every little bit (or bite!) of nutrition is a step in the right direction.”

When working with clients, I stress one small change at a time.

Here’s a road map to guide you this National Nutrition Month:

Week One: Just focus on eating a variety of foods every day. Now that you’re not dieting any longer, there’s no more eliminating major food groups or particular foods. Consider what you’d like to eat from each food group as you build a satisfying meal. Then, sit and savor every bite.

Week Two: Plan meals ahead if you are a busy person (like me!) and you want to be sure you have food in the house to prepare meals for the week. Meal planning is not dieting as long as you keep it flexible. I like to say that “planning is smart living”. Without planning ahead what I will make for dinner, my family likely wouldn’t sit down to a balanced meal each evening.

Week Three: Experiment with new tastes, textures and flavors of foods. Look for new recipes and get the family involved. Plan to enjoy a few family meals together each week. It doesn’t have to be dinner if schedules don’t match. Think out of the box and enjoy breakfast together. For lots of delicious recipes and Intuitive Eating Wisdom, check out my new book – Enjoying Food Peace: Recipes and Intuitive Eating Wisdom to Nourish Your Body and Mind. Enjoying Food Peace Book

Week Four: Need more support? Have specific medical nutrition needs such as diabetes, prediabetes, high cholesterol and GI issues? Contact me to learn how we can intertwine intuitive eating with nutrition therapy in a weight-neutral way.

Happy National Nutrition Month to you!!

3 Big Reasons to Take Down Diet Culture

How many times have you seen, heard, or gotten into a heated discussion on the topic of the latest diet trends or weight loss tricks?  It’s everywhere these days, on TV, social media, books, and people claiming they have the hot new approach to help you shed weight fast!

Being a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, I am constantly asked what I think about the latest diet trend that has been pushed on us.  I have spent the last many years of my career helping clients break the spell of diets and dismantle Diet Culture beliefs.  And, when I’m asked those questions about recommending a new diet, it reminds me that there is so much more work to do to help people learn to trust in themselves again.

A major reason that I am so passionate about helping people break free from diets is because of the harm that Diet Culture causes.

Diet Culture is a system of beliefs that focuses on and values weight, shape and size over health, and it equates thinness with higher status and worthiness.

I see the damages of Diet Culture starting younger and younger. Little girls just 9 and 10 years old asking their moms for a diet. These little girls covering themselves up with sweaters and baggie clothes because they are ashamed of their bodies.

This makes me sad. But it also makes me angry at Diet Culture and lights the fire under me to continue to push back against Diet Culture and help women, and these young girls, love themselves for the beautiful person that they are  and respect their bodies for the amazing things it does every day to keep them alive.

3 Reasons to Take Down Diet Culture

#1: Diet Culture is Dishonest

“Stay away from carbs, they make you fat”.

“The reason you aren’t losing weight is because of all the dairy you consume”.

“Cut out gluten from your diet, it’s really bad for you”.

Diet Culture has spent a lot of time and money trying to convince you that there are certain foods out there that are “good” or “bad’ for you. The food they characterize as “good” will help you lose weight, while the “bad” foods will make you gain weight.

Food fads are encouraged by Diet Culture with the support of the food industry. When scientific research is published, Diet Culture cherry-picks the information that best supports their agenda and launches campaigns to herd consumers to jump on their bandwagon, spending money on their products, lining their pockets.

Listen, there is a difference between implementing nutrition guidelines for your health, and demonizing foods because of the belief that it’ll make you gain weight (or prevent you from losing weight). Now, you might say “no, I’m avoiding this food because it’s not good for my health”. If in fact, this belief is not tied in any way to your thoughts about your weight, then yes, perhaps not eating that food might be in your best interest. But if that belief is tied in any way into your body size, then it is being co-opted by Diet Culture.

If you need further clarity on this, just hit reply!

#2: Diet Culture Disregards Your Best Interest

Any eating pattern that emphasizes how you look over your mental and physical well-being is detrimental. Diet Culture thrives on black-and-white thinking. Eat foods on the “good” list and you’ll lose weight (“good”); eat foods on the “bad” list and you’ll get fat (“bad”). Thin = win in Diet Culture’s mind.

Here’s the thing – people are literally dying to be thin and Diet Culture completely disregards this. Maybe you have suffered with an eating disorder or know someone that is. It destroys your life. Every waking moment is spent worrying about what you’re eating, wearing, how you look, how other people are looking at you etc. It is all consuming. Yet Diet Culture continues to push and push and push.

Your body does so many amazing things for you every day. Just imagine if you didn’t have the use of your hands, legs, or eyes. Would how small your body is be important then?

There is peace in accepting your body as it is in this very moment. This doesn’t mean that you’re “giving up”. This just means that you refuse to let Diet Culture push you any longer. And, instead, you will focus on giving your loving body the respect it deserves, while feeding it well and moving in a way that feels good.

#3: Diet Culture Destroys Your Self-Worth

One of the biggest reasons to shut down Diet Culture is because it’s constantly giving you the message that you’re not good enough. It makes you question your self-worth, often calling attention to things you never considered flaws before.

“Got a muffin top? Never eat these 5 foods again to get rid of it!”

“Do your thighs touch? Do this cleanse to fix that problem!”

Messages like these are toxic to women of all ages. It’s teaching them from a young age that they are nothing more than a sum of their parts and if those parts don’t add up to an unrealistic ideal, they need to do whatever it takes to get there. This has the potential to lead them into a dangerous relationship with food and exercise, twisting their self-perception. Diet Culture destroys your self-esteem and ultimately your self-worth. You come to believe that you are not worthy of love, not worthy of that job you are going for, not worthy of friendship, kindness etc. Diet culture steals your happiness and breaks you down.

It’s Time to Take DOWN Diet Culture

The truth is that body size doesn’t always equate with health. There are plenty of people who are in smaller bodies who have a plethora of health issues. On the flip side, there are people in larger bodies that have no medical issues at all. Diet Culture wants you to be at war with your body because that’s how companies who support it make their billions of dollars every year.  Don’t fall for these tricks, it’s time to break free of Diet Culture and get off the hamster wheel of dieting, for good!

Do you want to join me in taking down Diet Culture? Let me know in the comments below!

3 Behavior Changes to Improve Your Health (Without Dieting)

Steve walked into my office and said, “I’m ready”. When I asked him “ready for what?”, he answered “I’m ready to take care of myself and make some changes in how I eat”. This was a relief to his wife who accompanied him to the visit. For years she’s been trying to encourage him to be more mindful of his food choices, exercise a little and care more about his health. But her requests weren’t heard.

Today, things were different. Steve wasn’t feeling well, his blood pressure was high, and he got scared with the lightheadedness he often felt these days. As we began talking, Steve shared that he didn’t want to feel restricted in his eating. This was a major reason why he wasn’t interested in “dieting” in the past. He was quite happy when I told him he doesn’t have to go on a diet. In fact, when I told him that I don’t believe in dieting, his eyes opened wide and he wanted to learn more. How can he possibly lower his blood pressure and improve his health if he didn’t diet?

Ahh, that’s the question of all time isn’t it. Most doctors will send you on your way with a script for “weight loss”. The problem is weight loss is not a skill you can learn or a behavior you can adopt. Rather, weight loss is an outcome of habit and behavior changes. If you are holding onto weight that is above what is natural for you based on your genetic blueprint, then it is likely that when you make some changes in your habits and food choices that you might release weight. The key word here is might.

I always tell my clients that I don’t know what your body will do when you make changes, and neither do you. Only your body knows, and your job is to trust it.

The Scale Ruins It All

Imagine this scenario. You determine that you are “sodium sensitive”, meaning that when you eat foods high in sodium it causes your blood pressure to rise too high. So, you start choosing lower sodium food choices, use less salt in cooking and have been experimenting with herbs and spices to flavor your foods. You’ve started taking a short walk after dinner and you are feeling pretty darn proud of yourself (and feeling physically good too!). You are toying with the decision to get on the bathroom scale…”I just want to see if I lost weight” you think to yourself.

Does it really matter though? You’ve been making changes; your blood pressure went down and you are feeling good.

You can’t resist. You get on. You stare at the number, get off the scale, get back on and do this another 3 times. Can it be? You only lost 3 pounds? “Man, this isn’t worth it, forget about this”, you think. You then head to the kitchen and open the package of Oreos and fall into a numb state as you eat cookie after cookie.

The Scale Does Not Determine Your Health

Every day I debunk the idea that your body weight equates with your health. And to be healthy, you need to lose weight.

Truth: you can be in a larger body and be healthy.

Truth: higher weights are associated with certain medical conditions, but this does not mean it is causative! Remember, correlation does not equal causation!

The bigger issue is this – there is no known way to lose weight and keep it off. The data is strong in showing that 95-98% of people who lose weight on a diet will regain that weight within 1-5 years. And the small 3-5% that might keep the weight off often do so with disordered eating behaviors such as counting points, tracking calories, exercising off what they ate, omitting major food groups etc. And by the way, when the majority of dieters gain the weight back, one third to two thirds do so with some interest…they gain even more than they lost.

Weight cycling, gaining and losing weight over and over, has been shown to be more detrimental to your health than staying at a stable weight, even if that weight is on the higher end.

Focusing on Habits and Behaviors

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight, after all we live in a society that sends a loud message that to be worthy, one needs to be skinny. But…

Putting weight loss on the back burner without actively working on it will most likely be what improves your health.

3 habits and behaviors you can start to focus on right now (that has nothing to do with dieting and food restriction but will bring you better health):

  1. Engage in Mindful Eating: instead of rushing through your meal, allocate enough time in your day to sit down and mindfully eat. Mindful eating doesn’t focus on the what of eating, it focuses on the how of eating. Slowing down, putting your fork down between bites and focusing on the taste, texture, aroma and other qualities of the food will bring you great pleasure and satisfaction. It will also help you stay tuned in to your satiety signals as your guide to when you will end your meal (versus a diet where you will finish the plate regardless if you are full or not because that’s the amount of food you are “allowed”).

 

  1. Choose Foods from a Gentle Nutrition Lens: consider the nutrient density of your foods while also considering the taste. Choose what you enjoy eating while paying attention to how you feel after you eat. Does your blood sugar crash? Do you experience reflux? Are you feeling more energetic? Does your blood pressure respond well to this food choice? By doing this, you are the one in charge what you eat, and that’s the way it ought to be!

 

  1. Participate in Joyful Movement: think about what type of activities or movement is gentle on your body and joyful to do. You may want to consider what you liked to do as a kid. Maybe swimming, bike riding, playing tennis, or dancing. Adding some exercise into your life doesn’t have to be torture and should never be something you don’t enjoy doing. Think FUN! If it’s fun, you’ll want to keep doing it.

Remember Steve? He started practicing mindful eating, is choosing foods that he likes but that also won’t raise his blood pressure and he starting walking more instead of using the car. He doesn’t feel restricted and he just got a great health report from the doctor.

If you want to work on improving your health but don’t want to have to diet, send me an email or call me at 516-486-4569.

I look forward to speaking soon!

3 Ways to Push Past Fear (So it No Longer Holds You Back)

Fear is a paralyzing feeling. It keeps you from trying new experiences, making change and truly living a fulfilling life.

 

Fear is real. Nobody should make you feel “less than” for having fear. On the contrary, if someone really cares about you, they should help you overcome your fear.

 

In my world of working with chronic dieters and emotional eaters, the two big fears I hear almost daily is giving up the food rules and the fear of failing at intuitive eating.

 

No More Food Rules?

Giving up dieting means that you no longer follow external rules of “eat this, not that, in this way, at this time”. Yikes, that’s a scary thought. For decades you’ve been following the rules of what and how to eat by some arbitrary source other than yourself. So the thought of not having this direction is scary.

 

“How will I know what to eat?”

“How will I know when to eat?”

“How will I know how much to eat?”

 

Great questions! You will instinctively know the answer to each of these questions once you learn to listen to your innate body wisdom. This will take time. But it is possible.

 

Fear of Failing

The fear of failing is real. I know it. You’ve been on countless diets and while you may have had some success, as measured only by weight loss, that success was short-lived. Yet, you repeated the cycle over and over again, and each time, you considered yourself a failure.

 

Who wants to experience failure?

 

No one!

 

Well, the beautiful part of intuitive eating is there’s no failure in intuitive eating. You are not on or off anything, so there’s no falling “off track” or “off the wagon”. There are no rules for you to feel like you are “breaking”. What you once thought of as a slip up is truly an opportunity of growth and moving forward.

 

Intuitive eating is a whole new way of looking at your relationship with food. I promise you, if you are willing to do the work, then you will not fail.

 

Food is meant to bring you pleasure, not torture. Don’t let fear hold you back.

 

3 Ways to Push Past the Fear

  1. Take a leap of faith. While the unknown is scary, it can also be exciting. Remind yourself that what you’ve been doing over and over again has not brought you the peace you want. But maybe, just maybe, it is within reach if you just take that leap of faith.

 

  1. Believe in yourself. You have been put on this earth for a purpose. Your food and body worry has taken up so much brain space and time that it is preventing you from living your purpose. Believe that you are capable of change and change will come.

 

  1. Just decide its time. Let this moment be the moment that you decide that its time to stop struggling. You’ve had enough, your done, and you are ready for the next chapter. Making a decision is powerful. Once you do it, the fear lifts up and floats away.

 

 Isn’t it time for you to put your fear behind you?

 

I vote yes. And I’m here to help you!

 

How Intuitive Eating Impacts Your Health

It’s Intuitive Eating Wednesday when I answer your questions and troubleshoot your challenges around intuitive eating and emotional eating.

 

This week’s Intuitive Eating Wednesday Question comes from Dorica, and it is:

 

“Can intuitive eating improve someone’s health, such as migraines or upset stomach?”

 

The short answer is yes! Let me explain.

 

There are 3 reasons why intuitive eating will help improve your health, specifically migraines or an upset stomach (there are many other ways your health can be improved through intuitive eating, but I am specifically answering this week’s question about migraines (or headaches in general), and GI issues).

 

  1. Intuitive eating is stress-free!

 

Stress…. it’s a very powerful word which has a lot of effects on your body. When you live in a chronically stressed state, the switch to your stress response, known as ‘fight or flight’, stays on. This affects you in various ways including cognitively (memory problems, difficulty concentrating), emotionally (moody, irritable, depression), behaviorally (sleeping problems, social withdrawal) and physically (bowel irregularities, nausea).

 

What causes stress? Dieting! Hands down, calorie counting, restricting food, tracking points, logging your food into an app – all causes stress. And this stress triggers your internal stress response. As long as you continue dieting, you will stay in a stressed state and deal with the negative effects of it.

 

Once you decide to give up dieting and embrace the path towards intuitive eating, it’s like a ton of bricks is lifted off your shoulders. The stress disappears, and I bet you’ll see the headaches and gastrointestinal discomfort does too.

 

 

  1. Intuitive eating results in more consistent eating patterns

 

When you ditch eating by the clock, as most diets tell you to do (you know, all those rules that you follow), you learn to tune into your inner hunger and fullness signals. This likely results in a more consistent pattern of eating, specific to your inner wisdom. This consistency will improve the gastrointestinal symptoms you are experiencing, a.k.a. an upset stomach. And, will decrease any headaches that might have come from low blood sugar due to an inconsistent eating pattern.

 

Another point here to make is this. If you are still dieting, you probably find yourself in the restrict-binge cycle. So you restrict foods that you deem as bad for you, but at some point you can’t take it anymore. So, you end up eating said foods, but you don’t just have some, you overeat on those foods, leading to a binge. Then, you experience a flare in your IBS or other GI symptoms. Your mind goes right away to “You see, I can’t tolerate those foods”, but in reality, it’s the dosage of the foods you are eating, not the actual food itself.

 

So, give up dieting and restriction and embrace intuitive eating. You will find that you have more energy and your stomach is digesting food just the way nature intended.

 

 

  1. Intuitive eating encourages you to tune inward.

 

When you practice intuitive eating, you are engaging in mindful eating practices along the journey. That means you are learning to slow down, savor your food and tune in to how your body feels after you eat something. You are moving from auto pilot eating into conscious eating and this allows you to attune, not only to your inner signals, but also to your body’s reaction to food.

 

As a dieter, you listen to what the diets or health gurus tell you to eat. Many times, you don’t even enjoy it. Most of the time, you finish your meal and have had minimal to no pleasure in it. As an intuitive eater, you have rediscovered the pleasure in eating. If you had pleasure after eating when you were dieting, it was likely accompanied by guilt. That guilt turned to shame.

 

No more.

 

Without the guilt and shame and food worry, you can listen to what your body tells you in terms of how it feels. Then the next time you are about to decide whether to eat a food or not, you’ll remember how you felt the last time you ate it. Did your belly hurt? Did your blood sugar plummet? These factors will then play a role in whether you decide to eat that food or not.

 

Wow! Isn’t intuitive eating amazing?

 

Yes, it is!

 

Ready to start YOUR intuitive eating journey? Just email me and say “I’m Ready!”

 

 

 

Did You Get Sucked in to the New Year’s Diet Scheme?

I’m sure it feels like everyone you know is starting a new diet or workout regime this month. In the past I’m sure that even YOU have fallen into the hypnosis of the “January start a new diet” trend set by the diet industry. I want to challenge you to try a different approach to your health this year.

 

The truth is that every “new diet” you see is actually the same. There is always going to be the latest trend hitting the internet or newsstands. But at the end of the day, all diets have one thing in common: someone other than yourself is telling you what to eat, when to eat, and how to eat.  And truth be told, they aren’t going to help you feel better about your relationship with food OR yourself.

 

So, let’s not kick off 2017 with a cloud of dieting thoughts over your head, okay? It’s time to jump OFF the diet roller coaster and to start listening to your inner wisdom.

 

Who better to listen to than your own body?

 

Okay, so this sounds all great, right? And the new programs that are being marketed now are calling themselves “Lifestyle Programs”. But let me let you in on a little secret. Those “Lifestyle Programs” are just fancy names for diets. They say they want to help you make lifestyle changes, but they are still giving you lists of foods to eat and not to eat.

 

Oh, by the way, don’t even get me started on those doctors with Harvard degrees that are promoting “Detoxes”. Give me a break! Anyone is going to lose weight if they drink these concoctions for a week or a month. Then what happens after the detox is over? You know what happens….

 

But I divert. Let me get back on course here.
If you are riding the diet roller coaster, you’re probably unhappy with your body and have an unhealthy relationship with food.

 

Coming next month I have a free training called “The 5 Steps to Break Free of Dieting” where I explain the 5 steps you need to get the body and life you love without the pain and restriction of dieting.

 

Come join our Facebook community group to get notified when this free training will take place, or check back to this blog next week for more information!