Intuitive eating is an approach to food that strongly emphasizes listening to your body. At its core, intuitive eating involves letting your innate hunger and satiety cues guide your food choices rather than following a restrictive diet regimen. By tuning in to what your body craves and paying attention to how you feel after consuming different foods, you can learn what nutrients your body needs to stay healthy, energetic, and well-nourished.
For many people, intuitive eating is a powerful tool for getting back in touch with their inner wisdom about food and fostering healthier physical or emotional habits. Whether you're looking for sustained weight loss or wish to achieve overall better health, intuitive eating may be just the right approach for you!
If you're interested in learning how to eat intuitively, here are five steps to get you started:
Get rid of "Good" and "bad" Food Labels
One of the first steps to eating intuitively is ditching the good/bad dichotomy when it comes to food. This black-and-white thinking sets you up for a restrictive, all-or-nothing mindset that can be difficult to break free from.
Instead of labeling certain foods as "good" or "bad," try to think of them in terms of how they make you feel. For example, if you know that eating sugary foods makes you feel sluggish and lethargic, you might want to limit them in favor of foods that make you feel more energized and alert.
Honor your hunger cues
Another important step in intuitive eating is learning to listen to your hunger cues. This means letting go of the idea that there is a "right" time to eat or that you should only eat when you're hungry.
If you're hungry, feed yourself! Whether it's a small balanced snack to hold you to your next meal or a second breakfast after your first one didn't cut it, listen to what your body is asking for and provide it with nutrients.
Make peace with food
To learn how to eat intuitively, making peace with food is essential. This means letting yourself eat whatever you want without guilt or shame. Let me say that again...it means letting yourself eat whatever you want without guilt or shame.
It might sound counterintuitive, but often when we try to restrict ourselves, we end up overeating or bingeing on the same foods we were trying to avoid in the first place. When we make peace with food, we take away its power and allow ourselves to eat without stress or anxiety.
Respect your fullness cues
In addition to honoring your hunger cues, it's also important to respect your fullness cues. This means listening to your body when it's telling you it's had enough to eat. It can be helpful to think of fullness on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being starved and 10 being stuffed. Aiming for a 5 or 6 will help ensure you're neither too full nor too hungry.
Try this trick the next time you eat, watch for your body to take a big breath. Almost like a sigh. For me, that's my bodies indicator it's time to put the fork down. I'm certainly not perfect at this (let's be real if there is one more bite of a brownie I'm probably going to scarf it down!) but at meals where I respect those fullness cues my body always feels so much better.
All foods fit
Last but not least, remember that "all foods fit" into an intuitive eating approach. There are no forbidden foods when it comes to intuitive eating—it's all about listening to your body and giving it what it wants/needs at the moment. If you're craving something specific, go ahead and have it.
I say this all the time...the body doesn't make a mistake! Get in the habit of listening to what that craving is trying to tell you. Dehydration is actually one of the number one causes of cravings. Before you give into a craving, drink water and wait 15 minutes. If it's still there then indulge!
GET EVEN HEALTHIER!
These 5 tips will allow you to foster a healthy relationship with food in a way that puts you in the driver's seat, feeling empowered and confident in how to fuel your body well.
Would you like someone to 'walk' by your side as you ditch diet culture and explore intuitive eating? Curious to know what the heck health coaching is or how it can help you make healthy changes that actually stick? Let's chat! Apply for a free Breakthrough Session with me today—or pass this offer on to someone you care about!
ABOUT ME
I received my training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where I learned about more than 100 dietary theories and studied a variety of practical lifestyle strategies. I’ve made it my personal mission to help busy mamas take the overwhelm out of making healthy choices and fall in love with their bodies again. It's time to make health simple!
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