intuitive eating Archives - Page 17 of 32 - Diet Free Radiant Me | Intuitive Eating | Emotional Eating

Tag Archive for: intuitive eating

I’m Eating Sensibly and Not Losing Weight, Now What?

Every Wednesday is Intuitive Eating Wednesday! This is when I answer your questions and around intuitive eating and emotional eating.

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

“What is the best approach to eating sensibly and lose weight when you are menopausal and on anti-depressant medication?”

Claudia goes on to say that she exercises regularly, eats sensibly and has “moments of weakness with sweets, but nothing alarming”. She states she wants to be healthier and is xxx pounds above her “desired” weight.

So, at quick glance, if you are a woman in menopause, you might be asking the same question. Or, if you are approaching menopause in a few years, you might be thinking “I want to know this information!”.

I’m going to break down Claudia’s question for you.

Best Approach to Eating Sensibly and Lose Weight

Claudia already says she eats sensibly. True, everybody has a different definition of “sensibly” but since this question came in via email, let’s assume it means she is eating a well-balanced meal plan.

But Claudia seems to be tying eating sensibly to losing weight. Herein is where the problem lies.

A well-balanced meal plan means eating from all the food groups throughout the day, balancing each meal and snack with a several food groups versus just eating a salad and chicken, not skipping meals, choosing wholesome foods most of the time, incorporating fun foods for pleasure, and enjoying your meals without guilt.

The problem arises If you are choosing to eat sensibly as in the above description, but it is tied to a desired outcome of weight loss. You have decided to make changes in your eating pattern to lose weight. But when habits and behaviors are changed with weight loss in mind, what happens when you don’t lose weight, or when you don’t lose weight as quickly as you’d like? Oftentimes, you are off to find a new way of eating. Those new nutrition habits get thrown out as you are saying “this isn’t working”! When in fact, you are reaping other health benefits from making these nutrition changes and eating sensibly.

Exercising Regularly

Bravo to Claudia! You are exercising on a regular basis. But let me ask you. Are you exercising with the intended outcome of weight loss? There are many benefits to exercise but all too often, those who are focused on weight loss will think in terms of calories burned and pounds lost.

What if you separated exercise from calories burned? What benefits would you experience?

Regular exercise is important for everyone, men and women of all ages. As a woman in menopause, perhaps you want to consider the type of exercise you are doing. How does it feel in your body? If you are doing the same hard-core exercises that you were doing in your 30s and 40s, maybe you want to explore a more gentle type of exercise.

Moments of Weakness with Sweets

Some people are born with a natural desire for sweets. There is nothing wrong with that. However, diet culture has you believing that sweets are “bad” and you are “weak” if you eat sweets.

I have to say – this is just not true!

Whenever you will yourself to NOT eat something you truly like, how long can that last? A few days, a week, maybe a month? And then when you do “give in”, it feels like weakness.

Shifting the way you think about sweets and how they are present in your life will make a big difference for you.

Remember, restriction is the number one predictor of overeating and bingeing.

Desire to be Healthier = Lose xxx Pounds Above Desired Weight

Claudia is not alone in thinking that to be healthier, she needs to lose weight. Heck, even doctors prescribe weight loss to their patients, repeatedly.

Why do you think doctors continue to tell the same patients at each visit “diet and lose weight?”

Because clearly diets don’t work for long-term weight loss and their patients are still struggling. So you’d think that doctors would finally get it and stop pushing weight loss as the method to “get healthier”.

Research shows that the pursuit of weight loss is not effective in the long term to manage most diseases. Study after study shows that the vast majority of people who lose weight on a diet regain that weight plus more! This weight cycling is worse on your health, than stabilizing at a higher weight.

What if you stopped pursuing weight loss and focusing on a number to improve your health?

What if instead you focused on habits and behavior changes, such as improved nutrition and increased activity (without tying it to calories or a weight on a scale!)

What if instead you focused on self-care, such as stress management and sleep hygiene?

I’ll tell you what will happen…..

You will see improvement in your health via your labs, your energy level, your stamina, your mind and so much more, without worrying about your weight. And if through this process your body happens to release a few pounds, then so be it.

Your body knows what weight and size it’s genetically predetermined to be. That number might be different that the vision (your “desired weight”) you have in your mind. But that, my friends, is for another blog.

3 Powerful Approaches to Defying Diet Culture

Last week I called out the 3 biggest crimes of Diet Culture. If you didn’t read that blog yet, check it out here!

As a quick review, the 3 biggest crimes of Diet Culture are: Dishonesty, Disregard, and Destruction!

Any eating pattern that emphasizes how you look over your mental and physical well-being is detrimental. Diet Culture thrives on dichotomous thinking, also known as black-and-white thinking. Eat foods on the good list and you’ll be “thin” (good); eat foods on the bad list and you’ll be “fat” (bad). Thin = win!

In reality, no one food has the power to make you “thin” or “fat”.

I realize this might not be a popular belief among dieters or programs and people that spew dieting information. But if you think about it long and hard (and re-read that sentence multiple times), I believe you’ll come to this realization – eventually.

So what can you do NOW to help you come to this realization before you jump back onto the diet bandwagon?

3 Powerful Approaches to Defying Diet Culture

Let’s address 3 very powerful impactful approaches that can help you defy diet culture.

Non-Diet Living and Intuitive Eating

Non-diet living and intuitive eating used to be less traveled paths, but more people are choosing these with great success. Dieting is physically and mentally exhausting and people are simply tired – tired of dieting and tired of hating themselves, 2 things which go hand-in-hand.

Intuitive eating, along with the Health at Every Size movement, are striving to shift the focus away from body weight and demonizing food. They are displacing the current definition of healthy, broadening it to encompass more than simply a number on the scale. This shifts the perspective inward, focusing on listening to what your body is telling you, and on habits and behaviors for improved long-term health, versus how many pounds you’ve lost. More and more research is finding practices such as intuitive eating helping people with disordered eating habits become more in tune with their bodies again.

I recognize that the idea of no longer dieting is a scary thought if you’ve been dieting for many years. Logically you realize that the diets have never given you long term weight loss. In fact, you weigh more now than when you started dieting all those years ago. Research will back that up. Diets lead to weight gain, end of story.

So what would help you on this journey? This takes us to approach #2…

Self-Compassion

Diet Culture thrives on you hating yourself. If that sounds harsh, it’s because it is. Dieting is about willpower and when you don’t have enough willpower, you start beating yourself up, telling yourself you’ll always fail.

Try something different. Try using self-compassion.

You’ll find that treating yourself with kindness is much more satisfying because it’s impossible to hate yourself into positive change. You’d never dream of speaking to your friend the way you speak to yourself, yet Diet Culture has taught you to do just that. After decades of believing it, be gentle with yourself in your escape from that mentality. It took time to build and it will take a long time to break down. It’s important to remember there is no perfection in the healing process. It will most certainly be challenging but you are most certainly worth that effort.

Sounds logical, right? When asked if you’d speak to your friend who is struggling with her food that way you speak to yourself, of course the answer is no, you would not.

Part of this journey is body acceptance. And a very important part of accepting your body where it is now is the 3^rd approach to defying Diet Culture.

Weight Inclusivity

Accepting and respecting the shapes and sizes ALL human beings come in defies the perfectionist ideology of Diet Culture. There is no one height/shape/weight everyone should be. Our culture needs to move further toward a mindset where judgement is no longer passed on people who don’t meet Diet Culture’s moving target of “perfection.”

More and more research is supporting the idea that being a certain weight or looking a certain way does not equate to being “healthy” or “not healthy.” Intuitive eating and Health at Every Size are teaching internal acceptance as well as acceptance of others, appreciating the diversity. They temper the internal diet wars being waged.

The principles of intuitive eating remind you how different everyone is and helps you to accept and respect your body where it is right now. It is key to stop passing judgement on others which will make it easier to stop passing judgement on yourself.

So how do you mesh these 3 approaches together, so you can defy Diet Culture?

Start with having a heart-to-heart sit down with yourself. Ask yourself the tough questions:

Has all the dieting I’ve done helped me achieve weight loss that I can maintain for a lifetime? No.
Do I bash my body every day, maybe even multiple times per day? Yes.
Do I wish food could just be a “non-issue” and meal time can be relaxed? Yes.
Am I afraid to try this new approach of intuitive eating? Yes.
Do I need support and a partner to walk the journey with me? Yes.

Great job! Contact me here and let’s defy Diet Culture together!

The 3 Biggest Crimes of Diet Culture

How many times have you overheard a heated conversation about food or the latest diet?

When I meet up with friends or family, the talk often ends up routed into diet gossip. This makes sense considering I’m a Registered Dietitian, yet my intuitive eating clients share similar stories.

I’ve spent the last 7 years of my career helping clients bury the diet mentality for good, yet I’m reminded how much work there is to do when people ask me questions like, “What do you think about that new diet that [insert celebrity name here] just published a book about?”

The worst part of Diet Culture (or more aptly, Diet Cult) is the potential harm to everyone involved. Diet culture is a system of beliefs that focuses on and values weight, shape and size over health, and it equate thinness with higher status and worthiness. The negative effects it has on both adults and children are criminal. Many times, these so called “healthy” diets are considered disordered eating or even full-blown eating disorders.

I am here today to call out the CRIMES OF DIET CULTURE.

Crime #1: Dishonesty

“Don’t eat carbs. They make you fat.”

“Dairy will keep you from losing weight.”

“Avoid gluten! It’s bad, bad, bad.”

When you look back at the history of food, Diet Culture has spent a great deal of time and money into criminalizing one food or another. This food is “good” for your health and weight, this food is “bad”.

When saturated fat was the offender, we saw an influx of fat-free, chemically altered foods. When sugar became the offender, we were bombarded with products containing sugar alcohols and messages to avoid sugar at all costs. 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.

Diet Culture never has your best interest in mind and it’s betting on the fact you don’t realize it. So they call their foods “healthier” than the others and has you thinking it’s better for you.

Crime #2: Disregard

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!

Here’s the thing – people are literally dying to be thin and Diet Culture completely disregards this. Your body does so many amazing things for you every day, but Diet Culture has you focusing on how many calories you’re eating, pounds you lost or dress size you wear.

There is peace in accepting your body as it is at this very moment. But Diet Culture doesn’t want you to have this peace. So it influences you to keep striving for that “perfect” body, comparing yourself to celebrities, models and reality stars.

I remind my clients that what they see online and in magazines are not real. They are photoshopped images and even more, they are just the highlight reels of peoples’ lives. What they decide to post and publish are just snippets of their reality, particularly the snippets they want everyone to see. They edit out nearly a lifetime of moments, yet you use those carefully selected highlights as a comparison to your own life. This is exactly what Diet Culture wants – to keep you running back for more.

Crime #3: Destruction

Diet Culture’s most egregious crime is telling you that you’re not good enough. It doesn’t know you at all, but it’s making you question yourself, often calling attention to things you never considered flaws.

“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 self-esteem.

It’s Time to Defy 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. Why is the thin couch potato more culturally acceptable than the larger triathlete?

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 while young girls are skipping meals, ultimately missing out on nutrients critical to their growth and maturation. What’s even worse is that these diet messages often come from parents who suffer from disordered eating patterns over decades of being at war with their own bodies. It’s a cycle of abuse you are paying dearly for with both your wallets and your well-being.

Tune in next week for Intuitive Eating Wednesday when I share how to blaze a path to defying Diet Culture.

In the meantime, what other crimes of Diet Culture can you identify? Comment below.

I Feel Broken

This is something that I hear so often from my clients. They feel broken. Not whole. They realize that something needs to change in their life, but it’s hard. They often know what it is, they just don’t know how to do it.

There are many different areas of one’s life where they may feel broken. In their relationship with their spouse, their children, or maybe even themselves. Much of it has to do with the fact that they’ve been beaten down over the years. I don’t mean physically beaten, I mean emotionally beaten.

Now, there may be multiple reasons why. But I will focus on one in particular. And that is the relationship they have with food and their body. The struggle with not being happy with who they are because their self-worth is tied up in a number on a scale and in a dress size.

Let’s turn this conversation to you.

Do you feel broken?

Are you fed up with struggling with food and your body? Have you tried to change your body because society has told you to? Have you been told that thin people are respected more, thin people get the jobs, and to be other than thin means you are not enough?

Not pretty enough.

Not smart enough.

Not skinny enough.

Just not enough.

And you’ve tried and tried to diet, to restrict your foods in order to “get skinny” so you will be enough.

But it hasn’t worked.

So when my clients come to me and say they are broken, they just don’t know where to turn any longer. They know they don’t want to diet any more. They know that they don’t want to be ashamed of their bodies any longer. But how?

The answer lies in these 3 ways.

Commit to giving up dieting forever and begin your intuitive eating journey. Now, this is easier said than done, I know that. But let’s start with the understanding that diets don’t work, and they never will. Stop pursuing weight loss in an effort to change your body. Instead, start by looking at what new habits and behaviors you can add to your life, versus what you need to take away. These new habits and behaviors will help improve your health and will be sustainable since they are not tied to a scale.

Seek support. This is nothing to be embarrassed about. Ask for help. Why should you do this alone? There are professionals out there trained to help you. I have seen and spoken to many women who continue to struggle because they just don’t want to invest in themselves. And I say “why not”? You are worth it. If I told you that you will continue to spin your wheels and struggle year after year until you seek out support, would you still resist? If you do, then consider why you want to stay in the struggle. Because those who want to improve their lives and not be broken any longer, seek support.

Protect yourself. Speak out against those who pressure you to be thin, to lose weight, who tell you that you are not enough, and who seek to knock you down at every turn. You don’t need these people in your life. It’s a risk, yes, especially if they are family. But it’s time to put them in their place and let them know you will not be emotionally abused any longer.

Okay, I’m a little hot under the collar as I write this blog. But I feel sad for those of you who are broken, and I want to help you become whole again.

Apply for your Break Free of Dieting Session today. Take the leap of faith you need to take.

How to Advocate for Yourself at the Doctor’s Office

My client walked into my office. We’ll call him Bob. I had not seen Bob for 2 weeks because I was on vacation. Bob has recently decided to quit dieting. Yes, after 50+ years of trying every diet known to man AND undergoing bariatric surgery (of which he gained back most of the weight he lost) he decided he needed to finally address the true underlying reasons why he was overeating.

Emotions.

Namely sadness and loneliness with a dose of frustration thrown in there.

But Bob knew that no matter how much his doctor told him he had to lose weight because he has diabetes and other chronic conditions, the diets just did not work. He was able to follow the diet for a short time and then an emotion would hit, and he would numb out with food. The diet was over.

Is this a familiar story to you?

On this night when I saw Bob in my office he had only been working with me on intuitive eating for about 2 months. But he was doing a great job at rejecting the diet mentality. So I was surprised that this night when he walked in, I can tell by the way he was speaking that he was slipping back into diet mentality.

I asked him what was going on. He shared with me that he was having terrible back pain and all the doctors he’d been to over the last 2 weeks while I was on vacation told him to lose weight to heal the back pain. He was seriously considering starting a diet, although I pointed out to him that he was already restricting (a.k.a dieting) which I could tell based on what he was sharing with me.

He looked me straight in the eye and he said “you’re right. I didn’t realize my actions were actually dieting”. Yet, he was still so shook up by the doctors prescribing weight loss to him AGAIN, that he was desperate.

Bob is a physical therapist and I asked him how he would treat one of his patients who complained of back pain. He laid out a physical therapy protocol. I then asked him “Bob, wouldn’t this protocol be appropriate for you?” And he said yes.

And then he realized what’s really going on!

He was embarrassed by his doctors, ashamed that he had gained weight again, that he was forced to get on the scale and that his doctor’s only treatment prescription was weight loss when there were a slew of other treatment options they could have suggested.

Unfortunately, this is not uncommon.

One of the biggest fears I hear from clients about going to a doctor’s appointment is hearing the words:

“Get on the scale”!

And then the chills, the heart racing, the stomach sinking…and the words that follow:

“Lose weight and your blood pressure and blood sugar will come down”.

Well, dear doctor, you’ve said this a thousand times before and where has it gotten your patient?

I’ll tell you! A lifetime pass on the diet roller coaster ride.

What to Tell Your Doctor

It’s time to take a stand. To let your doctor know that you will not be fat shamed.
That you will no longer take “lose weight” as a solution to your current health issue.
That you will not let your health evaluation be determined by a number on the scale.
That you want to know what treatment options he gives his patients who are in smaller bodies – that’s the treatment options you want to discuss.

Listen, I realize it’s not always easy to advocate for yourself. I get that. But you know by now that weight loss and dieting is not the answer you are looking for.

I want to help you get off this vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting so you can learn to focus on habits and behaviors, not weight loss.

Please join me for a free webinar:

“THE 5 STEPS TO BREAK FREE OF DIETING”

So You Can Make Peace with Food, Enjoy Guilt-Free Eating and Get The Body You Love

======> Reserve your virtual seat here

You will discover…

The 3 essential ingredients you need to never diet again.
Why diet and food restriction are not the answer to long lasting weight loss.
The #1 reason why changing what you eat is keeping you spinning your wheels.
My 5 step system to finally achieve the body you love (that you can start using right away).

You will walk away from this training with the knowledge you need to get started so you never have to be afraid of the doctor’s scale again!

Click here to register now!

Bob called me the next day. He called to thank me for caring about his health and wellbeing. And for guiding him on how to advocate for himself at the doctor’s office. He reported to me that his back pain was hardly noticeable that morning. That’s the power of CARING SUPPORT!

Hope to see you on the Webinar. Join us here!

I Eat the Yolk. Do You?

I love eggs. I enjoy them scrambled, in an omelet, hard boiled or in egg salad. But for years before I became an intuitive eater, I would only eat the egg whites. So, my scrambled eggs would be scrambled egg whites, my omelet would be an egg white omelet, I’d eat the hard-boiled egg whites and chuck the yolk, and my egg salad was really egg white salad.

Yes, I had demonized the egg yolk – sorry yolk, didn’t mean to do it – I was influenced by diet culture telling me that the yolk was “bad”, it was full of fat and cholesterol, and I needed to throw it out!

I even look back on the meal plans I created for my clients who wanted to lose weight (I don’t do this anymore, thank goodness!), and if I was recommending eggs for breakfast, it would always be egg whites.

How unfair.

Now, as an intuitive eater I no longer fear the yolk. I eat the entire egg. And, as a RDN and certified intuitive eating counselor, I encourage my clients to eat the entire egg as well (but only if you like eggs of course!)

Your food fear is real. You have been told countless times by diet culture that there are “good” foods and “bad” foods and that you are “good” or “bad” based on what you eat. Your entire day is considered “a good day” or “a bad day” based on what you’ve eaten. This list of foods includes what you’d consider snack foods such as chips, cookies and ice cream. But it also includes foods that you would consider meal food such as eggs, dark meat chicken, and white potato.

I think about the dozens of eggs I threw out because I substituted egg whites for whole eggs in all my recipes. Granted, sometimes egg whites perform better in recipes if you want a fluffiness to the final product. But more times than not, that’s not the reason I was throwing out the yolks.

Just this past Sunday I made a veggie omelet for my husband for lunch. I automatically used 2 whole eggs. And then I made one for myself. What a great feeling cracking the egg and using the entire egg!

The final product is so much more satisfying than eating just egg whites. It has what we call staying power!

Aside from the satisfaction factor (which happens to be one of the intuitive eating principles), whole eggs are a nutrition powerhouse!

Yes, we can talk about nutrition on your intuitive eating journey. Remember, one of my 3 essential ingredients is Nutrition Education (learn more here).

Egg Power

Eggs is a source of high-quality protein. It is rich in vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids.

Some of the nutrients found in eggs include:

Vitamin B12 – helps with red blood cell formation, manufacturing DNA and nerve cells, and carbohydrate metabolism
Folate – helps with red blood cell formation and DNA metabolism
Pantothenic acid – aids carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism
Zinc – helps in wound healing
Iron – essential for oxygen transport
Vitamin E – promotes antioxidant activity and cell membrane integrity
Chromium – aids in growth and glucose tolerance

There’s More…

Eggs are also rich in choline – important for brain function, the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin – necessary for eye health, and vitamin D – a key factor in bone health.

As an intuitive eater, you are in charge of your food choices. And you will find that you make food choices that honor your health and your taste buds. What a beautiful balance that is!

Need help navigating this balance? Just reach out to me HERE!

Handling Life’s Twists and Turns

Life happens. Twists and turns appear out of nowhere and even as an intuitive eater, you may lose focus for a bit.

The truth is that no matter where you are on your intuitive eating journey, stressful life events are bound to occur. It’s okay to feel stressed or anxious, but you don’t want to lose yourself to life’s surprises. I encourage you to stay focused on your big WHY to keep you pushing through the obstacles.

When you feel life weighing you down, you may feel inclined to turn to food… But food is meant to nourish you, not be used as your crutch. There are other things you can do to help you handle life’s twists and turns that don’t involve food. I’m here today to help you find out what those other things are (and they are often different for everyone).

I will turn the question around on you for a moment. “What can you do to keep moving forward when life throws you curveballs?”

Before you answer that, I want you to really focus on WHY you are on the intuitive eating journey. As you feel like you are falling apart, ask yourself the reason you embarked on your intuitive eating journey. Was it to feel better in your body? Was it to be a good role model for your kids? Was it to stop the diet madness?

Chances are your “why” still resonates somewhere within you, even on your darkest days. Let this motivate you. 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 tough times discourage you from working to better your health and yourself, use mindfulness to clear your head space and find peace within yourself.

Here are 3 things you can do to help you handle life’s twists and turns:

1. Prioritize your own needs. Make every day the best it can be by prioritizing your own needs. That may mean making a list of goals, tasks to tackle, or fresh produce to pick up from the grocery store. Each step in the right direction is an important one.

You can make the most of each day by scheduling time for your own needs 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.

2. Take time to unwind each day. This can be movement you enjoy, 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 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. By letting go of pent up emotions, you will be clearing your mind and allowing more room for mindfulness.

You may be thinking “but I don’t have TIME to relax.” Trust me, I know the feeling. With busy schedules, sometimes it may feel like there is just no time to unwind. Even just taking 15 minutes to vent to a friend or to decompress your thoughts onto paper will benefit your day and your overall goals.

3. Write down your motivation. Instead of making excuses as to why you cannot do this or that, put that energy towards focusing on the reasons you embarked on your intuitive eating journey. Write down your motivation and the messages your body is sending you. You will gain clarity and feel motivated to continue along your journey.

The truth is, life comes at you fast. You cannot go back in time but you can make the most of your present and future. Honing in on your intuitive eating and mindfulness will help you navigate through life’s obstacles and keep you on track to being the best version of yourself.

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.

Special invitation for you: Come join an amazing group of women in the Intuitive Eating Mastery Circle. They are navigating life’s twists and turns while successfully moving forward on their intuitive eating journey. Get all the info and join us here!

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).

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.

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.

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!”

Say NO the Next Time Your Doctor Prescribes Weight Loss

It’s sad for me to write this but many doctors deepen the diet mentality of those struggling with their body and their relationship with food. I don’t think they do this to purposely harm, as they have taken an oath to “do no harm”. They just don’t know better.

But it’s time to wake them up!

Theresa is a chronic dieter, she has been on every diet imaginable to lose weight and mold her body into what society deems acceptable for her. She did lose weight on most of those diets, heck she’s a great rule follower, always was as a kid. But her weight loss was very short-lived. She always gained that weight back plus more.

I know you can relate.

But this time is different. She has PCOS and insulin resistance and her doctor is telling her to lose weight. He referred her to a nutritionist who will help manage her insulin by putting her on a special diet!

Theresa’s inner alarm went off! NO!

You see, Theresa has been working on changing her relationship with food through learning intuitive eating. And while she is still at the beginning of her journey, she is totally convinced that diets don’t work. Moreover, it’s the diet and diet mentality that have caused her to enter what was the never-ending restrict-binge cycle. So, the fact that her doctor recommended yet another diet for her really pissed her off.

“Doesn’t he realize that his “prescription” of weight loss has not and will never be the answer to managing my PCOS and insulin resistance”, she asked me?

Well one would think, but I guess not (sigh!)

I encouraged Theresa to go back to her doctor and ask him what treatment he would prescribe for a woman in a smaller body that has PCOS. That’s the treatment she wants.

When you go for your annual physical, the nurse tells you to “get on the scale”. You have every right to decline. Do not feel pressured to be weighed, even if the nurse says “I won’t tell you”. Nope! As one of my clients recently told her doctor: “I don’t want my health evaluated based in part by the number on a scale.” Bravo!

Betty went to her doctor for her annual checkup. All was well, her labs and blood pressure all great!

Doctor said “You should lose a few pounds”.

Betty: “why”?

Doctor: “You gained a few pounds this year”.

Betty: ” Well, last year I was restricting and had an eating disorder”.

Doctor: “Oh”.

End of visit.

Stand up for yourself when you go to the doctor. If you have health issues, insist he/she address them from a weight-neutral perspective.

What has been your experience with weight discussions at your doctor? Please share below!

Intuitive Eating: I Don’t Know Where to Start

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 Sandy, and it is:

“Bonnie, I have decided not to start a diet in the New Year! And while I’m excited about this, I just don’t know where to begin my intuitive eating journey. I have the original Intuitive Eating book, which I’ve read twice, but I just feel overwhelmed. Can you help me?”

Yes, of course, thank you Sandy for writing in to me.

As I started to put together some steps for Sandy, I thought about you.

Are you in the same place as Sandy?

Have you historically started a new diet or “healthy way of life” (a.k.a. diet) every January 1^st?

Have you decided that this year it will be different….no more dieting, but you don’t know where to start your intuitive eating journey?

First, let me congratulate you for making the commitment to yourself to not diet in 2018! That is huge! I realize that it might have been a difficult decision with all the diet ads and marketing of the ‘right’ way to eat and exercise to shrink or sculpt your body (into something that is not sustainable anyway)!

Second, I feel your overwhelm. There is so much information on the internet about how “to do” intuitive eating, but often these suggestions contradict one another.

Most of my clients that finally reach out to me for help have already dabbled in intuitive eating. That dabbling can look like a few things:

They’ve read the book Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elsye Resch.
They’ve taken an online course in intuitive eating.
They’ve been receiving support in the myriad of free private Facebook groups that offer intuitive eating support (by the way, if you’re not a member of my group yet, click here).

So the question is, with all this ‘dabbling’, why are you still feeling overwhelmed and questioning “where do I start”?

I believe the answer lies in the following reasons:

You’ve read the intuitive eating book, but are having trouble implementing the principles because while reading the book helps you become familiar with intuitive eating, for most people (I’m not saying all people, but most people), they need more structure and coaching to help implement the principles into their daily life. Is this you too?

You’ve taken an online course but admittedly didn’t show up for yourself by taking appropriate action. Or, the course lacked the private coaching that you really need to take this to the next level. Or, the course was marketed as an intuitive eating course, but in fact once you got into it, it was really dieting.

You’re a member of a number of free Facebook groups but you aren’t receiving individualized coaching by certified intuitive eating counselors in these settings, nor should they be giving you coaching for free. This would be a disservice to you and to their clients who have invested in themselves. The free groups can only take you so far.

So what’s your next ‘first’ step?

Grab your freebie here: 5 Steps to a Body You Love Without Dieting. This will give you the step-by-step approach I take my clients through.

Then, if you want me to walk you through this step-by-step journey, contact me here.