Ditch the Diet and Learn How to Eat Intuitively
Let’s Learn How to Ditch the Diet and Eat Intuitively
Mom, if you're reading this, please don't take any offense to what I'm about to share....it was the 80s and early 90s when diet programs, workout videos and drinking Tab were all the rage. I know that I'm not alone when I recall how much food, body image and counting calories were part of my pre-teen and teenage years. Calories in versus calories out was the main diet philosophy if you wanted to lose weight (and sadly some people still believe this to be true). Food has played a big role in my life. I've always loved food and often have a hard time with self-control, often using food to replace voids in my life.
I remember my mom on numerous diets and restricting her food at times, often on the days leading up to her Saturday morning weigh-in sessions. Remember the cabbage soup diet? I think I lasted two days before throwing in the towel out of starvation.
I also recall periods in my early teens when I wrote down every calorie I ate and how much I exercised in a notebook, and this was well before the google search bar and My Fitness Pal app. I was never satisfied with my weight and could always stand to lose a few pounds; all of this greatly hindered my self-confidence during those fun teenage years.🙄 I realize that people who only know me in recent years may find this hard to believe, but I had a pretty crappy diet, was majorly addicted to sugar, processed carbs and caffeine. As a result I had skin and digestive issues in addition to low energy and mood.
Several years ago I started learning about the role that food plays in our health and now understand that what each of us needs to thrive is different. I stopped counting calories or macros, started listening to my body, eating what it craved and am tuned into hunger cues.
Fast forward to 2020 and diets, calorie and macro counting are still prevalent, along with new fad diets. Someone is always trying to convince you to eat a certain way, take a certain supplement or powder in order to lose those unwanted pounds. Are you confused, overwhelmed or frustrated by all the media hype??
Someone is always trying to convince you to eat a certain way (i.e. intermittent fasting, keto, paleo, vegan), take a certain supplement or powder in order to lose those unwanted pounds. Well, what if you could learn to eat intuitively and reduce the stress surrounding food (remember stress plays a critical role in your body's ability to fight inflammation and lose weight)? How would that feel? The goal is to place the control over what you eat back into your body and not what others are doing; nor should we eat food based on guilt or shame coming from internal or external pressures.
If you're ready to stop listening to what others are telling you to do and start tuning into what your body needs then keep reading my tips and get inspired ditch the diet and start feeding yourself what your body needs without calorie or macro restrictive diets. Learn how to eat when you're hungry, tune into your body's natural cues, enjoy food from all macros and reduce the stress around food. 😌
Eat when you are hungry and when you feel like eating. This sounds simple, yes, but can be very difficult as you may be using food to console yourself when you're having a bad day. You may also confuse hunger with being dehydrated, nutrient deficient, bored, stressed or tired. Tune into your body's cues. This may mean that some days you can do a 12-14 hour overnight fast and other days you need to eat within an hour of waking. For women, our hormonal cycles play a big role in what our bodies need for nourishment, so don't expect every day of the month to look the same.
Ignore the guidance that you need to eat between only between a pre-set window each day. Yes, intermittent fasting is still all the buzz these days and for good reason; however, it doesn't mean that you should follow a strict 12, 14, or 16 hour fast every day if your body tells you that it needs food! Eating based solely on someone else's fasting protocol when you have low blood sugar, are under stress (emotional and physical), hungry, have low energy or mood is not eating intuitively. There is definitely a benefit from refraining from food for a window each day (just like our ancestors would have done when food was not so readily available). Your body needs time to restore, rest and repair its key functions every day and eating requires our body to expend energy to digest food and beverages. If we're eating all day every day our body is using energy to digest the the food and unable to fight inflammation. Like I mentioned above, a woman's body and hormonal cycle (28-30 days) is very different from men's (24-hour cycle), which means our ability to fast varies greatly too. For most menopausal women a 12-hour fast works best but extending that window could actually back fire on your weight loss goals. I recently listened to a couple great podcasts with Alisa Vitti, who wrote the WomenCode and her new book In the Flo. You should also consider which phase of your cycle you’re in when it comes to exercise…but that will be a topic for another day as I plan to dive into the learnings from my Hormone Health course to share with my tribe.
Enjoy foods from all three macro nutrients (fat, protein and fiber). Depriving your body of whole food based carbohydrates on a long-term basis can send your body into a state of stress and actually result in weight gain not weight loss. The popular keto diet does work for many and in the short term (a few weeks) can be a very helpful way to regulate your blood sugar, reduce cravings and reset your diet. I'm certainly not an expert in this area, but if you want to learn more, check out some of my favorite podcasts on this topic like these by Dr. Stephen Cabral. Depriving our bodies of the building blocks that we need to thrive long-term isn't eating intuitively and men and women are very different. Did you know that many health related studies are done on men and post-menopausal women? This doesn't mean eating bags of crackers and pretzels but rather carbohydrate rich fruits and vegetables and whole grains like quinoa, rice, farro, millet, oats.
Reduce your stress. I'm still to this day a stress eater but I have learned how to reduce these instances in recent years. I can now recognize when I'm reaching for a snack in a moment of frustration and stress, and most days I now choose better options. I drink water or tea before reaching for food when I know I'm not really hungry, but honestly walking away from the kitchen, taking a few deep breaths and ideally getting outside on a short walk will do wonders. Exercise also boosts your happy hormones, and I often find that I'm not hungry for a hour or more after I workout.
Eat a variety of whole foods and balanced meals every day. The more you nourish your body with a rainbow of mainly plants each day, the less your body will crave the junk and the more in tune you will be when determining what you want to eat. For most people, I recommend not counting calories or measuring portion sizes on a long-term basis as this could result in restrictive eating and is often driven by someone else's rule and goes against learning how to eat intuitively. Create a plate with mostly plants (a colorful variety of vegetables), with healthy fat and think of animal protein like a side or even condiment. You will be amazed how filling and satisfying eating more vegetables and less animal meat can be. Trust me!
Model this behavior for your children (nieces, nephews, etc). Having a pre-teenage daughter, I am very much aware of my actions and words around food. It takes a lot of restraint not to comment when my kids are indulging in too much sugar and processed food and I'm far from perfect in this regard. I remember how much crap I ate and I somehow turned out OK. I have started asking them questions instead of giving them commands about what to eat, like "Are you hungry?" and teaching them how to tune into their body's cues. We also have age appropriate conversations about feeding our gut (where 70%+ of our immune system resides) and the good stuff it needs to stay healthy while avoiding the foods that can make us sick.
If you want the cookies, eat the damn cookies! Sometimes it takes indulging too much in your favorite childhood snack one last time before your body tells you it's had enough and that what it really wants is a huge salad with healthy fats and protein or a vegetable-based soup like my new Mediterranean Vegetable Bean Soup. Learn to eat the cookie or sweet when you want it; guilt free! If you find yourself eating too many cookies too often it may be time to look inside as to what you're really looking for from the cookie. Is it a companion, someone to talk to, procrastination, stress relief or maybe a coping mechanism for a deeper unresolved issue.
Surround yourself with people who will bring you up and won't make you feel guilty about your food and lifestyle choices.
The above photo captures one of the first sandwiches I've eaten in years when we were in Italy last spring and I enjoyed every last bit of it, guilt and shame free! Check out the post I wrote about this trip and the many things I did for the first time here. If you can relate to this post and want to learn how you can create a personalized plan to bring more peace and joy into your day, let’s set up a time to chat.