Tag Archive for: hunger and fullness

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!

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).

 

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.

Common Misconceptions about Intuitive Eating

For those new to Intuitive Eating or have just recently discovered it, there are usually a ton of ideas floating around in your head about this eating philosophy such as:

 

  • “This whole thing seems too good to be true!”
  • “Something has to be wrong with this philosophy”
  • “There is NO WAY this whole thing actually works!” 

Although this philosophy and idea around eating may SOUND too good to be true—there is actually nothing wrong with Intuitive Eating!

In spite of this, there are many myths and misconceptions floating around about Intuitive Eating, and the methods behind it, that often deter people from taking the steps to becoming an intuitive eater.

Let’s take a look at some of the common misconceptions associated with Intuitive Eating.

Misconception #1: “If Intuitive Eating is all about eating whatever and whenever you want… doesn’t that mean I’ll be eating all the time?

 

When many people hear about Intuitive Eating, the thought of “eating whatever and whenever they want” is frightening because they feel they will be out of control or only eat “junk” foods if they allow it into their eating regimen.

The key misconception here is that while there are no foods “off limits” with Intuitive Eating, it doesn’t mean eating all the time. Intuitive Eating is not the “see it, want it, eat it diet.”

 

Through the principles and teachings of Intuitive Eating, you will learn to ask yourself questions before choosing to eat. Those questions relate to whether you are physically hungry in this moment, if you’re experiencing emotional hunger, how you felt the last time you ate this food and so on.

 

Misconception #2: “It seems like Intuitive Eating is just another diet!”

 

Intuitive Eating is not another diet plan or rule book to follow. However, many people turn it into a diet. This is generally because they haven’t fully rejected the diet mentality, and that mindset is distorting the messages and principles of Intuitive Eating.

 

Furthermore, if someone is promoting Intuitive Eating as a way to lose weight, then that is NOT Intuitive Eating. It is unethical to promise weight loss through Intuitive Eating. Intuitive Eating focuses on bettering one’s relationship food.

 

Counting or tracking anything is NOT Intuitive Eating. It is a diet!

 

Misconception #3: “Intuitive Eating doesn’t care about nutrition.”

 

Principle ten of Intuitive Eating is “Honor your health though gentle nutrition.”

 

This principle focuses on nutrition in a gentle fashion and combines having a healthy relationship with food and a healthy balance of food.

Intuitive Eating is a process of attuning your mind, body, and food.

 

Gentle nutrition is the integration of your inner attunement (thoughts, feelings, beliefs, hunger-fullness cues) with the external environment.

Intuitive Eating is often criticized because it encourages people to eat what they want, which the naysayers believe will lead to poor nutrition choices and weight gain. However, research shows the opposite. Attuning to feelings of hunger and fullness before, during, and after a meal, as well as considering satisfaction, is associated with improved nutrient intake and eating a wider variety of food.

 

Misconception #4: “Intuitive eating is just about eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full.”

 

Intuitive Eating is SO MUCH more than hunger and fullness.

Intuitive Eating emphasizes:

  • Challenging diet culture and the diet mentality
  • Granting yourself unconditional permission to eat
  • Discovering the feeling of satisfaction
  • Learning to challenge the food police
  • Recognizing and honoring feelings without using food
  • Honoring gentle nutrition
  • And so much more!

 

Join me to learn more: Monday March 14, 2022 > Free Webinar

3 Steps to Eating for Healthy Living: The Intuitive Eating Blueprint

Register HERE. (replay available)

 

 

 

Avoid Falling into the “One Last Diet Trap”

You realize that the diets you’ve been on all these years have not served you well. More than likely the weight that you lost found you again. It’s depressing and you feel distraught. You really want to lose this weight once and for all.

 

But the diets haven’t worked. Well, maybe they worked short term, meaning you did lose weight when you followed them. But that weight loss was short-lived (research shows dieters regain weight within 1-5 years).

 

You’ve heard about the anti-diet approach to eating. But somehow, that doesn’t sound logical to you. From what you’ve read on the internet, Intuitive Eating means eat what you want, when you want. (Nah, that’s not what Intuitive Eating is at all. I’ll get into that on another blog)

 

Either way, you’ve decided to look into Intuitive Eating, after all, what do you have to lose. As you consider “trying” Intuitive Eating, the thought of maybe you’ll go on one more diet to lose those X pesky pounds, and then do “Intuitive Eating”. This is what is called – falling into the “one last diet trap.”

 

What is the One Last Diet Trap?

 

This is when you decide to give up dieting to learn to become an Intuitive Eater. But your friend, colleague, coworker, mother etc. just called to say they started a new diet and it’s amazing, you should do it too.

 

You think about it and consider it. Maybe, just maybe, THIS will be the diet that will help you lose the weight. You decide to try this one last diet, then you’ll start Intuitive Eating.

 

You have just fallen into the trap!

 

Don’t Ignore the Facts

 

Falling for that one last diet ignores the facts that:

 

  1. Diets do not work. For the 3-5% of people that may keep the weight off, they exhibit disordered eating and exercise habits to do so.

 

  1. The studies are clear. Approximately 95% – 97% of dieters eventually regain the weight they lost and up to 2/3rds gain back more weight than they initially lost.

 

  1. You will not find one study that shows that intentional weight loss leads to long-term weight loss.

 

  1. Rebound weight gain is defined as the regaining of weight you lost, plus more. This weight regain has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of willpower, poor self-discipline, or not following the rules you were told to follow! The fact of the matter is that your body was not programmed to be restricted. The more you restrict, the greater the rebound weight gain!

 

  1. Dieting causes your body to go into survival mode. When your body doesn’t get enough fuel, it thinks “Oh my! I need to go into survival mode. There is a threat, a famine is coming!” Your body will do anything it can to “survive” when it is not receiving the proper nutrients. When your body goes into survival mode, your metabolism decreases, and you actually gain more weight!

 

Bottom Line:

 

The most predictable outcome of yo-yo dieting is weight cycling (losing and regaining the same weight over and over again).

 

Yo-yo dieting and weight cycling is detrimental to your physical and mental health!

 

Come join me in the END THE YO-YO-ING Workshop, four days where you will learn how you can STOP the diet roller coaster once and for all!

CLICK HERE to learn more and register – for free!

 

Unconditional Permission to Snack

As an intuitive eater, it’s all about giving yourself unconditional permission to eat but… are you actually giving yourself unconditional permission to snack as well?

Snacks are an important source of energy and nutrients and can help your body in a lot of different ways—keeping your blood sugar steady, preventing you from having mood swings or even burning out after a long day.

For those exiting the diet world, snacking in between meals was once something deemed wrong—but not with intuitive eating.

 

There is nothing wrong with snacking!

If you’ve denied yourself snacks for a long time, or just simply don’t know where to start, you may be wondering—what the heck do I eat between my meals to satisfy by desires and keep my hunger at bay?

In the world of Intuitive Eating, snacks don’t have to be fancy or meet any sort of requirements to be considered “a snack”—in fact, a snack is whatever you want it to be.

 

For example:

  • Leftovers from the night before
  • A bag of trail mix
  • A bowl of cereal
  • A scoop of ice cream

 

YES! These are all snacks!

Whatever your body is desiring—whether that’s something salty, sweet, light or heavy…there is no judgement on if it’s a snack or not.

 

If it’s fueling your hunger needs, and leaving you satisfied, that’s all that matters!

If snacking is something new to you, or your stuck on what to try, here are some snack ideas based on what YOUR body is telling you:

 

Sweet Snacks

  • Smoothies
  • Oatmeal raisin cookies
  • Banana nut muffin
  • Yogurt with crunchy granola
  • Toast with nut butter, or fruit spread
  • Fresh, canned, dried fruit
  • Chocolate chips

 

Savory Snacks 

  • Dips (like hummus, tzatziki, bean dip, guacamole) with crackers, chips, or veggies
  • Toast with hummus spread, or avocado
  • Cut vegetables like carrots, cucumber, bell peppers, or broccoli florets
  • Cheese and crackers
  • Hard boiled eggs with salt + pepper
  • Tortilla chips (or any kind of chips)
  • Nuts and seeds

 

Salty Snacks

  • Popcorn
  • Homemade potato chips
  • Homemade French fries
  • Olives
  • Cheese dip with crackers
  • Salted roasted chicpeas
  • Trail mix

 

For more information on snacking as an Intuitive Eater, watch my latest video upload at Bonnie.Tube.

 

Yes, it’s True! You Can Learn to Eat Normally

From vegetarian to vegan to gluten free—there are so many ways of eating it could make your head spin! Many of these new “eating trends” are sneakily disguised as dieting and can cause disordered eating.

I truly feel that all these styles of eating that are being promoted as the way to eat for optimal health have blinded us and steered many away from plain old normal eating. Instead, normal eating has become something that is abnormal, while dieting and disordered eating have been normalized!

 

What is “Normal” Eating?

“Normal” eating is eating when you are hungry or you have a craving, choosing foods that you believe will satisfy you, staying connected to your body and the experience of eating by eating with full awareness and enjoyment, and stopping eating when you are comfortably full.

 

Sounds simple, right?

 

Not so for the chronic dieter who’s been eating based on the rules of others and/or diet programs.

 

If you identify as a compulsive eater, an emotional eater or a restrictive eater, then you likely don’t feel “normal” around food and can’t even imagine what that feels like.

 

There is no one right way to be a ‘normal’ eater. “Normal eating varies in response to your hunger, your schedule, and your proximity to food and your feeling” (https://www.ellynsatterinstitute.org)

 

Behaviors of a “Normal” Eater

  • Arrives at the table gently hungry and eats until satisfied.
  • Chooses to eat foods based on what they really want.
  • Gives themselves unconditional permission to eat.
  • Does not label foods as good, bad, healthy, unhealthy, etc.
  • Has full trust in the food decisions they are making.
  • Decides to leave food on the plate when comfortably full, or decides to eat more after identifying satiety and ends up overfull sometimes.
  • Stays connected to their taste buds and inner cues of fullness and satisfaction

 

Bottom line:

“Normal” eaters will say yes or no to a food, and it’s not a big deal either way.


I share the steps to stop dieting and learn to eat normally in my latest video upload right here!

How to Eat Intuitively While Traveling

I don’t know about you…but I am ready to go on vacation! Like most people, I haven’t traveled since the pandemic hit! While I know there are some people who’ve resumed their vacation travels, I haven’t been ready – until NOW!

I am itching to get away! And many of my clients are as well! With traveling opening again and vacationing returning to normal, eating intuitively while on vacation is a thought lingering in many of my client’s minds. And it may be on your mind too.

For many people, this may seem like an impossible task, especially if you’re a dieter or working on breaking free of dieting.

Typically, a vacation or traveling usually means “a break” from the routines of your regular life.

A break from your routine can mean—indulging in foods you don’t normally eat, experiencing new foods, and being spontaneous and flexible with your eating.

This “lack of routine”, especially for those just beginning their Intuitive Eating journey, can bring up a lot of difficult emotions surrounding eating, making food decisions, and being in a new, unfamiliar environment while vacationing. These emotions include shame, fear, guilt, and anxiety, and loads of “what if’s”.

What If…

There is often a lot of food fear and food worry when it comes to going on vacation, wondering if there will be food you can eat. The “what if’s” can fill your head leaving you anxious about the vacation that you really want to be looking forward to.

  • What if I go overboard?
  • What if they don’t have “healthy” foods for me to eat?
  • What if I can’t control myself?
  • What if my body lets me down?
  • What if I stop hearing my hunger/fullness signals?

To help combat some of these negative emotions and overwhelming “what if’s”, here are 4 KEY POINTS to keep in mind:

1.Eating is eating no matter where you are.

 Many people glorify and place unnecessary pressures on eating and making food choices while traveling. However, nothing has to change or look different from a usual day of eating. Eating can still be “normal” even while vacationing. This is a powerful mindset shift that will help take the pressure off eating while vacationing.

Think about it—if you are currently eating without rules and restriction, honoring your hunger and eating until satisfied… why should your eating look any different while you are traveling?

2.Intuitive Eating is not only about honoring your hunger and fullness.

Traveling opens the door to a whole host of great experiences. From trying new foods to learning about a new culture or cuisine—the experiences are endless, and you shouldn’t be denying yourself from having these experiences. Although it’s important to honor your hunger and fullness signals, there are times in which this shouldn’t be the only thing you’re focused on.

For example, while vacationing there may be a time you get the opportunity to try a new food that is incredible, and you notice that you ate past comfortable fullness. Or, while engaging in a fun activity, time gets away from you and you suddenly realize you’re way hungrier than feels comfortable.

In both scenarios, these are temporary moments of discomfort—they don’t last forever and it is absolutely OKAY! Avoid hyper focusing on those moments. Fixating on those moments (like beating yourself up, restricting, etc.) will cause you to miss out on experiences you may not get to experience again.

Remember, there is no perfection in Intuitive Eating!

3.Focus on satisfaction.

An important part of Intuitive Eating is the feeling of satisfaction. Intuitive Eating allows you to give yourself permission to eat what sounds and feels good for you without any conditions attached to it—and believe it or not, this permission is still present while vacationing!

Don’t be “conditional” with your permission. Eat what sounds good to you, allow yourself to eat everything on your plate or leave some behind, eat when others aren’t but you feel the need to, and say no when something doesn’t appeal to you.

You are in charge!

4.Remember compensating is not necessary.

There is no need to threaten yourself with an intense workout regimen or a “cleanse”, or “detox” while traveling or vacationing. Movement is great but if the intention is to “punish yourself” for eating a little out of “routine” or because you ate until a little bit overfull- I think it’s best if you hit the brakes to remind yourself that those are old dieting behaviors, and you don’t need them anymore!

You got this! Happy travels!!

 

It’s Okay if You’re Not Ready to Give Up Dieting

Not everybody is ready to hear that “diets don’t work”. For years, you’ve been trying all the different diets that hit the market in hopes of losing weight and keeping it off. But each time, you gain back most, if not all, of the weight you lost, and you are back at square one.

The Dieter’s Dilemma

The Dieter’s Dilemma starts with the desire to be thin. This desire leads to the start of your diet. Eventually, you experience cravings for foods you’ve been restricting. This leads to having a “loss of control” and “overeating”, maybe even binge eating on these foods. You regain the weight you lost, with a side dish of guilt and shame.

But then, the desire to be thin becomes strong again, and you start your next diet.

The cycle continues, until you acknowledge that diets don’t work, and there must be a better way to exist. There is.

Reject the Diet Mentality

The first step to no longer dieting is to reject the diet mentality. That means learning to acknowledge when the Food Police is shouting food rules at you, as well as barbs, criticisms, and judgement about you “not following the rules”.

This step will take time. Think about it. You’ve been following diet food rules for years. You’ve been listening to others tell you when to eat, how much to eat and what to eat. These rules have created cognitive distortions and it takes practice to learn to reframe these thoughts into more rational thoughts.

Tip: Every time you hear a diet thought pop up, pause and call it out. Challenge that thought right then and there!! Within time, you will see that the Food Police is losing it’s hold over you.

Intuitive Eating

If you consider the words Intuitive Eating, you can come to understand that you have the natural inborn instinct to know when you are hungry and full, and what you truly want to eat in that moment. You are born with that instinct.

According to the creators of Intuitive Eating, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, Intuitive Eating is a “self-care eating framework, which integrates instinct, emotion, and rational thought.”

There are 10 principles of Intuitive Eating which work in 2 main ways:

  1. They help you cultivate attunement to the physical sensations in your body so you can meet both your biological and psychological needs. These are sensations that you have likely not been paying attention to in regard to eating, because you were focused on following rules external to your body.
  2. They help remove the obstacles that may be present that interfere with you cultivating this attunement. These obstacles generally come from your mind and the beliefs and thoughts you have around food, eating and your body.

I express to my clients that it’s very important to begin the process of giving up dieting by working on mindset first, rather than trying to attune to the inner signals. When you still have a diet mindset running in the back of your mind, then it’s much harder to learn to eat when hungry and stop when full because the rules are still running the show.

But What About Weight?

Great question!

I know that you are unhappy with your current body (weight). That’s why you’ve been on and off multiple diets over your lifetime. But if you continue to pursue intentional weight loss, then you are continuing to diet. It’s not possible to learn to reject the diet mentality while also trying to lose weight.

Will you lose weight? The honest answer is, I don’t know. Only your body knows what it will do when you stop restricting and allow your body to land where it is genetically pre-determined to land.

Are you able to put the desire to change your body on the side for a little while? To acknowledge that the desire for weight loss is there, but you won’t actively pursue it?

If you are able to do that, then you are ready for the Intuitive Eating journey. If you are not ready to put weight loss on the sideline, then you’re not ready to begin your Intuitive Eating journey.

And that is okay! It may take you some time to come around to it. And when you do, please know that I am here for you.

To get a taste of what it’s like to break free of diets, pop your name and email in the boxes below to a 3 day experience like no other!

 

 

Limit Food Waste While Respecting Your Fullness

Wasting food is a hot topic in my house. While neither my husband nor myself like to waste food, I would sooner throw out leftovers or food that is “turning” than my husband would. For him, it’s about valuing the dollar. For me, it’s about respecting my body.

There are two types of food waste that I’d like to address. First, food that would be left on your plate after you’ve identified comfortable fullness. And second, food that is sitting around too long and is going bad, i.e. those bananas on your counter that are starting to get brown.

Food Left on Your Plate

If you’ve been a chronic dieter, it’s possible that you don’t know what comfortable fullness feels like. You can tell what full, overfull, and stuffed feels like, but comfortable fullness may be a foreign concept to you. This is likely because when you are dieting, you finish your plate because you are entitled to eat what you measured out. And, you’re a good rule follower, and if the diet told you what and how much to eat at dinner, you will finish the plate regardless of what your belly might say. More on this topic here.

As you move along your intuitive eating journey, you will begin to attune to hunger and fullness. And eventually, your belly will give you a signal that you are comfortably full and can stop eating now. If it happens to be that there is no food left on the plate, so be it. But if there is still food on your plate, then continuing to eat past the point of comfortable fullness will cause you to become overfull.

This is when you must decide. If you’re someone that values the dollar and doesn’t like to waste food, this can become an inner conflict. You might think that there isn’t “enough” left to save for later. But let’s take a moment to rethink this.

No matter how much is left on the plate when you’ve identified comfortable fullness, know that you don’t have to throw the food away. You can put it in a small storage container in the fridge to enjoy with your next meal or snack. I have, in the past, left over ¼ sandwich and added it to my next snack. What a treat!

Tip: If you continue to eat past comfortable fullness, the taste pleasure and satisfaction from the food diminishes. But it can be at its peak again if you save it to eat when you are hungry.

Food Spoiling

There’s nothing more aggravating than looking on the counter and seeing the bananas getting spotty, the potatoes sprouting, or the apples in the fridge turning brown. Like many others, when I food shop, I try to predict what my family will use within the next few days, however, sometimes plans go awry. Whether we decided on takeout one night or had a surprise family barbecue, some of the produce goes untouched.

As discussed earlier, I don’t want to eat the food if I am not hungry just to avoid wasting it. That is not treating my body with care and respect. But at the same time, I don’t want to throw it out. Below you will find 3 ways that I reduce food wastage while still honoring my body.

1.Freeze Your Produce 

Instead of throwing out those bananas when you notice some spots, remove the peel, cut it in chunks and freeze it to use in a smoothie later. I do the same with berries. If I see them starting to “go”, I lay them on wax paper on a tray and freeze them. Certain produce cannot be frozen; however, a good amount of vegetables and fruit can be safely stored in the freezer for weeks. Vegetables like Brussel sprouts require blanching before freezing, however it is an easy process that takes minutes and can extend shelf-life by weeks.

2.Reinvent Your Meal

If you notice that the potatoes have started to soften, change your dinner game plan. Instead of making baked potatoes, which require more firm potatoes, make mashed potatoes! While it may not have been your intended use of the potatoes, you’re still able to eat them enjoyably without them going to waste. And guess what? You can freeze mashed potatoes too! I’ve done it many times.

And for those recovering chronic dieters, can I get a YUM for mashed potatoes. These were probably on your “do not eat” list for a while. Now that you have given up dieting, you can enjoy them without guilt.

Brown bananas? Make banana muffins!

Mushy peaches and plums? Make fruit compote!

You get the idea!

3.Proper Storage

While some fruits and vegetables can be left on the counter, most last longer in the refrigerator. The colder temperature in the refrigerator can slow down many of the enzymes in ripening, extending produce shelf-life. Research the best ways to store the produce you love to make sure you are enjoying them at their best.

There are so many ways that you can limit your food waste without compromising your intuitive eating journey. Let me know some of your tips below.