listen to your body Archives - Diet Free Radiant Me | Intuitive Eating | Emotional Eating

4 Ways to Refocus Yourself on the Intuitive Eating Journey

If there is anything that you have learned in the past two years, it’s that things will happen in your life that you cannot control. As the saying goes, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Even on the intuitive eating journey, you will find at times that things do not go as planned and you lose focus.

When life becomes stressful you may be tempted to fall back to old habits and divert from your intuitive eating journey. However, it is important to take a step back and refocus. Shift the focus back onto your health and don’t let the stressors in your life take control.

There are ways in which you can control the stress in your life without turning to comfort foods, as tempting as it may be. Find ways to express your anxiety that benefit your well-being rather than hurt it. From yoga to journaling to talking to a professional, there are options,

However, finding other outlets for your stress and utilizing them when you need to is a task easier said than done. When you are feeling overwhelmed, there are some steps you can take to guide you back onto your intuitive eating journey.

Here are the four ways you can refocus yourself to stay on the intuitive eating journey:

1. Ask Yourself Why

Remember back to when you first decided to start this journey. What was the reason you decided to embark on your intuitive eating journey, the “why”? Did you do it to feel better about yourself and to be kinder to your body? Or maybe you did it to be healthy for your family.

Chances are your “why” still resonates somewhere within you, even on your darkest days. Use it as the extra fuel to keep going on this path. Some days are easier than others but if you keep your “why” in focus, you can navigate the bumps along the way. Instead of letting the bad times discourage you from working to better your health and yourself, use mindfulness to clear your headspace and find peace within yourself.

2. Prioritize Your Needs

When you have a family, or even if you’re single, putting your needs first can be challenging. It is human instinct to want to help others, however, you need to make yourself a priority. You can make the most of each day by scheduling time for your priorities into your daily routine. There is a time for work, a time for taking care of the needs of others, and a time to care for yourself. This includes time to sit down for meals and to be engaged, mindful, and do nothing but focus on your food.

3. Find Ways to Unwind

Life is hectic, even on the slowest of days, there is something to stress or worry about. Find an activity that you can use to unwind each day. It can be exercise, taking a bath, catching the newest episode of your favorite TV show, or talking with a friend. Remember that you do not have to navigate life alone. At times, life is too much to balance on your own so reach out to friends, coworkers, family, and loved ones for support when you need it.

4. Listen to Your Body

When you are unwinding and allowing yourself to have some much-needed rest, take a few extra moments to check in with your body. Write down your motivation and the messages your body is sending you. You will gain clarity and feel motivated to trek on this journey.

Always remember, when you are feeling low, there is nowhere to go but up! If you keep your focus and mindfulness, you will find inner peace on even your worst days.

A Happy and Mindful Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is hands down one of my favorite holidays. I love having the whole family over and a table full of good food. It is the perfect way to kick off the holiday season!

But I do know it is easy to get lost in the chaos. Don’t let yourself feel out of control this year. Start your holiday season off on the right foot! Make this the year that you conquer your dieting habits and turn to intuitive and mindful eating for a body you love.

Mindful Eating

Engaging in mindful eating can be the perfect way to help you enjoy Thanksgiving this year. Here are four tips to help you stay mindful.

Stay fully conscious. It’s easy to lose yourself in all the food, conversation and football. If you maintain an awareness of your food choices, amount of food you are serving yourself and eating, you can avoid overindulging. This can be difficult in a social situation, but if you set your intentions out in the morning, you can do it!

Serve small portions. With a holiday that only comes once a year, you can easily serve yourself large portions of your favorite dishes. You may even fall prey to “my eyes are bigger than my stomach”. Start with small portions to avoid overeating yet still satisfies your craving. If you are still hungry you could always have more.

Listen to your body. Do you belong to the “clean your plate club”? This year commit to staying present and listening to your body’s signals as you are getting satiated. Stop eating when you feel comfortable, you can always wrap up the rest of your food and take it home. If you do this, you will be able to enjoy your favorites when you get hungry again.

Pace Yourself. During the meal, pacing yourself is key. Put your fork down and spend time talking to relatives in-between bites. This allows your brain to register the food that is entering your stomach. Your body will be able to signal when you are satisfied and have eaten enough.

The holidays can be a difficult time for someone who has just started on the intuitive eating journey. Resisting the urge to overeat can be hard to overcome. But you can do it!

Recipe Modifications

While it’s great to eat your favorite traditional Thanksgiving dishes, consider modifying the recipes just a bit to better nourish your body.

Sweet Potato Casserole – Who doesn’t love sweet potatoes covered in marshmallows? But guess what… the marshmallows are not a necessity! Instead, you can top the sweet potatoes with raisins, chopped pecans and a small handful of mini marshmallows. This way you won’t miss the sweet melted topping, it is now just a lighter dish.

Mashed Potatoes – Do you normally take all skin off the potatoes and use whole milk when making mashed potatoes? Instead, leave the skin on and use low-fat milk or soy milk. I promise you it will still taste delicious, but with less fat and more nutrients.

Salt – In many traditional dishes, salt is a staple. However, it isn’t the only seasoning that can be used to add flavor. Try adding other herbs in place of salt, such as thyme or parsley.

Sour Cream – Do you serve baked potatoes topped with sour cream at your Thanksgiving dinner? Swap the sour cream for Greek yogurt and add a sprinkle of scallions for more flavor!

Still looking for more ways to have a mindful Thanksgiving? Start your day off with a long morning walk to kick-start your body. Also, don’t forget to eat breakfast! This will keep you satisfied and help you avoid heading into dinner starving.

Check out this article from BRGHealth.com for tips on how to have a safe Thanksgiving.

Do You Feed Your Emotions?

One of the things that come up often in my work with my clients is how they deal with their emotions. We all experience different emotions throughout a given day. Those emotions can be sadness, happiness, stress, anxiety, boredom or many others. It is totally normal to experience these emotions from time to time, but how you cope with them is key.

So let me ask you a question: How do you handle your emotions?

Do you look for support from someone close to you?

Do you journal how you are feeling and use one of your coping mechanisms to help you get through it?

Or, do you reach for food?

Do you find yourself reaching into the food cabinets when these emotions arise? How do you feel after you eat your “go-to” mood fixer food?

As an emotional eater you use food as a way to solve your problems, so you think. But in reality, food will not make these problems go away. They will certainly distract you for a time but once you stop eating, the problem and your feelings will still be there. You sadness, anxiety, boredom or stress, will still need to be addressed. But now, there is likely some added guilt and physical discomfort from overeating.

Does this sound like you?

If it does, know you are not alone.

Here are 4 steps you can take today to move away from emotional eating:

Acknowledge when you turn to food to comfort your emotions. Are you choosing foods to help numb your emotion? What emotions are you feeling in that moment? Take a moment to breathe and think about what you are doing. Journal what comes up for you.

Stop and listen to your body before turning to food. What are you truly feeling? If you can honestly say you are hungry, then by all means you should eat….a well-balanced power snack or meal. But if you are being true to yourself and really want to help yourself, you won’t automatically say “I’m hungry”. Instead, you will think about what you are feeling and how you can comfort yourself without turning to food.

Seek support from a loved one or counselor. Talking through your emotions instead of eating through them is an amazing feeling.

Journal things that you enjoy doing that can distract your during your emotional times. Take a walk, do a puzzle, read a book, etc. Figure out what works best for you.

Let’s dig even deeper into how to end emotional eating.

Join me on Thursday, October 13^th for a free live training called A Simple (and Delicious) Way to End Emotional Eating.

Click here to learn more and to register.

How to Love Your Body Just As It Is

If you’ve been searching for the perfect diet to get the body you’ve always dreamed of, chances are you are still searching.

The truth is, chronic dieting and yo-yo dieting will not give you a body you love.

Diets are not maintainable.

Dieting to drop the last 10, 20 or 50 pounds can only backfire. It is only a short-term solution to a problem that needs a long-term solution. Chances are, when you reach your “ideal weight” (What is considered ideal anyway? A topic for another blog), you won’t be able to stay there for long. The reason for your need to overeat or feed your emotions will still be there.

You may be asking yourself, “If diets won’t get me the body I love, what will?”

Here’s the solution: learning to love your body right now.

The way to start loving your body is to step away from diets. If all you’ve ever known is dieting, this might seem a little scary. But, when you stop dieting, you become more in tune with your body’s internal hunger cues. You are able to listen to your body and feed it when and what it wants.

Here are 3 steps you can take now to start loving your body:

Respect your body. Respecting your body does not mean accepting your body how it is now and thinking you have to stay this way the rest of your life. It means accepting your here and now body. When you respect your body, treat it with dignity and provide your body with what it needs, then you’ll make room for loving every aspect of your body and what it does for you.

Trust your body. Start listening to your body’s inner hunger cues and feed them. Your body has the ability to tell you when it’s hungry, when it’s full and what it wants to eat. When you listen to what your body wants, you’ll start to change your relationship with your body and see it differently.

Stand in front of the mirror and tell your body what you love about it, whether it’s a physical trait or something your body has done for Use this as a way to show your body the same support that it has given you over the years- I love my ears, eyelashes, smile, butt or stomach.

I love how strong my arms are.

I love the freckles across my cheeks.

I love my legs because they take me where I need to go.

I love my hips because they help me carry my child.

When you love and respect your body, something wonderful happens. You no longer obsess over it and see weight release happen without all the worry. Having the ability to do this will help you succeed on your intuitive eating journey and you might be surprised to learn what your body is capable of when you show it love!

If you’re looking for more tools and techniques to learn how to love your body, come join my Love Yourself, Love Your Body free giveaway event happening now until September 30^th. I have complied 25+ experts who are giving away programs and gifts to help you make peace with food, enjoy guilt-free eating, a life free of dieting and a body you love. Grab your free gifts here.

If you’d like help on learning to love your body again, contact me here. I can help you.

Eating as a Part of Your Life—Not Letting it Consume Your Life

When you want to get into a routine and build something into your life, one way to do it is to schedule and plan. For some, this is also true when it comes to dieting. You schedule the number of meals you will eat that day based on when the plan tells you to and you restructure your life around that plan. You are always thinking about what you are supposed to be eating next, will you be eating it “on time” and if you didn’t pack it with you, will you be able to find something comparable. You find the only thing you are thinking about is food.
I want you to remember a time, if such a period existed, where you weren’t worrying about your weight or your food. You lived your life and when you were hungry you ate, you stopped when you were full and you weren’t frantically wondering if a food fell into your plan if you wanted to have it. For many of you trying to get back to this memory, it might take you all the way back to your childhood days—and that’s OK.

When you are younger and there is less to worry about, that carefree attitude translates easier to food. Eating is just something you have to do in between all the other fun things you look forward to doing every day. Now that you are older, sometimes food is the fun part of your day, and sometimes it is something to worry about. Whatever end of the spectrum you fall on you still shouldn’t be living for or living in fear of it. Accepting food as part of your day rather than something your entire world has to stop for makes it easier to accept a healthier non-diet lifestyle rather than a diet mentality.

If you weren’t so hungry and you didn’t eat as much lunch as you normally do, or if you waited an hour later than usual to eat it, that’s OK! You are listening to your body. Maybe one day you had a very intense work-out and your body told you to eat a little more at lunch time than you’re used to—listen to it! Pardon the pun but go with your gut and listen to what it says rather than restricting it to a pre-determined schedule that might not fit into your day. Eating is a necessary part of life, but it doesn’t have to be your life.

Your Turn to Take Action: Try and focus on the things in life you enjoy that are not related to food this week. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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