We must eat to live, plain and simple. Intuitive eating helps us distinguish eating with our emotions from eating to relieve physiological hunger. Learning to love and appreciate the temple that we live in allows us to choose foods that will make our bodies feel good! Here are 7 ways you can eat intuitively:
- Say no to fad diets. Completely take the term “fad diet” out of your vocabulary! Outrageous eating plans lead to discouragement because most of the time their strict guidelines are impossible to follow. Just say no.
- Stay in tune with your hunger. Use a scale from 1-10 to assess your physiological need for food, 1 being “I am completely satisfied” to 10 being “I am completely depleted of energy, I must eat something”.
- Make peace with food. There is no such thing as a “bad” food. Creating forbidden foods for yourself will only lead to feelings of deprivation and uncontrollable cravings. This could result in giving into the cravings, bingeing, and feeling guilty. You resort to forbidding those foods once again. Such a viscous cycle.
- Feel your fullness. Pause throughout the meal to determine your level of satisfaction. Deactivate your membership to the Clean Plate Club!
- Accept and respect your body. We are only given one body to live in for the rest of our lives, why not love it?! Obsessing over becoming some shape or figure we are not can take away from other enjoyable aspects of life.
- Feel your exercise. Turning exercise into a chore can diminish motivation to stick with it. Shift your focus from how many calories burned during exercise to how your body feels during activity. Get up and go for a brisk walk in the morning, appreciating how energized you are throughout the day as a result!
- Honor your health. Choose that make you feel good. Realize that eating one candy bar will not make you gain 10 pounds. A healthy diet is a balanced one; no one is perfect! Everything in moderation, even moderation!
For more information, visit www.intuitiveeating.org. Get inspried! Love your body and treat it well!
