Health | Your Quick Start Guide to Intuitive Eating
By Renata Trebing
Have you heard of Intuitive Eating? This buzz-worthy phrase has been all over social media and the internet. But what is Intuitive Eating? Why can it be so powerful for your health? And how can you start your own intuitive eating journey today?
What is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive Eating is a way of choosing food that honors what your body needs. It is all about tuning into your body to help you determine the foods it really needs, vs the foods that you might typically eat due to habits, fad dieting, social media influencers or the food just being around!
Why is Intuitive Eating so powerful?
Intuitive eating is an incredibly empowering method of nourishing your body. This is because you start understanding the foods that help your body feel its best, and learn to trust your internal guidance aka your intuition.
When you do this, Intuitive eating is not going to lead to deprivation and starvation, which often happens with most other fad dieting plans. Intuitive eating allows you to make a mindful choice for every meal - instead of having to adhere to overly strict diets. You also don’t have to count calories or macros.
Most women tend to respond well to intuitive eating because very restrictive diets do not account for the female menstrual cycle, which typically causes fluctuations in hunger levels and hormones as the month progresses.
Ultimately, intuitive eating enables you to take back your power from all the latest dieting trends and instead, choose to fuel your body with the foods that you know give you lots of energy and vitality for life!
How can you start practicing Intuitive Eating?
Here is a simple 3 step plan for starting your Intuitive Eating journey:
- Determine where you feel your intuition: some people feel their intuition speaking to them through a gut response, a heart flutter or even that quiet, calm voice in your head that nudges you to take the leap. Where does your intuition speak to you? Connect with that area of the body and trust it.
- Before you eat something, tune into the intuitive area of the body and ask yourself how you feel about this food: If your intuition says “this food will be great for our body!”, what does that feel like? Do you feel a surge of positivity, energy, lightness etc? If your intuition says “uhhh this food is not going to agree with us”, what does that feel like? Do you feel a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, a lowering of your energy or a sense of foreboding? Start getting used to feeling your intuition speak to you and guide your food choices. Of course, there may be times when you want to eat something even when your intuition is guiding you not to, and that is where step 3) comes in.
- Start a food log journal: Start writing down how you feel after you eat something in a simple food log journal. This could be a pen and paper, or on the notes app of your phone. For the next 1-3 weeks, start writing down what you eat/drink and how it makes you feel. After that time, go back through your journal to see if you notice any trends. For instance, did your intuition tell you not to eat something, but you ate it anyway, and now you feel gross? Or did your intuition tell you to eat something and afterwards you had boundless energy? When we can start to notice some trends about the foods that energize our body, we start understanding the physical body and the foods that work best for it. And, when primarily you eat those foods, you will start seeing your energy lift, your mood brighten, your digestion improve and so much more.
Intuitive eating can be a game changer for you if you’ve tried and failed multiple diets due to their restrictive or deprivatory nature. When we listen to our bodies and what our intuition is telling us, we begin forming our own sustainable way of eating that can help us get to the next level of our wellness journey!
Curious about intuitive eating and how to fit it into your lifestyle? Contact Renata at renata@nourishwithrenata.com to set up a complimentary nutrition consultation!
Check out Renata’s brand new #1 New Release cookbook, Nourish Your Body: A 30 Day Healthy and Delicious Meal Plan for more tasty recipes to help you in your Intuitive eating journey:
Renata Trebing
@nourish_with_renata on IG