Tag Archive for: hunger and fullness cues

I’ve Tried Intuitive Eating, and It Didn’t Work

Something I hear quite often is “Bonnie, I’ve tried Intuitive Eating before and it didn’t work for me.”

I’m wondering if this is something you’ve said before or think now. You gave it a go but didn’t end up finding peace with food and your body.

You realize that you were born an Intuitive Eater, and you wonder why you still can’t find food freedom. You feel stuck.

I bet that you love the concept of Intuitive Eating and even wonder why you haven’t heard about it before you did. It’s the best kept secret! But you just wish that it would “work” for you!

If you’ve tried Intuitive Eating and you are thinking that it just didn’t work, maybe you are facing some common roadblocks.

3 Common Roadblocks

There are a few common reasons why your past experience with Intuitive Eating just didn’t work.

  1. You were focused on weight loss and caught up in diet culture.
  2. You are not giving yourself full unconditional permission to eat the foods you enjoy.
  3. You aren’t truly focusing on Intuitive Eating.

Stuck on Weight Loss and Caught Up in Diet Culture

I get it. You’ve been focused on the scale for 5, 10, 20, maybe even 40 or more years. It’s not your fault. It’s the message that surrounds us all day, every day.

The struggle with weight loss and constantly being obsessed with the scale is a difficult one to shake. Diet culture tells you that to be worthy, you need to be “skinny”.

Here’s some questions to ponder:

  • What brought me to Intuitive Eating in the first place?
  • What do I fear about weight gain?
  • What are my fears of weight gain based on?
  • What does weight loss/gain mean to me?
  • If others did not make comments or care about my weight, how would I feel about my body?

Bonus Tip: Set a daily reminder and ask yourself “is my mind on weight today and how is it impacting my food choices.”

Afraid to Give Unconditional Permission to Eat

Before you began your Intuitive Eating journey, more than likely you’ve had foods that you considered “forbidden”.  You might still be feeling anxious around certain foods and having a hard time letting go of food labels and eating these foods.

Again, it’s understandable, so be gentle with yourself through the process.

Here’s some questions to ponder: 

  • Are you allowing yourself to eat the foods you want?
  • Who are you with when you are eating? Are you afraid of judgement?
  • Are you eating the food, but have guilt?

You’re Not Focused on Intuitive Eating

You began this journey to ultimately become an Intuitive Eater however, you’re just not focused on the journey. It all sounds great, the idea of having peace with food and total food freedom. But you aren’t really doing the work.

Truth is, it’s not an easy journey. I will never tell a client that it’s easy to recover from dieting and diet culture. But the work you put in now will pay off later.

Bonus tip: Put the same effort into healing from dieting that you’ve put into your dieting years.

Which roadblock are you bumping into? Let me know in the comments below.

Resource: Here’s a resource for you to begin your Intuitive Eating journey with a step-by-step approach.

 

3 Ways to Create A Positive Eating Environment at Work

With our perpetually busy schedules, it can be impossible to carve out some time to enjoy a nice meal. Often mealtime is sandwiched between meetings or may even be during a meeting. It used to be that when I was at work, I ate at my desk and returned emails and phone calls in between bites of my lunch. This ultimately worked against me.

 

I found that I wasn’t taking the time to appreciate what I was eating. My meal became a background activity while I did more work. I didn’t take the time to listen to what my body’s hunger and fullness cues were, I was just mindlessly eating what was in front of me.

 

When I realized that this is what I was doing, I knew that I needed to make a change. Every day I carved out 20-30 minutes in my schedule for lunch. During this time, I walked away from the desk and sat at my kitchen table to eat lunch so I can focus on the food I was eating. Only then was I able to appreciate my meal and listen to my body’s fullness cues.

 

Creating a positive eating environment does not have to be a burden. When work is busy, taking an extra twenty minutes to eat can seem impossible, but it doesn’t have to be. Those 20 minutes should be a time to refocus yourself and can be a much-needed break from work. You can pack lunch ahead of time, as not to waste time waiting for your food to be prepared. Then, take the time you need to eat your meal and decompress.

 

Here are 3 ways you can create a positive eating environment

 

  1. Step Away from the Desk 

Most people are now working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether this is the case for you, or you are still going into the office, do your best to step away from the desk to eat. If not, it’s all too easy to just turn to the computer monitor and keep working through your lunch break. Find a nice bench outside or a table in the kitchen and have a sit-down meal. Create an eating space separate from work.

 

  1. Turn off All Distractions 

 When you’re away from your desk, treat it as a true break from all work distractions. Don’t check email or text. Do your best to turn off those distractions and focus entirely on the meal in front of you. Any work issues will surely be there when you return to your desk.

 

  1. Don’t Talk Shop

 If you decide to eat out with a coworker, commit to not talking about work. You have left your workspace and deserve a nice refrain from all the stress involved there. Refocus the conversation to something positive.

 

I realize these tips are probably things you’ve heard before. But the question is…are you consistently doing them?

It’s often NOT a lack of knowledge that trips people up. It’s LACK OF CONSISTENT BEHAVIOR.

So, which tip above will you commit to this week? Let me know in the comments below.

 

You Mean I Don’t Have to Ever Diet Again?

“Why haven’t I heard about intuitive eating before today?”

 

This is a common question that I get from clients who sit opposite me in my office (or on Skype) when I share with them how they don’t ever have to restrict or deprive themselves of their favorite food again.

 

They don’t quite get it at first. They come to see me because they don’t feel well in their bodies, they are carrying around excess weight, and they figure they need another diet to help them achieve the weight loss that they’ve been chasing after for years. They expect me to give them a list of foods to eat and those to avoid and a “meal plan” for them to follow.

 

When I tell them that I won’t do that, they look at me in shock. But then when I explain to them that they have it within them to make food decisions for themselves, they perk up and want to hear more. By the end of the session, they are SO RELIEVED that I am NOT giving them a meal plan it’s palpable.

 

It’s not surprising to me that many women still haven’t heard about intuitive eating. This is because they are surrounded by diet culture every where they turn. At home, at work, in school, in temple, in church, and in the local park. Add to that magazines, television shows, movies, radio, social media, and the list goes on and on. It’s hard to escape the idea that you need to be thin to be worthy, and if you are in a larger body, then you must be lazy, unhealthy, and undisciplined.

 

This has led you to continuously strive to lose weight through dieting and “be better”.

 

But dieting is exhausting. All the counting, tracking, weighing and measuring, it gets to be too much at some point. Yet that’s what you know and that’s what you continue to do.

 

There is another way! It’s called Intuitive Eating.

 

Intuitive eating is eating based on your physiological need to eat, not eating based on situations you find yourself in or emotions you may be feeling. Intuitive eating is learning to eat based on your hunger cues and to stop eating based on your fullness cues.

 

You are born with this ability yet its buried deep within you from all your years of dieting.

 

The good news is that you can reclaim being an intuitive eater and recapture the pleasures of eating. It will take time but it IS possible and quite honestly, is the only way to end your battle with food and your body.

 

I invite you to reach out to me to get started on your intuitive eating journey. We can work together privately, or you can join my online program where you work through the process with group support.

 

Just click HERE to send me a message that you are ready to end dieting for good. We’ll figure out together which is the best option for you.