You may have had similar experiences of using food. Using food to comfort, to escape boredom, to feel better, etc.  Some food “use” happens as a normal part of life. However, as a long-term chronic food user, my relationship with food, eating, and my body has needed a major and life-altering overhaul.

While describing her recovery process, my friend shared that participating in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) allowed her to reconnect with her life and a “higher power” that could help her thrive.  She stated that AA was the “God for Dummies” course that she needed. Well, committing to the 10 principles of intuitive eating is a great version of “Eating for dummies,” which has helped me and many others connect with the amazing power of our bodies to heal and to guide us to the food, movement, and care we need to thrive.

However, despite the strength and confidence that I’ve gained through eating intuitively, I have struggled with what to eat this winter.  The constant fluctuation in weather and very mild winter temperatures has left me confused and vulnerable to eating more sweet/sugary and processed foods. I know that I’m not alone in my disorientation. Even some of the trees in my area are confused and started blooming early a couple of weeks ago and it’s only February!

Overuse of sweet foods and regularly skipping my morning meal, due to a busy schedule, left my body feeling shaky and out of balance, contributed to a grumpy and cranky attitude (sorry co-workers), and triggered a compulsive need to eat during the evenings. I’ve also been having more random thoughts about junk food, even when I’m not hungry.  As I realized that my intuitive eating radar was compromised, I started hearing “Houston, there’s a problem,” in my ears.

Does this state of sugar-run wild body jitters and finding yourself in the kitchen at night searching for some food to take the edge off and never really finding a fix to satisfy you sound familiar?

This relapse in my food use recovery process has helped me understand even more that food is and food is NOT the answer to finding our way back to eating balance and sanity. What feels like uncontrollable and compulsive night time eating and body misery due to the lows that come after the highs of processed sugar intake are critical guideposts on the intuitive eating journey. Ultimately, you, like me, simply want to experience a sense of ease and freedom in relationship with eating, food, and your body.

Thankfully, there are some simple steps to take if you find yourself on a detour in your healing with food and eating recovery journey:

1) Eat breakfast and respond to your hunger throughout the day -  I’ve read this suggestion over and over again in books…yeah…yeah…yeah “eat breakfast.” Don’t take my or anyone else’s word about this point as fact. Experiment with how you body responds when you don’t eat breakfast and when you do eat breakfast. Personally, I have found that if I eat a morning meal and eat when I’m hungry throughout the day, I don’t turn into a night-time hunger bandit that stalks the food in my kitchen.

2) “Use” food in a skillful way ~Eat meals that leave you feeling balanced, satisfied, and at ease – Experiment with meals that leave you feeling satisfied and balanced and carry you through most of the morning. Quick meals that are high in sugar may leave you in a state of hunger desperation by lunch and even into the evening. Try the “Morning Sausage and Kale” breakfast below and tell me what you think!

3) Breathe, sleep, hydrate, and play! – Do and explore things that nurture your body and contribute to your greatest sense of well-being and happiness.

4) …and as always…eat intuitively, move joyfully, and love your body!

Recipe: Morning Sausage and Kale

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Yields: 2 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon of  olive oil
• 1/2 small yellow onion, sliced into half moons (long, thin slivers) – (I used a sweet vidalia onion)
• 2 precooked chicken apple sausages, sliced into 1/2” rounds (I choose  the “Chef Bruce aidells” brand of chicken & apple sausage – it’s all natural and has the best taste with the least amount of sugar)
• 1/2 bunch kale, chopped into 1” pieces
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Directions
1) Heat oil in frying pan
2) Sauté onions for 5 minutes
3) Add sausage and kale
4) Cook for 5 minutes or until sausage is hot and kale becomes soft (I like my greens more crispy than soft)
5)Remove from heat, sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and serve.

Notes:
If you are a vegetarian, try substituting marinated tempeh for sausage. Cut tempeh into bite-size cubes, marinate in tamari or soy sauce for 30 minutes and follow the recipe using tempeh in place of sausage.

Recipe source: The book “Integrative Nutrition: Feed Your Hunger for Health & Happiness” written by Joshua Rosenthal, Founder and Director of the  The Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN). Also find this receipe online at: http://www.integrativenutrition.com/connect/recipes/breakfasts/morning-sausage-and-kale

PS: 1) The sweet-seeking obsessive personality in me was skeptical about this recipe. However, the results are really tasty and satisfying, it looks pretty and is quick to make. 2) I needed a bit more visual color as I sat down to eat this meal. So, I placed a colorful decorative cloth beneath the plate to inspire my eating senses! 3) The Intuitive Eating for Dummies book doesn’t exist – I “photoshopped” a “for dummies” book cover.

The process goes a little something like this; you’re at the grocery store, you see the most delectable chocolate cake ever. You say to yourself “Hmmm…I think that I’ll buy this cake to share with my family, friends, or colleagues at work.” Then, the minute the cake arrives in your home, it’s the only thing that you can think about and a sweet obsession cycle begins.

The cake beckons for you to eat a slice and over the course of the evening, the next day, or the next two days, the only signs that the cake every existed are the sweet crumbs left on your plate. You think to yourself that you should have never bought that blasted cake and make a conscious or unconscious vow not to make that mistake again!

Sugar Addiction or Repeating Sweet Obsession Cycle?

Some people refer to a sweet obsession as a “sugar addiction.” Some years back, I read several books on sugar addiction and the detrimental effects of sugar and you know what? The thought or belief that I was addicted to sugar didn’t really do anything to help me feel better or confident that I could handle certain processed sweets without the need to eat them until they are gone.

However, one change in my eating world did radically shift my relationship with sweets. That change was practicing intuitive eating. “Legalizing foods”  or making peace with foods, especially sweets for many of us, is one of the greatest benefits of intuitive eating. The goal of legalizing a food or set of foods, through intuitive eating, is to remove the obsession or the emotional charge that you may associate with a food.

Making peace with food involves the oftentimes scary prospect of allowing yourself to eat any food that you want. Ultimately, a piece of broccoli will become as appealing to you as a piece of chocolate cake. In fact, you’ll get to the point where your food choices are driven by how you want to feel instead of driven by the temporary high of certain foods or the emotional memory you relate to a food.

Legalizing foods is one of the tricky steps of practicing intuitive eating. After finally releasing yourself from years of food restriction through dieting, you could find yourself on a path of feeling out of control with your eating. You may start eating every food that has been on your forbidden list, which of course tends to be dominated by sweet treats, and may find your weight steadily creeping up. The great news is that there are ways to make peace with food safely without losing your peace of mind and going on a sweet binge that seems like it will never end. Adding a little humor and putting one foot in front of the other are two tips that will help you experience your own cure for a sweet obsession cycle!

Tickle Your Funny Bone When Your Sweet Obsession Arises

A month or so ago, I discovered that the office vending machines had been stocked with Big Kats or a mega-size Kit Kat. If you’re unfamiliar with the Big Kat, it’s like 6 individual pieces of a Kit Kat combine into one gigantic mouthwatering chocolate wafer. Well, I love me a Big Kat and you can’t always find them in a store. As a result, I had a special emotional charge related to that piece of chocolate crispy wafer heaven. So, I knew that I might be in trouble. Over the next week, after I hit the “Big Kat jackpot”, what I call the “Big Kat Caper” began.

I indulged in one too many Big Kats and that particular confection, which was associated to eating heaven started to disintegrate into a eating hell. One day, instead of eating my lunch, I ate a Big Kat. At the same time, I got a great opportunity to make peace with the Big Kat and to remove the emotional charge from that particular item by taking the time to be mindful as I ate and truly get in contact with what was driving that particular sweet obsession. Because I’ve legalized many different foods, the process didn’t take very long. Once you learn how to legalize one food, legalizing each additional food typically gets easier. Last year, you would have been entertained by the comic story of the Saltwater Taffy Massacre of 2010. I love making myself laugh and I hope that you do too. Give your sweet obsession cycles the comic relief that they deserve!

By practicing intuitive eating and staying open and mindful about what you’re eating and what’s going on with you emotionally, you’ll gain confidence that you and your body will find balance again and get through or avoid the sweet traps of every day life.

Avoid a Sweet Trap with Some Feet Action

What’s the top suggestion that I would make to help you avoid a sweet obsession cycle, if you feel one coming on? Get your feet involved! Last week, I noticed that I was starting to think about sweets more and feeling a taste for anything sweet in that familiar emotionally driven way. I felt like I had two choices: go on a bit of a detox from all processed sweets or start my morning walking practice again. I had an intuitive sense that the emotional release I experience while walking would eliminate those “I need a sweet” thoughts and the driven to eat sweets mood I saw developing. So, I was up the next day walking at 5:45 a.m. Behold, the driven to eat sweets energy began to decrease immediately.

You can make peace with sweets in your life and practicing intuitive eating is a phenomenal way to do it.

Eat Intuitively, Move Joyfully, Love Your Body!

About the Author

Latoya J. Williams is a certified holistic health coach specializing in helping women develop the insight and skills they need to feel good in their bodies, experience true eating pleasure and freedom, and discover their natural healthy weight.

At some point during years of yearning to lose weight, I promised myself that if I ever got access to a gym, I would go. During my first semester at college, I discovered a gym on campus and my 80 lb weight loss journey began. I went to the gym almost every day for at least 2 to 3 hours, I ate 5 to 6 small meals a day, a suggestion I had read in a magazine or book, and passed out from exhaustion each night.

How to Guarantee Weight Gain

Recently, I got more clear about why I was doomed to experience rebound weight gain after my epic weight loss odyssey. Why was regaining the weight inevitable? Because my reasons for losing the weight were totally focused on what other people thought about me and proving something, not to myself, but to the external world. I forced my body to lose weight without developing the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual maturity to sustain it.

Within 7 years of  losing that weight, I gained 120 pounds (150% of the weight that I had lost)! Twenty of those pounds was weight creep after dieting and the other 100 lbs I gained purely out of spite against the world, which included defying messages about what my body should look like. Although that crisis of faith caused an extreme amount of weight gain, my focus shifted from measuring myself based on external rules to beginning to create a life more on my own terms.

Find the Keys to Your Best Body

Once again, I find myself in the position where my body is 80 lbs lighter. Ironically, I gained 120 lbs in a 7 year period and have now released 80 lbs in another 7 year period. This second 80 lb shift was nothing like the first one. I didn’t use the standard two-part weight loss method of “go to the gym” and “watch what you eat.” Yes, I knew that I could “lose weight” through dieting and exercise. However, given my weight history, I was supremely confident that the pounds would return with some additional companions. So, why bother?

What did I do with my time instead?  First, I started learning how to deal with my emotions without using food. Secondly, I stumbled upon a book called Intuitive Eating and  learned to listen and respond to my hunger and fullness signals. Next, I developed a great love for walking outdoors and moving my body. All of these things represent the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual growing pains that were necessary for me to get out of the way of supporting my best body.

When I look at pictures of my sleek 18 year old physique, I know that body was not my best body. I only recently started consistently supporting my best body in the past 4 years. Even though I’m heavier now, every day in my body now is more of my best body than my vanity body ever was. So, how can you find and stay on the path of supporting your best body?

Identify Your Stumbling Blocks

There are many things that can get in the way of you experiencing your best body. Your list will be unique to you and your life. Here are some ideas:

1) Taking care of your body based on other people’s advice, rules and formulas, instead of learning from your own body and experience

2) Fixating on getting to a fixed number on a scale

3) Rebelling against OR trying to fit mass media ideas of beauty

4) Relying on external substances, like food, to cope with your emotions

5) Moving your body only when you’re required or exercising because you “should”

6) Eating food that results in you feeling like crap afterwards

7) Getting less sleep than you need

At some point or another, your best body has been stifled by one or more of items on the list above. Supporting your best body is not about perfection. Your best body has the opportunity to shine through and get stronger in each moment that you care for yourself in the ways that you need.

Take the Time to Fill in Your Blanks

Take the time to write down as many answers to the following statement for yourself:

“I know I’m supporting my best body when I (fill in the blank) _____________.”

You might come up with things like “…when I”: move my body in ways that I love, eat food that I love and help me feel good, take the time to relieve myself of stress and tension. After you have that list, you need to make the actions on that list a priority in your life and do those things!

If you are a chronic weight gainer or emotional eater, go ahead and include the 10 principles of intuitive eating on your fill-in the blank list. I guarantee that those principles will help you support your best body.

If you have difficulty creating your own list, ask your
friends and family how they would answer that question, explore, and have fun.

Hold This Truth to Be Self-Evident

Too many of us don’t realize this truth: You have the opportunity to support and experience your best body every day, at whatever your current size and weight happens to be. And, supporting your best body is way bigger than targeting some number on a scale. In fact, many people waste so much energy fixating on numbers, like pounds and calories, that they miss the chance to appreciate and experience the body that they have right now. Your body can handle your weight, if you take consistent actions to support your best body. Make supporting your best body the goal.

Eat Intuitively, Move Joyfully, Love Your Body!

For me, the act of weighing ourselves, is similar to those bizarre instances that we turn on the TV to figure out what’s going on with the weather, when we can simply look out the window! Zero change in how many pounds you happen to weigh or upward and downward movements in your weight are pieces of information that are already pretty obvious by how your clothes are fitting at the time. Yet, the scale has become a national obsession and using it to weigh ourselves a national pastime.

Some weeks ago, I shared with you, that after long consideration, I decided to try to be friends with the gym again. I’m happy to report that our new relationship has been going very well! I’m feeling more energetic and stronger and really enjoying being in my body. However, as an introvert, I still don’t like being in a large room with a lot of random sweaty people after work! Alas, like with any relationship, I’ve had to find a certain level of acceptance about the gym’s true nature.

One sticking point that I have to confess is that the idea of “weight loss” has crept into my thoughts more and more since having regular interaction with the gym again. I used to weigh myself regularly when I attended the gym in the past. So, it almost seems “normal” and natural to fall into that habit again. However, practicing intuitive eating has taught me quite clearly that getting on the scale will provide absolutely no useful information!

When I began this amazing experiment in learning to trust my eating intuition (and therefore to trust my body) in 2007, I was certain that I would lose weight through practicing the 10 principles of intuitive eating. So, I documented my measurements and my weight to be able to note any weight changes related to my intuitive eating experiment.

I also decided to weigh myself after three months of incorporating the principles. What did the scale have tell me three months into the process? “You’ve lost no weight and gained no weight.” Hmmm…curious.

So, I weighed myself again at 6 months.  Surely, there would be some downward movement by then. What did the scale have to reveal that time? “Yeah, I’m still not seeing any movement here. You might want to try again later.”

So, I weighed myself a year later. What did the scale have to say to me that time? 
“You again, really? I’ve already told you…zero weight lost and zero weight gained.”

If “losing weight” had been my central focus, like anyone else, I would have abandoned intuitive eating relatively early on in the process. At the root of my interest in intuitive eating was that I wanted to learn how to experience balance in my body. I learned balanced and got so much more!

Why is this point so important? Because it’s relatively easy to lose weight. The bigger challenge is learning how to maintain your weight over the long-term! Through intuitive eating, I finally learned what skills and actions allowed me to maintain my weight naturally, without dieting, over an entire year.

“Dieting” never allowed me to learn what I needed to do to prevent gaining weight. And, you know what? I guarantee you that no weight loss focused diet ever could. The true nature of a diet is to keep you trapped in a cycle of losing and gaining weight. Within intuitive eating circles, the scale is referred to as a “dieter’s tool” because oftentimes it distracts your attention toward obsessing about “weight loss” when you could be using that energy to learn how to care for your body the best way you can.

As some of you know, 2.5 years into practicing intuitive eating, I noticed that my clothes were not fitting properly. As I looked closer, all of my clothes were too big. It was then that I got on the scale again and discovered that my body had released 32.5 lbs. I hadn’t even realized that my weight had changed. However, my body was feeling fantastic!

Your body can and will handle your weight easily and naturally when you shift your focus to eating intuitively and moving your body in ways that you truly enjoy.

Now, my take on how much someone “weighs” is that it’s an empirical bit of data like a person’s height. I happen to be 5’2 and 3/4 inches, though I claim 5’3. I don’t know anyone who checks their height daily, weekly, or even monthly. Maybe your height gets checked once a year during a routine exam.  So, why would we regularly check our weight?

Well, one day last month, I did find myself putting one foot and then another on the scale in the gym’s ladies room. In my mind, I was expecting to see some numerical indication of a change in my body weight, due to increasing the level of movement in my life. What did the scale have to say me this time?

“Really, Latoya? Don’t you know any better by now? Zero, Nada, Zilch.”

When you’re not looking, the scale will probably have more to tell you then when you are. Your weight does not define you. Stay focused on creating the best experience in your body right now!

Eat Intuitively, Move Joyfully, Love Your Body!

Before I started eating intuitively, all of the major holidays and my birthday, of course, were my “eat whatever you want” special days.  Even though I eat what I want every day now, in my mind, I have continued to associate the holidays with a time to eat certain foods. In my family, turkey and candied yams were the special items I ate for Thanksgiving and Christmas, Easter focused on ham and dressing, and Memorial Day, well this day is dedicated to cookout food: grilled hamburger patties and hot dogs covered with barbecue sauce, a side of mac ‘n cheese, and some baked beans.

By checking in with my own body, I’ve learned that eating traditional holiday dishes tend to make me feel heavier than I like to feel. The beauty of learning to eat intuitively is that you can recognize thoughts about what you “should” eat for the holidays and step outside of that default eating pattern and ask yourself what foods do I really want to eat on the holidays. Sometimes, you may want to prepare and eat the “special foods” connected with the holidays and sometimes you may discover that eating less heavy and more colorful foods will actually get you into the satisfied zone.

Permission to eat whatever you want often comes with permission to eat to the point of feeling stuffed! While the process of eating whatever you want can feel liberating and fun, the after effects of an overfull tummy doesn’t leave me feeling good at all. How about you?

Yet, for years on a holiday, I and most people I know lived with the cycle of eating whatever we wanted, feeling “stuffed” and heavy, and then passing out or sitting around waiting for our stomachs to empty a bit for the next round. When I truly understood, when it truly clicked that feeling stuffed is a sign of overeating, I was like “What’s up with that?” How did feeling stuffed (i.e., overeating) become normal?

Like me, you may have experienced being overfull as having certain warm and soothing sensations. I used to call it “blissing out.” So, respecting my fullness did not feel normal at all. What felt normal was overeating at just about every single meal. The result? Consistent and predictable weight gain.

As an intuitive eater, I have chosen to let go of feeling stuffed, even on the holidays!  Honestly, it took me a couple of years to learn how to listen to my fullness signals because a part of me was comforted by feeling overfull. So, during the beginning months of making intuitive eating principles the foundation of my eating, I spent many meals watching myself get to the point of feeling overfull. Being present with feeling overfull helped me recognize that I really did not like the overfull pressure in my stomach or knowing that I was flooding my body with more food than it needed.

So, with a commitment to intuitive eating, patience with my body and my pattern of overeating, I did eventually experience a breakthrough.  And, I’m not perfect. I do have times when I push up against my fullness and get a little overfull. However, stuffed has lost its appeal and I find joy in the fact that I can respect my fullness. Why? Because honoring my body’s signals to stop eating means that I can support it maintaining a sense of balance and optimal well-being.

One of the unexpected and ultimate gifts that comes from respecting your fullness is that eating becomes even more pleasurable! When you honor your fullness, you get to pass on feeling like you need to roll out of your chair onto the floor and open the top button of your pants. You get to pass on possible feelings of guilt associated with overeating. You get to eat again more quickly and experience the taste and nourishing pleasure of food because your body’s not trying to empty excess food out of your system hours later.

Learning how to listen to your body’s fullness signals is a win-win situation for you and your body. So, if overfull or stuffed is a normal part of your eating experience during the holidays or most days during the year, it’s possible to create a new more joyful and balanced relationship with food.

A holiday can sometimes be one of those days when I might get a bit overfull. I’ve noticed that when I’m presented with a smorgasbord of food, I get excited and tend to want to taste a little bit of everything. When I taste a little bit of everything, it’s easy to sacrifice respecting my fullness for the taste pleasure of food.

Give yourself permission NOT to try everything when a buffet of food is available. Instead, take the time to look at the options and hand-picked the items that will leave you feeling comfortably satisfied. Notice the smells, the colors, the textures and create a plate of food specially for you. Try this trick during the summer holidays and let me know how it works for you!

Eat Intuitively, Move Joyfully, Love Your Body!

After reconnecting with a love for moving and walking outside, driving to a gym to do repetitive movements like walking on a treadmill or using an elliptical for 30 minutes to an hour seemed like a drag. The very idea of getting into a car to drive somewhere in order to move my body, when I can simply walk outside or move at home, made no sense to me at all.

In fact, the only time that I consistently went to a gym, is during my college days because the campus gym was within walking distance. On reflection, the only other instance that I might have been able to sustain a month or so of regular gym attendance was when I went into a frenzied mode of wanting “to lose weight.” Those new years resolutions or the constant barrage of messages about the approaching “swimsuit season” is usually enough pressure to send many of the gym’s fair-weather friends back into the fold.

However, weight loss as the central motivation, carried out by the use of willpower, never lasts long…at least not in my experience. In light of my own observed fickleness with the gym, I had decided that it was best for the gym and I not to be friends.

The fact that most gyms expect you to sign yearly contracts in an attempt to guarantee their revenue and motivate us to get “our money’s worth” also created an undesirable relationship for me. Who really wants to do something because of peer or financial pressure or feeling obligated? I know that getting my “money’s worth” was never enough of a motivation to make me or anyone else I know a gym regular over the long-term.

So, what’s behind my renewed interest in the gym and why this gym? There are several reasons and hear are some highlights:

1) In the past few months, I hit an intuitive eating plateau. I didn’t even know a plateau was possible with my intuitive eating practice because I basically felt fabulous for the first 3 years and assumed that the same would continue. Unfortunately, after growing progressively over the past 3 years, it seemed that I had reached an impasse and I didn’t feel so great anymore.

>Reintroducing the gym into my life is a way to shake things up and spur some new energy.

2) My body has been giving me signals and dreams about wanting to move more, increasing the intensity of my movement practices, and improving my cardiovascular strength.

>I know that gym equipment gives me great feedback on heart rate, distance, and can make me challenge myself more than when I move outside or at home.

>While listening to an audio program for my year-long health coaching certification program with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN), I was reminded that the heart is a muscle and can get stronger when you challenge it!

3) I do enjoy using elliptical equipment and strength training.

>While visiting a few gyms over the past weeks, I began to develop a new and more inspiring perspective about the gym. A gym can provide you and me with great access to toys and open indoor space! Having access to equipment like row machines, medicine balls, a variety of free weights, strength training equipment, indoor swimming pool and racquetball and basketball courts, a room to jump rope in or take classes is pretty sweet. The gym that sold me had a sauna and a steam room too! I’ll gladly pay for access to a steam room. Wouldn’t you?

4) Gyms have 3-month options that are more financially manageable and adjustable to changing schedules and interests.

>I can actually see myself signing up for and using a gym for 3 months at a time whenever, I need to add some new life to my movement practices. A three-month membership over the winter months will be a great option.

After signing on the dotted line and beginning my membership, I genuinely felt a wave of enthusiasm and excitement about my new relationship with the gym and this phase of my intuitive eating journey. I haven’t felt enthusiasm for going to the gym since I was 18, when the gym and I met for the first time.

You know what? Focusing on intuitive eating and intuitive movement gave the gym and I some needed time apart from each other. During that time, the gym and I have both evolved and can now have a more mature and inspired relationship with each other.

In my first few days back with the gym, I have noticed that it can seem like a serious place. This morning, as I looked around at other people using different machines, each person looked like they were “workin’ hard.” However, I don’t know if they were really having fun or feeling the joy of moving their bodies.

Let’s start a movement. Go to the gym when it brings joy to your life, a smile to your face, and you’re going to have fun with your body. You can make the gym a real friend, who’s there for you when you need it.

P.S. Be sure to wear something cute to the gym too…work it baby!

Eat Intuitively, Move Joyfully, Love Your Body.

After the coughing fit subsided and I continued to try to enjoy the remainder of my food, I noticed that I was having a difficult time finding my fullness cue. It’s like the lingering burning sensation in my body acted as a cloud that blocked me from connecting with my fullness signals. This was a weird moment in intuitive eating!

So, instead of continuing to eat in a futile attempt to get a fullness signal that I had an idea was not going to arrive on the scene, I looked at how much I had eaten and decided to put my fork down. Through practicing intuitive eating, I can more easily stop eating because I know that I have full permission to eat when I’m hunger again versus allowing a diet or the clock for permission to nourish my body.

This experience brought to mind the various situations where our hunger and fullness signals can be distorted and blocked for countless reasons. Responding to your body’s hunger and fullness signals is the foundation of intuitive eating. So, when a connection is lost to those vital signals, it’s a bit like being lost in the dark! What do you do? Continue to follow your intuition!

I got an intuitive “hit” that a feeling of fullness was going to be elusive given the body state I was experiencing. However, something in me still needed a cue to eat my last bite.  I chose an external cue based on the amount of food that I had eaten. I’ve purchased that meal a few times before. So, I had a general idea about how much I “usually” eat before I start to feel a slight heaviness in my stomach and know when I’m taking my “last bite.”

In my experience, weird “disconnected” moments in intuitive eating happen differently for hunger cues than for fullness signals.

Circumstances that cloud hunger cues are typically more about “trust,” “patience,”and “self-care”:

1) Can you trust your body to let you know when you’re hunger and what to eat? (A special challenge for those with a prolonged history of dieting and using external cues to eat.)

2) Can you learn to patiently respond to emotionally charged situations, like boredom or anger, without turning to food?

3) Will you take care of your basic needs for things like water and sleep, so that your hunger cues don’t get mixed up with feelings of dehydration or tiredness?

Situations that cloud your fullness signals may be related to difficulties in letting go, under nourishing foods, or peculiar body moments:

1) Has eating become a refuge for you…a space in time when you can escape from your life?

2) Is the temporary break you get while eating more important that listening to and responding to the subtle urgings of your body to stop when you’re full?

3) Have you noticed, that with certain foods, you simply “feel compelled” to keep eating, you just can’t seem to find fullness or a stopping point without eating the entire bag or package of something? (This is a key signal that you may be eating an under nourishing food or a food that throws your body into a state of imbalance.)

4) A crazy eating moment, like I described above, can block fullness cues.

The wonderful miracle of practicing intuitive eating is that your intention and commitment to learn to honor and respond to your hunger and fullness signals will help you find your way beyond the challenges listed above.

My intuitive eating practice is proof positive that a consistent (perfection is not necessary) practice of learning to listen to and honor your body can help you find and maintain a new level of joy, well-being, and balance with food and your body.

Eat Intuitively, Move Joyfully, Love Your Body!

The only wagon that I’ve ever seen is one of those classic red wagons made for children. Many of us have observed a child having fun moving objects and being pulled around in a wagon. It looks so entertaining that I’ve wish that I could be pulled around in a wagon!

Like most adults, you and I can see the limitations of that particular piece of equipment. Imagine yourself climbing into that little red wagon. Could you even do it? You would probably be falling out of that wagon in all different directions, right?

The wagon is a perfect metaphor for the basic flaw of dieting; it’s simply way too small to support and encompass all that you are! Unfortunately, dieting language is tenacious and can affect how you evaluate your progress with intuitive eating.

I’ve heard people talk about doing intuitive eating “wrong” or basically “falling off the wagon.” I’m hear to say that there is no way to do intuitive eating wrong and there is no wagon. If you notice that you’re feeling as though you’ve “fallen off the wagon,” then that’s just the dieting mentality monkey on your back and screeching in your ear.

The best metaphor that I’ve come up with for talking about intuitive eating is thinking in terms of creating your own “zone.” This zone is both external and internal and is unique to your body and your life.

Some of the external parts of your “optimal” intuitive eating zone are:

>>Discovering and buying the foods that you love or like
>>Having clothing that you feel comfortable and attractive wearing
>>Making time to move your body in ways that appeal to you

Your internal intuitive eating zone consists of:

>>Feelings of peace that arise when you respond to your hunger and fullness signals consistently
>>Learning to minimize stress and work through emotions without using food

Last year around this time, I was experiencing that optimal intuitive eating zone.  The previous 2.5 years of consistent practice of intuitive eating had led to an amazing experience of vibrancy in my life and peace and well-being within my body. Yes, I had many times of eating for reasons besides hunger throughout my journey. However, I had steadily experienced many more times of eating when I was hunger, stopping when I was full, and being able to work through issues without using food. My body had steadily become an intuitive eating zone!

In your practice, you’ll have amazing meals when you’re able to honor your hunger and fullness and then meals when you don’t quite hit the mark. And you know what? It’s all a part of your process, your unique journey to find out what balance and honoring your body means to you. When you discover your zone, when you can touch it, taste it, and feel it for yourself, then you know what it takes to maintain it or to find your way back to it or have the foundation in place to create a new more empowering zone.

Dieting is about living in a zone that someone else created. We can kick the dieting bandwagon and thrive and support each other in our personal zones of well-being that together form ever larger circles of care and healing.

What foods, movement, stress relievers, or special clothing items contribute to your optimum intuitive eating zone?

Due to all of our handy-dandy conveniences, you and I can spend most of our days in a sitting position. So, why would I choose voluntarily to carve out time in my day for, body movement, something that I could easily ignore? Because I’ve experienced the benefits that an increased level of movement brings to my life including feeling better in general, experiencing better sleep, working through emotions faster, breathing easier, etc.   As a result, the indoor loving bookworm has become the outdoor exploring walking queen. I have made peace with my body’s need to move. How about you?

When I thought about moving my body as “exercise,” I went through extreme cycles of moving my body a lot (i.e., “working out”) and then not regularly moving my body for months! What I was actually doing in my earlier years, was “working myself out of wanting to move” by engaging in strenuous and joyless repetitive movements. I lived with this inner fear that if I missed a day at the gym, then it would get harder and harder for me to go back and stay consistent…and that was true. Does this experience sound familiar to you?

So, I’ve had this “idea” in my mind about adding strength training to my daily movement practice since November. From experience, I know that many “good ideas,” like going to the gym, can be somewhat difficult to do and to sustain.  However, I remembered that I had enjoyed lifting small weights (2 to 15 lbs) in the past and feeling stronger in the process. So, in December, I pulled out some 2 lbs weights that I owned. I also mentioned this new idea to my roommate and she retrieved some 5 lbs and 8lbs weights from under her bed that she never uses and gave them to me. Well those weights have sat on my floor in the corner for about 7 weeks now!

I’ve looked at those weights at different times throughout the past several weeks and strength training remained an “interesting idea” in my mind. I didn’t let the “idea” of strength training become something that I “should” do. “Shoulds” are hardly ever fun! I did wonder if I would ever get around to acting on that idea. Hmmmm….

Then tonight, my body moved me toward the weights. Literally, I felt moved toward the weights. It was like my body was saying “Latoya, now is the time, I’m ready!”  I wanted to share this experience because I am overjoyed by the fact that I have learned to listen to and to wait for when my body is ready.

It’s almost like my body has a built in resistance or self-sabotaging mechanism that turns on when I’ve forced “exercise” or “dieting” on myself or I’ve gotten overzealous and obsessed about an “idea” about changing my body. My body’s like “slow down,” “wait a minute”, “hold on,”  “let me consider the idea and I’ll get back to you!” My mind is like “let’s get to it!”

With my commitment to move joyfully, I acknowledged the idea about moving my body in a new way, I prepared by making some weights available for strength training, my body considered the idea, apparently approved, and the strength training has begun! I am planning to “proceed with caution.” I want to stay in the flow and prevent any triggering of my internal resistance switch by forcing my body to do more than it’s ready. If you listen to and respect your body, you will be moved!

Eat Intuitively, Move Joyfully, Love Your Body!

The beginning of this year started off strong. I launched this blog in March. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of connecting with some awesome folks, who have willingly and courageously started listening and responding to their bodies hunger and fullness signals.  We are exploring a new eating and body loving frontier…

We are boldly going where no dieter has gone before!

Respecting our hunger and fullness signals is a major feat considering all of the messages that tell us to ignore the wisdom of our bodies. The main culprit in the continued collective spell of eating madness is the billion dollar dieting industry and the body obsession it engenders.

I’ve wondered why dieting’s spell over me was always very weak, while I gravitated instantly to intuitive eating, once I became aware of the principles. Seriously, my track record with dieting is dismal. My psyche and body simply don’t respond well to restriction or pressure. I also have issues with “authority.” I just don’t like any one or any “plan” telling me what I’m “supposed” to do. What fun can be truly had in trying to contort myself to fit someone else’s ideal?

Intuitive eating has allowed me to tailor my eating to fit my unique mind, body, spirit, and soul. Significantly, the intellectual and spiritual sides of myself have always been greatly motivated by personal growth and evolution. Unlike a diet, the learning and personal growth through practicing intuitive eating is unlimited.

Here are a few of my intuitive eating inspired personal development highlights for 2010:

• Happily, I graduated to a new level of being able to recognize and respect my fullness.
• In April, as I began wearing my spring/summer wardrobe, I discovered that my body had shed 32.5 pounds (2 inches) over the previous 2.5 years.
• After a salt water taffy eating massacre in May:
  • I realized that salt water taffy was a major intuitive eating teacher this year. The last time that I ate taffy was before I started eating intuitively. So, the body imbalance that I felt due to eating it was extremely obvious.
  • I learned that my body simply gets lost and can not provide normal fullness signals when I eat pure sugar.
  • I observed that I can eat a large number of taffy in a vain search for satisfaction that never arrives. Instead, I end up feeling a sense of “yuck.”
  • I got very clear on the fact that taffy looks a lot better than it actually tastes, that I never get satisfied eating it, and that the “yuck” sensation is a new fullness indicator!
• On Thanksgiving day, the intuitive eating superbowl, I realized that most traditional holiday dishes are simply “too heavy” and liberated myself from being attached to eating certain things on the holidays.
• Phenomenally, when the cold weather season swept in this year, I continued my walking practice. Yay, Latoya!

Do you have any intuitive eating inspired highlights to share for 2010?

For 2011, I wish that an even larger number of people find their way out of the confused eater’s dieting maze by learning to honor their innate body wisdom. My continued commitment remains to serve as an intuitive eating catalyst and facilitator for those ready to step into and embrace a world beyond dieting.

Eat Intuitively, Move Joyfully, Love Your Body!