Exploring Intuitive Eating-Successful Ways to Improve Your Diet Without Sabotaging Your Health
The mind-body connection cannot be more important today; with the barrage of false claims for diets, advertisements bombarding the latest dieting fad, and unnatural measures to ‘lose weight fast,’ it’s no wonder that thousands of consumers are just plain confused. Intuitive eating takes a softer and sensible approach to eating by focusing on the core foundation of consumption; to provide ultimate nourishment for our natural hunger. We all have a natural hunger cycle, that in today’s society usually corresponds to times of the day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each person’s tastes, preferences, and lifestyles play a huge role in the makeup of their daily cycle, providing an opportunity for health-positive or health-negative choices. Any consistent eating patterns outside of this can be recognized as deviations from a natural approach. This might entail excessive consumption of any particular food group, and a nutritional imbalance. Abuse of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, and soda can also result in increased cravings, and even an over-dependence on particular tastes.
Nevertheless, an intuitive eating approach helps you recognize true hunger signals and get to the root cause of hunger by making natural and appropriate selections. Our bodies are literally ‘working machines’ that work incredibly hard to remain efficient, resilient, and healthful day in and day out. By providing adequate and well-deserved nourishment, intuitive eaters recognize a fresh boost of natural energy, and a much lower dependence on junk food, processed sugars, excessive empty carbohydrates, and other health-defeating foods.
Getting started on an intuitive eating plan is simple; take a few weeks to recognize your core food preferences, patterns in consumption, and your daily cycle. Identify when exactly your highest ‘hunger peak’ is during the day; this is usually between noon and 2 p.m. or 5 p.m.-7 p.m.. See how well you fit into a regiment, or lack thereof; are you a breakfast-skipper, a snack grazer, or do you tend to eat just 2-3 larger meals throughout the day? Healthy eating habits can grow and develop, but they can also be modified with increased self-awareness.
Once the self-awareness stages are over, intuitive eaters-in-training can learn how to modify and adapt schedules, patterns, and tastes to suit them best. Intuitive eating allows freedom and selection for real nourishment; this can mean taking the time to seek out natural and healthy options for food, trying new recipes, and accommodating your schedule for time to prepare. Wholesome nutrition is far from boring; the benefits of increased health, longevity, and overall wellness depend a great deal on the type of nourishment your mind and body receive on a regular basis.
Eating when hungry is not so common when people are literally selecting food from visual cues (advertisements, commercials, watching others eat), instead of listening for a growling stomach. Although slightly uncomfortable at first, an intuitive eater can recognize the natural growl that signals hunger, that doesn’t turn into a need for ravenous eating. Traditional ‘dieters’ can formally say goodbye to the food police with intuitive eating strategies under their belt. An intuitive eater isn’t ‘fighting’ cravings, simply because there are none. Intuitive eaters also know what foods can help them maintain health, wellness, strength, and balance which in turn creates tremendous positive energy for experiencing a well-rounded and longevity-focused lifestyle!
