Want to learn how to listen to your body?
Intuitive eating is all the talk nowadays. You can’t open social media without reading a post of someone promoting to “Just listen to your body”. I get it, it sounds great right?? And I DO practice intuitive eating myself. But for most, the reality of trying to simply “just listen to your body” is hard and confusing. It’s a good soundbyte at best, and could even be detrimental at worst if you have no idea how to actually do that, or fall into a category of people that shouldn’t be listening to their bodies, due to medical reasons. Today we’re breaking it down and making it really easy. I’m giving you practical steps to learn how to listen to your body and feel your best while doing it!
Listen to the Podcast on iTunes right here
Listen to the Podcast on Spotify here
To Eat Cake Or To Not Eat Cake
You hear it all the time nowadays: “just listen to your body”, “just do what makes you feel best!” (when it comes to healthy eating). But there’s so many reasons this good soundbyte ISN’T actually very helpful for most. First, there are a lot of times one can’t listen to their bodies (during hormonal imbalances, thyroid issues, eating disorders, new medications, etc) In all of those scenarios and more, your internal cues will be off, and it’s not something you can listen to.
A common intuitive eating misconception is that listening to your body means giving into every sweet tooth craving. And I think that’s another big reason “just listen to your body” is confusing at best, nsd detrimental at worst. For example, if you’re craving a carton of ice cream to listen to your body and go ahead and eat it. Don’t get me wrong all foods fit into a healthy lifestyle, BUT this isn’t what listening to you body is about. It’s about becoming aware of how certain foods make you feel. Tuning into your body and becoming aware. How does the current eating styles/ foods you’re eating truly make you feel? Do you feel energized after your meal? Or did it leave you feeling fatigued? Becoming aware of specific foods and how you feel after eating them. For example, After eating that big bowl of pasta I didn’t feel so good. Maybe big heavy meals of that just aren’t for me. Or that food causes bloating and gas I don’t think my body likes it.
Want to learn how to really tune in to your body. I’m going to share some practical tips I teach in my nutrition guide “Diet like a Dietitian” as well as teach to my 1-1 clients.
Better Tips than “Just Listen To Your Body”
Food Journal Your Eating Behaviors
Journal through your typical eating behaviors and how they makes you feel. For example are you continuously overeating? Becoming aware of you eating habits leads to discovering what causes them. Finding the root cause or trigger is very helpful in stopping the problem.
What are your rules/restrictions in your head that dictate how you eat? Such as “I cant eat after 7pm” or “Dessert will make me gain weight”
Track how certain foods make you feel, instead of eliminating whole food groups. Get specific!! For ex. “After that meal I felt really energized, I need to eat that more often.”
Start to rank your hunger on a scale on 1-10 before and after you eat. A 10 being I’m so overly stuffed and a 1 being “I’m so hungry I could eat everything in sight”. This will help you stop and realize “Why did I let myself get way to hungry?” Or “I not even hungry I’m just eating to eat.” Or “Man I went way past fullness to a place of stuffed, where I just want to sit on the couch.” Use the hunger scale to start to tune in to your body.
Begin To Set A Firm Nutrition Foundation
Learn what balanced nutrition looks like! It’s very difficult to listen to your body and honor it with proper nutrition when you don’t know what that looks like.
Nutrition Basics:
- Getting 7-9 hours of sleep a day
- Managing stress in a healthy way
- Less processed foods
- More whole foods
- Drinking 8-10 cups of water a day
- Moving your body for 60 minutes a day
- Practicing mindfulness while eating
Become Aware Of Your Eating Habits
Becoming aware of your eating habits is the first step to working towards working on them and creating better ones. Use tools such as continuing to food journaling. Begin to ask yourself “What is dictating the way I eat right now?” For example, I chose whole wheat bread because white bread is bad for me. Or I chose whole wheat bread because it has good nutrition and fiber and it’s going to make me feel better going forward.
Journaling is a great way to show you what to change going forward. Are you realizing “Wow I let myself get way to hungry because I skipped a snack in between meals and now I’m starving and overeating” Or maybe you’re realizing “I drink no water during the day” and let’s work on that first.
Honor Your Body Through Hunger And Fullness
I teach this all within my nutrition guide. A lot of the time we can’t honor our fullness and just stop when we’re satisfied, We go way beyond the point of feeling full. In order to honor your fullness make sure to slow down and savor the flavors of your food. Sit down to enjoy your meal, and don’t multitask when you’re eating. BUT it’s hard to honor your fullness if you’re not honoring your hunger. We’ve all been there when we feel hungry but we say “Its not eating time, so I cant eat” This refusal of giving into your hunger is just going to set you up to overeat later and not be able to honor your fullness. Make sure you’re not letting yourself go too far in-between meals or snacks so you’re not overeating later!
Have you heard “just listen to your body” before? How did it make you feel? Hopeful? Confused? I want to hear on instagram your experience and how it made you feel. I would love to dive more into this topic of extreme, and how we’ve taken intuitive eating and turned it into an extreme way of eating and confused people in the process. Tag me in your instagram stories at @Sarahgracemeck I would love to hear your thoughts!!
