Intuitive eating…have you heard of it? Essentially, it’s how we all SHOULD eat…but many, many, many of us don’t do it.
So what is intuitive eating?
The main concept of intuitive eating is listening to your body and really paying attention to the food that you’re eating. Intuitive eating is an approach that teaches you how to create a healthy relationship with your food, so that you can really become an expert of your body and listen to your bodies cues. If you eat intuitively, you can distinguish between physical hunger and emotional hunger (eating out of boredom). This can be hard for so many people, especially if you’ve been on lots of restrictive diets of if you’ve been overeating.
Many of us are busy and on the run, that we eat in the car on the way to our kid’s soccer practice or munch on chips while watching TV.
This is NOT intuitive eating. This is eating with distractions.
What’s wrong with eating with distractions? Well when you aren’t really paying attention to the food you eat, your body isn’t really going to register all of the calories you’ve eaten. You’re likely to OVEREAT and be less satisfied with your meal.
This leads to an increase in caloric intake, which leads to weight gain.
So eating with distractions is bad =)
How do you eat intuitively then?
Sit down to your meal. Turn off the TV, put away the smart phone. Sit down at the table, not snacking while standing. Take your time with your meal. It takes 20 minutes for your body to feel full, so make sure that you’re chewing your food and eating slowly.
Slow down! How often have you scarfed down your meal in 5 minutes then you feel stuffed a few minutes later? If you’re eating intuitively, this won’t happen. Taste every bite of your food and savor it! You’ll actually enjoy your food MORE, and be satisfied with LESS.
This may take some getting used to, but it’s a habit that is well worth forming. If you can eat intuitively, you won’t have to go on restrictive diets because you’ll be so in tune with what your body needs, you’ll be able to maintain your weight easily.
Tell me: Do you eat intuitively or are you going to start doing it now?
