Intuitive Eating Part 2
So if you’ve been following my blog posts recently, you’ll know that I’ve been covering the topic of Intuitive Eating. This is a series of blogs where I’ve already covered an Introduction to Intuitive Eating, Getting started with Intuitive Eating-Part 1 and this is Part 2. If you haven’t read the first two then I suggest you go back and read them before carrying on here :)
To make this easy I’ll be carrying on in a step by step guide. The 3 steps featured in today’s blog include:
1-Knowing your body’s limitations 2-Listening to your fullness signals 3-Stop the punishment & mislabelling
Knowing your body’s limitations Our bodies are all built differently. Some people are small & petite, some people are tall & skinny, some people are tall & wide, and some people are short & stumpy. Unfortunately a lot of this comes down to genetics which are completely out of our control.
So this is to say that if you are 5ft 1and are a pear shape you are never going to reach the body goal of that girl in the gym you admire that is 5ft 10 with narrow hips. It’s important to align your expectations with a physically achievable goal. No amount of food deprivation or training in the gym is going to change your bone structure or distribution of fat deposits.
Work with the natural disposition of your body and strive to the best version of YOU that you can be. The only person you should ever be comparing yourself to is the best person you were yesterday. So whenever you find yourself checking out other men/women and pining to be like those photo-shopped images in the magazines, take a step back and remind yourself that striving to be the best version of you that you can be is the most attractive YOU you can be! You are unique and original. Rock it and own it!
Listening to your fullness signal
This is a tough one for all of us. We have temptation everywhere we turn these days and often we eat mindlessly out of boredom, emotion or habit.
Time to tune back into the body and think before you bite. As discussed before-your brain signals to tell us when we are hungry and need to be fed. It also tells us when our tummies are full and it’s time to stop, if we listen!
If you eat too quickly or mindlessly i.e. in front of the television, at work or in front of your computer then there is a chance you’ll miss the full signal. It takes approx 20-30 minutes for the brain to register the food you have eaten so the key here is to SLOW DOWN! This is also going to massively improve your digestion. Really take the time to slow right down, chew your food thoroughly, smell it, really look at it and savour all the different flavours and textures of what you are eating. This will also give you a lot more pleasure, satisfaction and satiety which at the end of the day is what food is all about.
Making time to eat is also key. No matter how busy you are, setting aside 15-20 minutes to switch off and just focus on eating mindfully is going to serve you so much better and will likely make you more productive for the rest of the day. If this really isn’t achievable then you should be questioning your work/life schedule and adjust accordingly. Your health is more important than work any day!
Stop the punishment & mislabelling
Nowadays there is too much mislabelling surrounding food. It’s all black and white and seen as good or bad. Or mislabelling yourself and calling yourself bad because of how much or whatever you’ve eaten that day! Just because you eat a slice of cake does not make you a bad person! Re-read that sentence again and realise how ridiculous it is! The same as somebody who eats salad all the time isn’t necessarily a good person!!
It’s a slow process of learning to trust your body knowing that it knows exactly what you need. And also being grateful that you have access to and the ability to give your body whatever it needs. There are plenty of starving people out there that would kill for your position.
The body has a way of balancing itself. Some days you might feel like you cannot eat enough and feel like you are eating every minute of the day. This may be the case but the body will balance itself out if you trust and listen and you’ll have days where maybe you eat very little as a result and not even notice. The body knows how to maintain its equilibrium. Let it. There should be no guilt associated with fuelling your body with what it needs.
Ever had a massive craving for steak?! Make no mistake that there is something in that steak your body needs and wants and knows where to get it. Mostly likely iron and protein –so treat your body right and give it what it needs. That doesn’t mean you need to gorge on a 500g T-bone to satisfy that craving, maybe a 150g good quality steak will satisfy your needs. But then again maybe you want to gorge on that 500g T-bone and so you should, knowing that it’s not something that happens on a daily basis.
Release the guilt and trust your body.
