Intuitive Eating verus Emotional Eating
Instinctive or intuitive eating is the natural ability to know how much to eat, when to eat and what type of foods to eat. It is the natural way of eating. Learning to listen to your body’s true calling is the ultimate weight loss plan.
People who naturally follow instinctive eating or intuitive eating just seem to know when, what and how much food they need. When their body needs fuel they get hungry, triggering an urge to eat. They simply stop eating when their hunger is satisfied. Most of them really like to eat and seem to be able to eat whatever they want. However they’ll turn down even delicious food if they aren’t hungry and they are less likely to respond to stress with emotional eating. Intuitive eaters are the one’s who are listening to their body’s natural rhythm.
TOP TIPS TO BECOME AN INTUITIVE EATER:
- Make peace with food. Give yourself permission to enjoy the pleasures of food. Chew slowly and delight in all the flavors.
- Rid yourself of the “food police” mentality that labels certain foods as “good” or “bad.” Instead choose foods that are good for your health.
- Learn to recognise the difference between hunger and thirst.
- Get in touch with your body’s signals of comfortable fullness. Discovering to savour every mouthful will help you feel totally nourished.
Nourish with Self Love
Our biggest threat to intuitive eating is that our relationship with food is tangled with emotions. We eat to feel happy, we eat to numb anger, to deny sadness, avoid loneliness, combat stress and relieve boredom. Successful weight loss isn’t just about what you are eating, by why you are eating in the first place. The psychology of a unhealthy relationship with food stems from an unhealthy relationship with the self. When we untangle ourselves from criticism and self sabotaging thoughts, we realign ourselves to love. When we love ourselves we begin to feel happy and we begin to nourish ourselves with positive thoughts instead of comfort food. Love helps us to fill the gap that food otherwise would have. Love teaches us to be satisfied. Love melts through emotional turbulence and grants peace in the body. Love becomes the ears to hear your body’s true needs. Love is the key to develop intuitive eating and mastering self love is your only dieting goal.
LOVING SOLUTIONS TO THE TOP 5 EMOTIONS THAT TRIGGER UNHEALTHY EATING PATTERN:
- Stressed. If you’re stressed out, exercise is a perfect option. All those endorphins are a natural stress reliever.
- Bored. When boredom strikes, don’t reach for food. Get your mind occupied with something else, such as gardening, reading a book, working on a crossword or doing a craft.
- Angry. Do you have feelings of anger more often than you’d like?. Exercise is a great outlet for all those big feelings. Try something with a little impact such as a kickboxing class (or even just installing a punching bag in your house). Once the anger goes, love has space to grow.
- Lonely. Keeping your mind and body busy is a good way to stave off loneliness. A healthier way to deal with the emotion is to call friends or family members for a pick-me-up. Maybe ask them to join you for a walk. You can also take a class (such as a healthy cooking, photography or a group exercise class) to meet more people.
- Nervous. Anxiety can definitely have you reaching for a snack. When you’re feeling anxious, find a quiet place to do some deep breathing and try to release some of those nerves. Consider taking a yoga class – it’s great for relaxation.
Accessing your emotions and beliefs with food and self nuture
We have such complex relationships with food and food-like substance (those that look like food, taste like food, but are so heavily processed that they have very little nutritional value). Your beliefs about yourself, your self worth, identity, self esteem are all closely link. When you truely love yourself, you can accept and receive nuture in the form of love, and the absorption of nutrients. So essentially, love is the strongest building blocks of your body. You feel complete, full and satisfied.
However, if you consume food in anger, guilt or suppression of an emotion this has a huge impact on the state of your health and your energetic vibration, that is cumulative. If this pattern is repeated it becomes a habit. Many people become trapped by habbit and fall into yo-yo dieting or risk their health with fad diets.
The Secret to Permanent Weight Loss
The key lies deep in your subconcious mind, the seeds that were planted in early childhood or handed down from your ancestors. Consider the potato famine in Ireland, or food rationing during the World Wars in Europe. These events created limiting beliefs that were passed down the generations. Have you ever been told to “eat everything on your plate”? These beliefs were created from the food scarcity of these tragic events. However, it completely ignores your natural and intuitive hunger responses. You may be operating from beliefs that could be hundreds or even thousands of years old!
- What habbits do have around food that you would like to change?
- Are you addicted to sugar, coffee, salt or bread?
- Do you have to have a dessert after a main meal?
- Do you make excuses not to exercise?
- Are you confused by the media about what healthy food actually is?
Then perhaps it’s time to delve into your subconcious mind for the answers.
Written by Vanya Silverten