Part 2: HOW to Eat Intuitively

I have been putting this one off for a little while now because intuitive eating is not a step-by-step "program" or plan, it's just a way you live and that is hard to explain to anyone (without sounding totally crazy).

In a nutshell. YOU are the best person and the only person who knows best about what to eat, when to eat, how much and what to avoid. Yes, YOU know this whether you think you do or not. If you don't believe this then you do not trust your body and your God given instincts, which is totally normal and common for most people and it's how we end up in this place to begin with.  Our natural instincts are disrupted and over ruled and disregarded and we no longer know how to eat or how to listen to our bodies. We don't trust ourselves and our body to not go crazy with food.

The basics: 

-Get rid of all of your ideas about diets and plans and programs. Be done with them. The longer you listen to a plan or a diet or diet expert about what to eat- the further and further away you are getting from being able to listen to your body about what to eat. Before you eat anything, honestly ask yourself what it is that you truly feel like eating. When you pay attention to your body's cues you may notice that your body will naturally crave foods that are nourishing and healthy. Your body is not going to tell you that it truly wants to eat 10 oreo cookies. Not because oreos are bad, but because your body knows how it will feel after you've eaten that amount of a sugary processed food.

-Eat at the early signs of hunger- do not let yourself get truly hungry. That is when you are most likely to over eat, binge, eat until you are stuffed etc. I always carry around a snack in my purse to avoid getting to that point of hunger when out and about.

-Food is not your enemy. Even sweets. Or those savory snacks. Stop labeling foods into categories of "can" and "cannot" eat or "should" and "should not" have. If you TRULY want  something, you will be able to eat it and be satisfied and move on. Those oreos I mentioned above? No, you will not want 10, but you may want one or two if you are feeling the need for something sweet, that is totally ok! Food is not good or bad, and you are not good or bad by what you eat.

-Listen to your body when you are eating. You will know when to stop eating. You will know when you have had enough and need to stop.

-Pay attention to your feelings. Pinpoint those times that you are feeling emotional and instead of eating, intentionally choose to do something else. Choose to be in control. Take a walk. Pray. Clean or organize something. Call a friend. Water your plants. Journal. With everything, sometimes we just simply have to say no and resist the urge. Food is not the answer to emotions.

-Exercise. FEEL good. Not militant exercise or doing it out of obligation. Exercise because of how it makes you feel. When you feel better about yourself and in general, this will spill over into all areas of your life.

A good place to begin is to wake up in the morning and before planning out breakfast or mindlessly eating- ask yourself what your body truly wants to eat that morning, and eat just that. Don't eat because you feel that you have to, if you are not hungry, don't eat. At the same time, don't let your hunger get too far and you get to the point where you are out of control with your eating because you are so hungry. Do not eat to the point of being stuffed- listen to when your body tells you that it's comfortable. Choose foods that you know are nourishing and healthy but also taste good.

You will find that after a while this becomes easier and easier, your body will tell you what it needs and if you are not at your natural healthy weight already, your body will begin to shed pounds naturally to get you there.

I know that this is completely foreign and crazy and opposite of everything you've probably ever done or thought to do when wanting to lose weight, and some of you may not be able to mentally let go of the dieting mindset right away which is why I have given a calorie cap to begin with, and remember that it will take time for your body to shift from "dieting" and restriction to being fed what it needs and wants. It's not an overnight change but eventually you can get out of the mental strain that dieting has on you! Part 3 to this "series" is going to be about just that: WHY do this and NOT what I/WE have been doing???

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Part 1: So, what IS intuitive eating?

Over the past week I have been asking questions and taking polls, trying to get a feel for where the ladies in my group are at mentally with weight loss and body image. I have mentioned intuitive eating a handful of times and so now I'm going to begin a blog post series about "what" it is, "why" it's important, and "how" to become an intuitive eater.  Starting with, what IS it exactly?

God designed us, every single one of us, with an instinct to feed ourselves when we need fed and how much we need fed, and when given choices even what we need fed. Think of a brand new baby. They are born knowing exactly when to eat and how much to eat as needed for their growth. But our culture has disrupted that instinct and it starts at birth as well, when the nurses tell you to feed your baby every three hours. If they are sleeping, wake them up. I remember with my first baby the nurse would even take off my daughters clothing so that she would respond to the coldness- to wake up and eat.  Don't let them fall asleep eating, make sure that they are eating __ amount of ounces or feeding for ___ amount of minutes on eat side. Disrupting from birth their natural instincts to eat intuitively- when and how much their body needs. With my last few babies- I learned to tell the nurses what they wanted to hear and let my babies eat when they were ready, they never starved and they definitely will let you know the second they want to eat. I understand that there are situations where a baby may need to gain weight quickly for health reasons or premature issues or an upcoming surgery etc, and of that I am not referring to. Just an average, healthy baby.

The disruption only continues through our lives. Start solids at ___ months old, even if she shows no interest in them yet. As we get older our portions are given to us and our diets micromanaged by someone else. If we wake up at age 5 and tell our mom we are not hungry, she makes us eat anyway. Disruption. If your child is not hungry for breakfast, they will not starve to death. This pattern continues and worsens with age when the cultures standard of thinness and health begins to influence us and all of sudden, we don't know how to eat anymore. We can't listen to our God given instincts, we've never in our lives been able to. This person eats this way and look how amazing they look, this person raves about this diet or this program. It all begins with that disruption and we are here. Overweight and looking for answers, trying to figure out HOW to eat, HOW to lose weight and keep it off, trying every diet and program available only to gain the weight back.

Intuitive eating is so well described here :

"It means eating until full and satisfied; without the need to envision ‘fullness scales’, ‘hunger charts’ or chewing each mouthful in a slow, meditative trance; stopping at 80% full (whatever that is) and re-evaluating in 20 minutes. It means aiming for complete and utter satisfaction: a stomach that has no desire to eat more. It means relying on your body to gauge fullness signals well, without second-guessing or panicking about getting it ‘right’ down to the exact mouthful: knowing that if you eat too much at one meal, you will be less hungry at the next – and vice versa: that your body will sort it out."

So intuitive eating is getting back to the place where we listen to our bodies cues and trust our bodies instincts to eat when we need to eat, how much and what. Your body wants to be healthy, and if you pay attention to it- you will naturally eat when you are hungry, you will naturally eat foods that are nourishing, you will naturally stop eating when your body is "full" (and that doesn't mean when you feel full/stuffed). 

So how does this work with losing weight? First, you have to throw away any preconceived ideas about how much you should weigh based on any charts from any organization. Throw them away.  Your body will settle you into your natural healthy weight and it is most likely not what the online charts tell you you should weigh, because they continue to lower the standards of the BMI charts. 

In the book "Health at Every Size", the author writes about her time as a PhD candidate at the time the BMI standards were lowered.  Her mentor was on the NIH Obesity Task Force. The author expressed her surprise and concern about the standards being lowered (when I say standards being lowered it means that if the chart currently says you should weigh 145lbs, they are now lowering that weight and saying that now you should be smaller-etc). There was significant evidence in support of raising the standards, not lowering them. She presented her review to her mentor, which was laughed at. In the end, her mentor told her "we were pressured to make the standards conform to those already accepted by the World Health Organization." The decision to lower the standards of the BMI charts and tell you that you need to be even smaller, was made for political reasons. Not because it was supported by science or for the betterment of health.  Stop looking at charts and online weight calculators.  Also in her book she traces back further with the WHO BMI standards and it becomes even more disturbing. I cannot recommend this book enough. 

Second,  you have to accept that what your natural body weight is may not align with what YOU want it to be.  Just because YOU want to be 130 lbs doesn't mean that is what YOUR body should weigh (and is also the reason why if 130 is not your natural body weight, you will have to fight forever to maintain that weight). Often, our expectations are not realistic for our bodies OR genetics. 

If you are eating intuitively, eating when your body tells you and only eating as much as your body tells you, your body will stabilize and maintain at it's natural healthy weight. If you are 160 pounds and begin to intuitively eat, and your natural healthy weight is 150, your body will naturally shed those pounds because you are giving it exactly what it needs to do that. 

There is so much to explore in this subject and I am excited to be exploring it all alongside my current group! In part II I am going to explore HOW to start this way of life. 

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