Tag Archive for: intuitive eating principles

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!

 

 

Enjoying Passover and Easter as an Intuitive Eater

This blog is sponsored by my book: Passover the Healthy Way: Light, Tasty and Easy Recipes Your Whole Family Will Enjoy, available on Amazon.

With Passover starting this evening and Easter arriving on Sunday, you might be wondering how you can continue your intuitive eating practice during the holidays (especially if you are new to this). I know it can be overwhelming. There’s eight days of Passover meals, a hearty Easter dinner and lots of sweets around the house.

A good place to start is to remember that you were born an intuitive eater. While it may have been buried under years of dieting, the work you’ve done thus far has brought that ability closer to the surface.

Below is a review of the Intuitive Eating principles and some tips to enjoy the holidays as an intuitive eater.

Principle #1: Reject the Diet Mentality

The first step to enjoying Passover or Easter as an intuitive eater is reject the diet mentality!

What is the “diet mentality”?

It’s when you have a list of food rules to guide your eating; you label foods as “good” and “bad, “legal” and “illegal”, “can have” and “can’t have”. It’s when you elevate certain foods above the others, and then when you “fall off track”, promise yourself to start again tomorrow.

As you are preparing for the holiday this year, let’s work on throwing away all of the food rules around the holiday foods because you don’t need them. The only things you need are your body, heart, and the food in front of you.

With practice you will begin to see food as food, rather than with the labels “good” or “bad”

Passover and Easter are enjoyable times of celebration and being with family, not a time of restriction. It’s about enjoying yummy foods and recipes handed down from generation to generation.

Listen to what your body is telling you and go from there.

What ONE step will you take to reject the diet mentality during Passover and Easter? Comment below!

Principle #2: Honor Your Hunger

When you sit down to eat during Passover and Easter, breathe for a moment to take stock.

Are you feeling hungry? How hungry are you? What does your body need? How will you nourish yourself?

These are some of many questions you can ask yourself to learn about your body and what foods will make you feel like your brightest self.

This is where you can really begin your journey to restore trust in the relationship between your body and food and begin to reacquaint yourself with the various signals of hunger.

Remember to not let yourself get too hungry! When primal hunger hits, it’s difficult to stop eating from a place of comfortable fullness (more on fullness later in this blog).

In what ways can you “honor your hunger” this Passover or Easter?

Principle #3: Make Peace with Food

Give yourself the unconditional permission to eat the food you love. When you restrict food, it leads to deprivation which leads to overeating and feelings of guilt when you indulge against your “food rules.”

When all food on the table is “emotionally equal”, you’ll be able to eat what you want to satisfy your hunger and to stop when you’re comfortably full. When you elevate certain foods, they are highly charged, and you battle with it.

So this Passover or Easter, call a truce in the war on food and enjoy!

What food(s) do you feel you need to make peace with? Comment below.

Principle #4: Challenge the Food Police

Don’t let diet culture control tell you how to eat this Passover and Easter…or ever for that matter!

Food isn’t “good” or “bad.” Food is food!

The purpose of eating is to nourish your body and enjoy the experience.

I recognize that the food police rules are screaming in your head “don’t eat this, don’t eat that”, “you can only have one of those” etc.

You can be louder than the food police. Challenge those voices that play in your head and bring up your ally voices, those kind, nurturing voice that sounds like your grandma, “it’s going to be okay, you’ve got this”.

Reach out to me if you need help challenging the food police as we head into the holiday!

Principle #5: Respect Your Fullness

Your body was created with built-in signals that work to tell you when you are hungry and when you are satisfied enough to stop eating. Whether you realize it or not, you were born an intuitive eater!

However, when you’ve been dieting for a while, you stop listening to those signals and they no longer guide you to begin eating or to stop eating. Most likely you finish eating when the plate is empty (“clean the plate club” anyone). Learning to arrive at the table in a gentle hungry state will enable to you stay tuned in to know when you’re comfortably full.

There are a lot of meals over the 8 days of Passover. Let’s try to pause mid-meal and pay attention to whether you are getting satiated. This is not a commitment to no longer eating the meal, it’s just a check in point to stay in conscious eating mode, versus autopilot mode.

Let me know how this works out for you! Comment below!

Principle #6: Discover the Satisfaction Factor

Do you enjoy your meals? Do you even know what foods you really like and want to eat? I’ve heard from many clients who’ve been dieting for years (and even decades) that they just don’t know what they like anymore.

Well, it’s time to discover your true food preferences. What tastes do you like? Textures? Temperature of food?

Explore these qualities of food over the next few weeks so you can reacquaint yourself with what gives you the most pleasure.

During Passover and Easter this year, really be with your food. Take a moment before the meal to breathe, put your phone away, and focus on the food in front of you. Try to eat slowly, putting your fork down in between bites so you can truly savor what is in your mouth. It will make the eating experience truly satisfying.

What’s your favorite Passover or Easter food? Comment below!

Principle #7: Cope with Your Emotions without Food

The holidays can stir up a lot of different emotions. From happiness to sadness, from excitement to anxiety; it can be a confusing time.

You may feel pressured to turn to food to deal with the stress of hosting or attending Passover Seder or Easter dinner with certain family members.

One of the intuitive eating principles is to cope with emotions without turning to food…rather use kindness! This means experiencing what you are feeling and accepting those feelings without judgement.

And, doing things for yourself in that moment that serves you best!

What ways can you be kind to yourself during moments of difficult emotions? Comment below!

Principle #8: Respect Your Body

It can be hard to love your body in today’s world. Everywhere you look you see images of skinny women and buff men.

It’s important to keep in mind that what you see on social media is usually not real – these are photoshopped images. People come in all different shapes and sizes; all of them are beautiful.

You may struggle with loving your body, I get it! Instead, work to reach a place where you can respect your body and accept yourself with neutrality and kindness.

I’m currently working with women in my The Body Image Healing Program™. If you’re interested in getting support on your body image healing journey, fill out this interest form, and I’ll be in touch.

Principle #9: Exercise – Feel the Difference

Our bodies were made to move!

Movement is important for a happy and healthy body that’s strong.

You don’t need to hit the gym 5 times a week or exercise until it hurts. Instead, consider what feels gentle to your body and what brings you joy!

That could be taking a walk around the block or doing some yoga moves in your living room.

Feel the difference when you’re moving. How does it impact your stress levels, your sleeping patterns, and your overall feeling of empowerment? Comment below!

Principle #10: Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition

Now that we’ve discussed the other nine principles of intuitive eating, it’s time to address the tenth: Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition

Eating well is not about perfection! “In matters of taste, consider nutrition, and in matters of nutrition, consider taste”.

That pretty much sums it up. Choose foods that you enjoy and taste great, and that also make you feel good. And be flexible! Your body has all the wisdom, now it’s time to trust it!

Best wishes for a happy and healthy Passover and Easter.

5 Tips to Eat Slower

In today’s fast paced society, it’s only natural that we rush around trying to get everything done before the day is over. You rush to work, school, and everywhere else you must go. You probably even rush through lunch to get back to your busy day at work.

 

While moving fast may be a necessity for your work and overall lifestyle, eating fast is not the best for your health and body and can quickly lead to bypassing your comfortable fullness signals.

 

Think back to your last meal… did you inhale it or take the time to enjoy every bite?   How long do you think it took you to finish your meal? If it’s less than 20 minutes, then keep reading.

 

If you feel like you’re the only person who does this, you’re not! Most people devour their meals in about 5 -7 minutes flat. They put a forkful of food in their mouths and, before they even swallow, the next forkful is ready to go. Do you find yourself doing this too?

 

Downside of Eating Fast

When you eat fast, it becomes difficult to savor your meals.  You’re not able to truly listen to your body and engage in mindful eating. Slowing down as you eat will allow you to really taste every bite and get the most satisfaction out of the meal as possible.

 

Eating quickly also prevents you from eating until you are comfortably satisfied because you don’t pay attention to your inner fullness signals. Instead, you’ll eat until the food is gone.

 

It takes your brain 20 minutes to realize that your stomach is full, so if you clean your plate in record time, you likely miss that fullness cue, leading you to reach for more food. By the time the fullness signals kicks in, you are now uncomfortably full, having eaten more than your body physically needed. You are likely also experiencing bloat, heartburn and other uncomfortable GI symptoms (in addition to the emotional side effects of guilt and shame).

 

5 Tips to Help You Slow Down Your Eating:

1. Allocate a certain amount of time to sit down and eat your meal. Allow your body to guide when you begin your meal, but when you do sit down to your meal, make sure you have enough time to sit, eat slowly and savor. This doesn’t only apply to dinner, it applies to breakfast and lunch too!

 

2. Put your fork and knife down between bites. You might be thinking “who does this”? Unfortunately, not too many people, unless you are among the growing number of people who are learning to eat mindfully. This means completely putting the fork down on your plate until you’re done chewing what’s in your mouth. Then pick up the fork and take your next bite. This allows you to focus on the deliciousness of the food in your mouth rather than focusing on the next bite.

 

3. Eat without distractions (meaning no T.V. or phone). We all know how difficult this one can be. I suggest making your kitchen/dining room an electronic-free zone! If your phone is in another room, then you are not tempted to look at it when you hear that notification. Make sure the kids know too that mealtime is not tech time.

 

4. Use your non-dominant hand to hold the fork. This is a simple way to help you slow down. Since your non-dominant hand is usually weaker, you’ll have to pick up smaller forkfuls and really concentrate to keep food from spilling over.

 

5. Eat with someone else. Ask a family member or friend to help you reach your goal of slowing down at meals! You can engage in meaningful conversations between bites and, before you know it, you’ll realize you are engaging in many of the tips stated above.

 

Challenge yourself

Set the timer on your phone and see how long it normally takes you to finish a meal. It might be 5 minutes and you might think that stretching it out to 20 is impossible. It’s not! Continue to use the tips above every time you sit to eat to help lengthen your meal minute-by-minute. Before long, you will be eating slower and using your inner fullness signals to guide you when to stop. And, you’ll enjoy your meal a whole lot better.

 

If you’d like to explore how I can help you on your intuitive eating journey, just reach out to me at www.TalkWithBonnie.com .