Tag Archive for: intuitive eating

Intuitive Eating and Diabetes Management

Can I be an Intuitive Eater and manage my diabetes without following strict dieting rules?

This is a question I hear quite often.

As a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist, I help people with diabetes manage their blood sugars after a lifetime of dieting to guide them to a place of eating for enjoyment, abundance, and health.

The short answer is YES! You can eat in an intuitive way while having diabetes. You can leave the food rules of diet culture behind.

I explain how in this short video below.

 

 

If you have type 2 diabetes and have been told to lose weight to bring your blood sugars and A1C down, please know that there is a more gentle approach than dieting.

Check out my Healthy Living with Diabetes Program, and download my free eBook: 5 Keys to Manage Diabetes without Dieting.

 

If you’d like to set up a consultation to discuss further, email me at Bonnie@BRGHealth.com

 

 

10 REAL Reasons to Exercise (ZERO are for Weight Loss)

For many, starting a new diet program usually coincides with starting a new exercise regimen. You’re not only counting calories (or points, carbs, fat, etc), but you’re focusing on all the extra calories you are burning with exercise. However, once you stop that new fad diet, you are also likely to stop the new exercise regimen.

This is because you’re probably not exercising because you enjoy it, you’re exercising because you feel like you have to. Exercise, or any movement for that matter, should not feel like a chore. You should be moving because it makes you feel good.

When you find an exercise regimen that you enjoy, is gentle on your body, and is fun, you’re more likely to stay with it.

Here are 10 reasons to move that beautiful body of yours, and none of them include weight loss:

1. Decreases Stress Levels 

I get it, after a hectic and busy day, the last thing you want to do is hop on that stationary bike. However, exercise releases endorphins which can bring down stress levels. Rather than going straight to your comfort food after a grueling day, try going for a brisk walk for an endorphin rush.

 

2. Increases Energy Levels

 Physical activity gets your heart rate elevated and brings oxygen to your muscles while releasing endorphins. In addition to stress management, endorphins can raise energy levels. Skip the afternoon power nap and go for a midday run to power you through the rest of the day.

 

3. Improved Sleep

 It is theorized that regular exercise raises your body temperature a few degrees which can have an impact on your sleep. When your body returns to its normal temperature level, drowsiness is triggered, helping you fall asleep faster.

 

4. Improved Cognitive Function

 Exercise gets the blood flowing, delivering oxygen to your brain. Exercise may also stimulate growth hormones that are responsible for creating new brain cells.

 

5. Protects Against Some Cancers

Regular physical activity reduces the risk of developing colon cancer and may also help prevent breast and lung cancers.

 

6. Reduces the Risk of Heart Disease

Aerobic exercise (exercise that gets you breathing such as running, brisk walking, swimming, or biking) strengthens the heart and blood vessels, increases HDL (“good”) cholesterol, lowers triglyceride levels, and lowers blood pressure.

 

7. Helps Lift Your Mood

Thanks to chemicals released in the brain during exercise, you may find feelings of anxiety, depression, and mental stress melt away during a workout.  These same body chemicals may even reduce pain and induce feelings of happiness and well-being.  Greatest improvements seem to come after weeks of regular exercise, so stick with it!

 

8. Bolsters Your Immune System

Regular, moderate activity benefits the immune system, which may mean fewer colds, viruses, and infections for you. Sounds like a pretty good reason to move, especially during the pandemic!

 

9. Increases Insulin Sensitivity

Exercise improves your body’s ability to use the insulin it makes, reducing insulin resistance. It may even decrease the amount of medication you need.

 

10. Helps maintain bones and joints

 

Weight-bearing exercise can help prevent osteoporosis, while a sedentary lifestyle promotes bone loss.  Physical activity is important for keeping joints and muscles strong, along with promoting flexibility and balance.

 

You see? So many amazing reasons to move your body as much as you can. Your body was made to move. And when we take the weight loss reason out of the conversation, there is so much more pleasure in it too!

 

If you’re having trouble decoupling exercise from weight loss, realize this is diet culture nagging at you!

 

Pop your name and email into the boxes below to get started on your journey towards breaking the spell of diets!!

 

Note: Speak with your physician before starting any exercise program.

 

 

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.

 

What Does it Feel Like to Have WholeBody Trust™?

What does it feel like to trust yourself around food? To sit down to the table for dinner and trust that you will stop eating when you feel comfortably satisfied? To look at a menu and know that your body is giving you a message as to what it really wants to eat in that moment? To look at the chocolate on the counter and not be afraid that you will devour it and then feel guilt and shame?

This trust is something you were born with. So where is it now? It was stolen from you from all the years of dieting. You see, when you stop listening to yourself and start listening to the rules of the diets and the diet gurus telling you what, when and how much to eat, that body trust that you were born with gets silenced.

But there is good news!

You CAN regain this trust in yourself, your body and your food! I promise you, you can!

How?

By committing to stop dieting and work through the steps to reclaim WholeBody Trust™.

WholeBody Trust™ is a philosophy I created that is build on 3 Pillars: Mind Trust™, Hunger Trust™ and Food Trust™.

Click the video below to learn more about these 3 Pillars of WholeBody Trust™.

 

How can you get started on YOUR WholeBody Trust™ journey?

Just pop your name and email into the boxes below to get started by Breaking the Spell of Diets in 3 Days (and get a taste of body trust on day 3)!

 

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.

 

5 Reasons for Your Clean the Plate Mentality

“What signals the end of your meal?”

This is a question that I ask my clients. And most of the time the answer is “when my plate is empty”.

This response is not uncommon if you’ve been a lifelong dieter. In today’s blog, I will highlight some of the reasons why you might be a member of the “Clean the Plate Club”.

5 Reasons You Might Be a Member of the Clean the Plate Club

  1. Lessons from Childhood: You might have been taught by well-meaning parents to clean your plate. Maybe you were rewarded for doing so, punished for not doing so, or were made to feel guilty if you didn’t eat everything on your plate (“the children in China are starving”). Let me emphasize the words “well-meaning parents”. I’m not putting blame on your parents, no no no. I’m just saying that in some households, this is a strict rule and you’ve learned to obey this rule for fear of punishment.

 

  1. Sense of Entitlement: You are on a diet, counting and measuring every ounce of food you are “allowed” to eat at a meal. There is no way you aren’t going to eat every last bite; you have “earned” it, you are “entitled” to it, and gosh darn, you are going to eat it. This is the mindset of a person who follows the rules of diets which tell them what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat. It’s not your fault. It’s just a nasty side effect of dieting.

 

  1. Waste-Not Mindset: You value and respect the dollar, and food, which is great. But to what extent? If you eat all that’s on your plate beyond your level of comfortable fullness, because you don’t want to waste money or food, give thought to the fact that while you might be respecting the dollar, you are not respecting your body. I’m not saying to throw the food away. You can put it away in the fridge to finish at a later time. And yes, even if it’s a small amount.

 

  1. Ingrained Habit of Finishing All Food: We all develop habits over time. And perhaps your habit is to finish the entire “portion” of food, be that a sandwich or a snack bag of peanuts, regardless if you are hungry any longer. The great thing about habits are that we were not born with them, they are learned behaviors. Which means, they can be unlearned when they don’t serve us well.

 

  1. Food Insecurity: If food was not readily available when you grew up, it might be harder for you to respect your fullness and stop eating when you are comfortable. This can take time to work through. Be gentle and compassionate with yourself.

 

Respecting your fullness takes time. Knowing that you can eat the food you are eating at any time is also very helpful to being able to end your meal when you are comfortably full (as is starting the meal at a comfortable level of hunger, and not ravenous).

Here is a video on this topic to help you even more!

After viewing, if you have any questions or need help on your Intuitive Eating Journey, please head to www.TalkWithBonnie.com to set up a complementary call with me.

Last Chance to Get Freedom to Eat Forever™

I will be retiring my Freedom to Eat Forever™ Online Intuitive Eating Program at midnight Eastern on August 31st.

This program has helped MANY women and men break free of dieting, reclaim the trust in themselves and live their lives to the fullest (with guilt-free eating)!

And now is the LAST CHANCE for you to EVER get your hands on this program.

Why am I retiring the program you might wonder?

Because it’s going through an overhaul! Several of the Intuitive Eating principles have been updated and the new program will reflect these latest changes.

In addition, I will be adding new lessons so you can go deeper to uncover the root causes of your food and body struggles. I’ve been doing this deeper work with my 1-1 clients and it’s time I brought it to my online program.

You can get the updated program for FREE when you purchase the Freedom to Eat Forever Program now, before August 31st at midnight Eastern.

If you’ve been thinking about getting started on your Intuitive Eating journey but have been sitting on the fence, I would highly recommend you take advantage of this End of Summer Special. The new program (name will be revealed in a few weeks) will be at a MUCH higher investment.

Click HERE below to get your hands on Freedom to Eat Forever™ before it’s taken off the shelves for good.

BONUS: I’ve added a WhatsApp Chat Community to the program so you can get support and your questions answered quickly! You don’t need to do this alone. There are others waiting in the chat to say hello to you!

Plus there are a ton of other bonuses. Learn more HERE!

Don’t know what WhatsApp is? It’s a free app that you download to your phone. You join our group and type away. It’s just like sending a text to your friend, except this goes to your Freedom to Eat Forever family!

YES, I want Freedom to Eat Forever!

 

 

What it Feels Like to Not Diet

Imagine getting up in the morning and your first thought is “I am really looking forward to today”, and NOT “I am going to be really good today”.

Imagine getting dressed for the day and feeling confident in the clothes you put on (the first outfit, NOT the tenth).

Imagine walking into the kitchen to prepare breakfast and knowing intuitively what you want to eat to fuel your body for the start of the day, and NOT skip breakfast so you save your calories for later.

Imagine going out with co-workers for lunch and choosing what YOU want to eat, NOT a choice based on what someone else thinks you should eat (i.e. ordering the burger because that’s what YOU want and not the salad because you’re expected to eat a salad).

Imagine coming home after a long day’s work and taking 20 minutes to unwind and care for yourself, and NOT heading to the kitchen and mindlessly look in the fridge for something to throw in your mouth.

Imagine going out to dinner with your partner and enjoying the conversation and time together, and NOT stressing about what you’re eating.

THIS is how it feels to not diet!

This is …

FREEDOM to eat WITHOUT GUILT.

FREEDOM to be you!

FREEDOM to live your life unapologetically.

FREEDOM to respect all the wonders your body does for you

…instead of trying to shrink it over and over and over again.

This is what it feels like to never diet again.

To really learn to trust yourself that you are fully capable of making food choices to honor your health and your body.

Regaining Trust

Regaining trust in your body and yourself doesn’t happen overnight. But with each positive eating and body experience, you build another thread of trust, and soon, that trust becomes a rope and ultimately a bridge to regaining WholeBody Trust™.

Now’s Your Chance

You can start the process right now by …

…making the decision to stop dieting

…making the decision to take a leap of faith

…and making the decision to say yes to my offer of investing in yourself with the Freedom to Eat Forever™ Intuitive Eating Program.

Freedom to Eat Forever™ is my signature online program that will walk you through 5 steps towards becoming an Intuitive Eater and leaving dieting behind for good.

This program is now 75% off and won’t be available EVER after August 31st because I will be releasing a brand-new Intuitive Eating Program shortly.

You might think “great, I’ll wait for the new program”. Well, of course you can, but that program will launch at a much higher investment. But it will be yours FREE when you purchase Freedom to Eat Forever™ now.

Why am I offering this? Because I want you to get started on your journey now. I don’t want you to waste another minute of your life dieting and being disappointed, again.

Support is Waiting

Freedom to Eat Forever is a self-paced online program. However, because I know how important support is, I have started a WhatsApp Support Community. This is a group of amazing people who are on the same intuitive eating journey, and its where you can get your questions answered. I, of course, am in that group every day commenting and supporting everyone as well.

Won’t you join us?

Click HERE to learn more and to start your Intuitive Eating Journey today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practicing Intuitive Eating During Challenging Times

We all experience challenges within our lifetime. These challenges often make us stronger. Yet, while we are in the midst of the challenge, we often feel the very opposite of strong.

If we stop and think for a moment what those challenges are, we see there are many. Divorce, job loss, relationship turmoil, and illness to name a few. Everyone reacts and acts differently in these situations. But what I’d like you to think about is how does it affect your Intuitive Eating practice?

If you’re just at the beginning of your Intuitive Eating journey or you’re a seasoned Intuitive Eater, when life throws us curve balls, it can impact how intuitive we are in our eating and food decisions. Suddenly it doesn’t seem so important anymore. You might be thinking:

  • “I don’t care, I’m just going to go through the drive -thru”, why does it matter?”
  • “I deserve to eat xxx, I’m so sad.”
  • “I can’t deal with paying attention to my eating during this time, I just don’t have the head space.”

I get it! Sometimes when what you are going through is so overwhelming, it’s easier to move away from being present, to distract yourself from what’s going on around you, and to just zone out.

But how do you feel afterwards? How does being distracted and not paying attention to what you need impact how you handle this curve ball? Most of the time, it makes it more difficult.

Here are 3 ways to stay true to your Intuitive Eating journey during challenging times:

1.Engage in self-care: Sit down and brainstorm how you can take the best care of yourself during this time. What is it that you need? Connection with others? Time to relax and unwind? Boundary setting? Spiritual connection? Movement? Once you tap into what you need, make a plan and block out time each day to meet those needs.

2.Practice self-compassion: Ask yourself how would you speak and/or what would you do for a friend who was experiencing this challenge. Then extend that same compassion to yourself. This is the hardest thing to do if you’ve never practiced self-compassion. Being kind and gentle with yourself has been shown to decrease anxiety and depression and enables you to be more present with yourself in a soothing way.

3.Nourish yourself consistently: Your appetite might be affected when you are under stress. For some, they turn to food to numb out and to protect themselves from feeling pain. For others, they turn away from food as the stress response decreases appetite and they just “don’t feel like eating”.

It’s most important in these situations to consider nourishment as a self-care act. Even though your hunger signals might be blunted during times of stress, you still need to eat. Remember, the Intuitive Eating principle of Honor Your Hunger is NOT A RULE. There are times when we need to eat, even in the absence of hunger. And this is one of those times.

Consider setting an alarm to ring at various internals during the day as a reminder to eat. When things settle down, you will likely see that your hunger signals have returned.

There are always going to be difficult times. Taking the best care of yourself during these times will help you get through it.

If you are experiencing something tough going on in your life now, let’s connect to see how I can support you.

Thinking of you…