Intuitive Eating Doesn't Mean You Eat Everything In Sight

 INTUITIVE EATING DOESN’T MEAN YOU EAT EVERYTHING IN SIGHT

One of the biggest concerns my coaching clients have about intuitive eating is that it’s a pass to eat as much as they want.

They feel that if they follow the principles of intuitive eating…instead of the rules of a diet…they are giving themselves permission to overeat.

In reality, the opposite is true.

Let me explain by using an example from my own life that just happened.

I was hungry so I decided to go to the store and get some wings and fries. In this particular store, you can choose exactly how many wings you want and exactly how many potato wedges you want.

So, based on the principle of intuitive eating, I took some time to check in with myself and see where my hunger level was. I thought about how much food I believed I actually needed to satisfy my hunger.

Before intuitive eating, I would have just said “Give me the 10 piece wings and the fries”, and then I would have eaten most if not all of it and felt overly full.

How many of you have found yourself eating all the food just because it’s there?

With intuitive eating, I asked myself what my body needed to feel full, and I decided on 5 wings and 5 potato wedges.

However, as the server was filling my order, I looked at the quantity of food and realized that I really only needed four of each.

So I walked out of the store with 4 wings and 4 potato wedges.

And…it was fine. In fact, now that I think about it and where I am in terms of my fullness level, I probably would have been just fine with three and three.

That’s the beauty of intuitive eating.

You listen to your body. You eat according to what your body needs, not according to what someone else thinks you need. You gather data and adjust accordingly. You trust yourself and believe that you (and not a mass produced diet) know what’s best for you.

The big fear with intuitive eating is that it will cause you to overeat. In my experience, the opposite is true.

I’m actually eating less than I did before.

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You Can Always Buy Bigger Underwear

 YOU CAN ALWAYS BUY BIGGER UNDERWEAR

I was talking to one of my friends today, and she said her fitness goal was to “stop her stomach from attacking her panties”.👙 😀

This made me laugh, and I responded back to her and said, “Or, we can buy bigger panties”. 

I get it. No one likes having to buy bigger clothes. Especially when you still have a closet full of your old smaller clothes. 

When you look at your old clothes, it’s natural to fantasize about getting back in them, so you tell yourself that you’re only one diet away from fitting back into your favorite pants.

I have a closet full of those clothes too, and I completely agree...it’s been really hard to let them go.

For the last few years, I’ve also been on the hunt to find the “magical diet”. You know, the one that will allow me to lose weight while still being able to eat foods I love and never go hungry in the process. After 7 years of searching, I can tell you I still haven’t found it.

What I’ve found are a lot of diets that are restrictive that cause me to eventually break down after a few days and scarf down an entire pint of ice cream as my body screams, “please feed me!”

In fact, I distinctly remember being on one diet where the entire week all I could eat was a protein and 5 asparagus stalks per meal. 

Of course you’re going to lose weight on a diet like this. But what are you having to give up to achieve that goal? And -even if you do lose weight- how long are you really going to be able to sustain that weight loss? You can only eat protein and asparagus for so long. 

The good news is, THERE IS A BETTER WAY.

Instead of denying ourselves the food we really want...instead of beating ourselves up when we look at our bodies in photos...and instead of hiding our bodies in dark clothing...WE CAN CHOOSE TO LOVE AND EMBRACE OURSELVES EXACTLY AS WE ARE NOW.  

That doesn’t mean you won’t ever lose any weight. In fact, when you stop the cycle of yo-yo dieting, you’ll be able to get back in touch with your body’s natural internal hunger cues. 

When you think about it, why do we let a diet guru tell us we can’t eat when we’re hungry and we can’t eat food we actually want to eat? I like chicken and asparagus, but I don’t want to eat it for every meal for an entire week.

Instead of making myself miserable so I can fit into my old clothes, I’ve decided to just buy bigger clothes. And you can too.

Buying bigger clothes isn’t giving up. Buying bigger clothes isn’t admitting defeat.

Buying clothes (and underwear) that fits is one way we can show love to ourselves and our bodies. 

Buying clothes that fit is one way we can take back our lives from the billion dollar diet industry that tells us it’s better to go hungry than buy a bigger pair of panties. 

If this post resonates with you, please join me starting July 26 for an 8 week coaching challenge where I’ll be teaching you how to increase your self-love, body acceptance, and knowledge of intuitive eating. 

Reply below if you’d like more info, or send me a DM.

Also, if you know a woman who would be interested in this 8-week coaching experience, please share this post with them. 

I want to be part of a movement that says it’s ok to buy underwear that fits our bodies AS THEY ARE NOW instead of having to change our bodies to fit our underwear. And I can’t wait to bring you with me.

P.S. - If you're a woman who wants to learn more about self-love and body acceptance, sign up for my newsletter. It's filled with so much good info. I can't wait to share it with you! Sign up here