Intuitive eating 101!
Did you know that Intuitive Eating is more than just eating "mindfully"?
It's actually a really dynamic process that includes...
- Increasing awareness of your hunger and fullness cues
- Choosing foods that are both pleasing and nourishing to your body
- Addressing when you're emotionally eating
- Thinking about exercise as wellness, not an opportunity to get "smaller"
- Ditching the diet mentality
All of this is in an effort to help us eat "normally," without restrictions or diets!
(I personally love the concept of Intuitive Eating because it's an evidence-based model for eating developed by two registered dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Reach. And you know I'm all about following the science!)
If you want to start intuitively eating, here’s a few things you can do to get started…
1. Reject the diet mentality!
Dieting and restrictive eating can lead to binging, weight gain, and a stronger sense of shame and guilt.
2. Honor your hunger!
Listen to your body’s hunger cues! If your stomach is growling, you’ve waited too long to eat… (Learn more about there HERE!)
3. Make peace with food!
Over time, you can learn that there is no such thing as “good” and “bad” food… Only what food makes you feel good about you!
4. Challenge the food police!
Prevent yourself from setting “food rules” & restrictions (Read about my beef with Noom here!)
5. Feel your fullness!
It’s simple: Stop eating when you sense you’re full!
6. Discover the satisfaction factor!
If you want to ENJOY the food you’re eating, you want to heal your relationship with it! How can you make foods more satisfying?
7. Cope with your emotions without using food!
First, identify the feeling you’re using food to cope with and seek help to handle that emotion differently! (This takes time.)
8. Respect your body!
Learning how to respect your body takes time… And if this is something you really struggle with, I suggest working with a health coach. At Be About Being Better we help our clients with this every day! Check them out! This could be you too.
9. Exercise for the right reasons!
Movement is so nurturing for your body, and for your soul! It’s important to exercise to feel strong and relieve stress. (But over-exercising sent me to the hospital… Check out my story here!)
10. Honor your health with gentle nutrition!
It’s important that you learn how to eat nutritiously, but without restrictions. Forcing yourself to just “eat clean” all the time isn’t your answer. Click here to see why!
And If you want living healthily to be easy and intuitive, so you can keep up all of your to-do's, follow me on Instagram (@abbie.stasior) or take our quiz to see which one of our health coaching programs is right for you!
