How are you doing with your New Year’s resolution to eat healthier and respect your body? If you’re like the majority of Americans, those health-conscious resolutions have fallen to the wayside and you’ve returned to your bad habits.
But how do you get on a healthier track that isn’t so much about food but rather, eliminating your toxic relationship with your body and food? Today, our health expert talks about how Intuitive Eating and what happened when she stopped obsessing about food.
===
This year I ended a very negative relationship and started a beautiful one.
I dropped my love-hate, ‘food is the enemy,’ constant battle with diet, weight and body image and made peace with food instead.
I decided that since we’re in this together we might as well make friends.
I stopped listening to everything else out there and started listening only to what my body wanted and needed. Honestly, after years of trying every diet in the book, consuming every nutrition blog, trying every expert recommendation and researching the latest fad, I didn’t need any more information. That was merely muddying the already murky waters, ramping up my stress, layering on the guilt if I wasn’t doing it “right” or managed to fail once again.
No, the last thing I needed was more information, what I needed was wisdom, body wisdom. And it was there all along, I just hadn’t bothered to pay it any attention! God forbid I trust myself! (Yikes!)
However, once I decided to tap into my intuition and truly embraced that innate body wisdom, some very interesting, and exciting things happened! Check it out:
5 Surprising things that happened when I stopped obsessing about food:
1. My waistband loosened.
Whaaa? I’ve been wearing the same Lulus to my workouts for years. They’ve always left that tell-tale mark from the elastic waistband. (ya’ll know what I’m talking about). Today, I noticed they were actually gaping at the waist. Apparently, since I’ve dropped my stress-inducing obsession with right-or-wrong, good-or-bad foods, and just followed my gut (no pun intended), I’ve dropped some pounds too!
2. I’ve stopped eating when I’m full (and am eating less!)
By giving my body exactly what it’s asking for as opposed to what I think it’s supposed to have, I feel satiated earlier, my body is satisfied and I am therefore just naturally just eating less.
3. My relationships are flourishing
Now that I am no longer distracted by my constant worry (obsession) about food; what I can or can’t/ should or shouldn’t have, will or won’t be eating, I am more fully present in my conversations and interactions with my friends and family…and those relationships can’t help but flourish for it.
4. I’m sleeping better.
No more tossing and turning worrying about what I ate, overate, or didn’t eat that day. If you’re a ruminator like me, you know what I’m talking about! Plus, no more early alarm clock to get that extra workout in because I need to “burn off” those extra calories from losing yet another mental battle with my fork. And better sleep = healthier, mind AND body.
5. I am happier.
I never realized the amount of precious energy I was wasting on my toxic relationship with food and my quest for the “perfect” diet. Now I fully trust my body to tell me what it needs, and trust myself to listen, respond appropriately and then just MOVE O. I have subsequently freed up so much mental bandwidth for all the amazing and wonderful things my life has been waiting for me to SHOW UP for! I am free to be fully present and participate in this beautiful life I’m lucky to lead, and that makes me one happy girl.
Trust that your body knows what it needs. Begin listening to your body’s natural intuition when it comes to food. Drown out the “experts” and latest diet hypes. Sure they may work for some, but if that way of living isn’t working for you, (and if you’ve read this far I’m guessing it’s not), then surrender the battle already. Make friends with food and agree to move forward as a united front, in it together, for your well-being, mind and body. I promise it’s not only possible but totally worth it!
Other Great Intuitive Eating Resources
The Intuitive Eating Workbook: Ten Principles for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food
Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works
Intuitive Eating for Every Day: 365 Daily Practices & Inspirations to Rediscover the Pleasures of Eating
Author: Mile High Mamas
