Stop Dieting! Eat Intuitively Instead.

Intuitive eating isn’t a diet, but more of an eating habit or eating plan. At its core, intuitive eating is about breaking free from traditional diet restrictions and instead, learning to eat mindfully and without guilt by paying better attention to the signals your body gives you.

Say ‘Goodbye’ to Dieting

Eating intuitively begins when you reject the diet mentality. Many diets encourage people to follow a very restrictive plan that isn’t sustainable long-term. This often leads to people returning to their old habits and gaining back the weight anyway.

Say ‘goodbye’ to dieting by throwing away diet books, magazine articles and meal plans that dictate what or how much you can eat.

Acknowledge Your Hunger

One pitfall of dieting is that it can leave you feeling deprived and hungry even after eating a meal. This can trigger binging and overeating and lead to an unhealthy relationship with food.

Instead of counting your calories or watching your portion sizes, try paying closer attention to your body’s hunger cues. This is the main component of intuitive eating.

Respect Your Fullness

Pay closer attention to your body’s cues and trust that it will tell you when it’s time to put down your fork. An important component of intuitive eating is getting satisfaction from your food by noticing and appreciating all aspects of your meals.

To put this into practice, make meal times special and free from distraction. Pay special attention to one aspect of your food at a time, whether that be texture, taste or its appearance. Ask yourself a few questions like: “Does this food feel good in my body?” or “Does this food make me feel satisfied?”

Enjoy Physical Activity

Try not to look at exercise to burn off extra calories after an epic meal or as part of a formula for burning extra calories. Instead, find ways to exercise that make you feel good. This can be as simple as going for a long stroll after dinner, or perhaps taking a yoga class three times a week.

People’s desire to move varies. Even if your favorite thing isn’t logging a few miles after work, what’s important is that you find something you enjoy and doing it more often as an enjoyable thing rather than a means to an end.

Follow Basic Nutrition Guidelines

Just because this eating plan doesn’t emphasize counting calories or watching your portions, it’s still wise to follow basic nutrition guidelines like eating more vegetables. Intuitive eating is not a license to eat whatever fatty fast-food options you desire whenever you get hungry, but more of a practice in mindfulness to support your desire to live a healthier lifestyle.

Invest in Your Health

No matter what eating pattern you’ve adopted, it’s important to make sure you’re getting all the necessary vitamins and nutrients your body needs to function! Click here for BIOVEA’s selection of multivitamins!

Have you tried intuitive eating? Share your experience in the comments!