Intuitive Eating: you can find food freedom
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Are you tired of feeling guilty for eating foods that used to bring you so much pleasure and joy? Maybe you feel like you can’t trust yourself around foods you have such great memories of enjoying at one point in your life. It’s exhausting trying to remember all the foods that you’ve heard are good for you and which ones you’re supposed to be avoiding and you just want to not have to think so much about your food choices anymore!
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Concerns about how what you’re eating might impact your body or your health are stealing your energy, your joy. These thoughts may even be making you feel envious when you see people eating whatever they want without any worries. You want to be one of those people and you’re worried that just isn’t possible for you.
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You can be one of those people who is able to accept a spontaneous invite to dinner without obsessing over what the healthy options are on the menu and worrying about whether you can order that delicious dessert without feeling guilty for days afterwards. You can be one of those people who can eat something they are craving to satisfaction instead of feeling like you can’t keep it around or you’ll eat all of it. You can be that person who is carefree around food.
Ask yourself these questions:
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When you’re craving a certain food do you try and avoid eating that food?
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Do you follow rules that dictate what, when, and/or how much you eat?
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Do you ever find yourself using food to cope with negative emotions like anxiety, stress, or sadness?
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Do you feel unable trust your body to tell you how much or when to eat?
We can help you find food freedom by
Identifying and challenging your food rules
Neutralizing all foods by learning the science of nutrition
Helping you re-learn how to feel and honor your hunger and fullness
We meet you where you are to slowly build your intuitive eating skills over time so that you can focus on the enjoying your food guilt-free. Intuitive eating includes structure that is tailored toward each individual and we start with slow, small changes so that it doesn’t feel overwhelming.
Before you know it, you’ll be looking back and marveling at the progress you’ve made and the freedom with food that you have found in working with us.
Hunger and Fullness Cues in Intuitive Eating
Portion Control is really just a matter of using your hunger fullness cues. Many people look at me blankly when I discuss my favorite of all tools, the cues. Most people haven't felt a true hunger or fullness cue in a very long time.
Think of your physical cues as a gas gauge. This is much closer than you think to reality. As you use up what you have eaten before your meal, your body begins to send you signals. These are your physical hunger cues (not to be confused with just wanting to eat as in emotional eating, or stress eating).
Use the hunger fullness scale to determine the subtle phases of hunger and fullness. It takes a bit of getting used to, but soon you will be identifying your cues with ease (like you were born knowing how--haha).
An important factor is that there are circumstances which may disrupt your perception of the cues. For hunger, the number one issue I've seen is people being too busy or distracted to notice their more subtle cues. All of the sudden it has been many hours since eating last, and they are ravenous.
With fullness, the usual suspect in not noticing the cues is speed of eating. It is very important to try to slow your eating (no need to chew a million times, or anything weird). It does take 15-20 minutes for your cues to register. Most Americans eat in 7 minutes. So put your fork down, take a sip, engage in conversation--whatever you need to do to pace yourself.