Is Intuitive Eating Realistic?

Today's busy busy busy lifestyle makes intuitive eating seem, well, counterintuitive. It seems too time consuming to spend time tuning into the body throughout the day to discover what food it wants to eat. What if it wants a banana and you don't have one? Or, what if your body wants to eat at 10 am, but your lunch break isn't until noon? Is it even worth it?

I say it is. The reason I stand behind intuitive eating is that you will learn to pay attention to what your body needs, instead of giving into what your emotions want. And that means you will overeat less and feel better more.

For more help with intuitive eating, check out my book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984153705 because Tip #5 will define it and explain how to apply it into your life. Not only that, there is a workbook section to help you personalize it and drive the point home.

Drugs vs. Self-Control

There's an article in the New York Times about research comparing monkeys who ate 30% less calories than another group of monkeys. The group that took in fewer calories showed these results: longer lifespan and less diabetes, cancer, and cholesterol problems.

So that's good news, right? At least we know what we can do if we want to live longer and healthier. What percentage of your daily calories currently includes food you ate when you were already comfortably full? Do you stop to listen to your body to find out when it's full, or do you typically just eat the portions in front of you? Learning to restrain yourself could add years to your life, which is encouraging.

But here's the part about drugs vs. self-control. The article suggests that since most people can't stick to a diet of 30% less calories than they are used to, they are going to develop a drug that can create the same results as eating less.

First of all, that's sad that there's an assumption people won't do what's best for them. Not that I disagree. Most people won't stop overeating. So let's just skip self-control as even an option and go straight to more drugs as a solution? (Because it worked so well for Michael Jackson and thousands of others with drug dependencies). Secondly, is it realistic that a drug can substitute for healthy eating? Seriously, drugs can't solve everything. We don't want to become a nation of drug dependent overeaters.

Here's the article link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/science/10aging.html?_r=1.

3 More Tips to Stop Overeating

It's too late to make the book Stop Overeating Today! 36 Tips That Will Change Your Life. Besides, that sounds awkward. 33 is much better.

Anyway, here are 3 more I just came up with. The second tip goes right along with the book, so it won't be applicable until you actually have the book in your hands. I included it today because it help you see how easy the book is to apply once you have it.

1. Put your fork down between every bite. Just try it once and notice the difference.

2. Mix it up and have fun with the tips in the book. The nice thing about these tips is that you don’t have to execute them in any certain way to find success. It’s not like a tennis game where you need to focus on several different factors all at once like footwork, the racket’s angle, follow through, and the direction your hips and shoulders are facing. You don’t need to remember five tips at once to find success. You can just focus on one tip one day and try another one the next day. They are easy to use, apply, and reuse, but there is no requirements to do them a certain way to be successful.

3. Stop weighing yourself every day. Hide your scale. If you are too concerned with losing weight, you will add stress to the eating experience and may end up eating too much. Just focus on feeling your best and eating intuitively. You don’t need to rank yourself based on numbers you see. If you have certain expectations to lose a certain amount of weight by a certain time and you fall short, you may get discouraged and overeat as a result. Stop playing the numbers game. It’s more important to eat healthy and be active than it is to reach a certain number on a scale.

Why the Little Things Matter

Has this every happened to you? While eating you get full with just a little bit of food left over. It seems silly to put it back in the fridge and you figure it's only a tiny bit, so you might as well finish it off. But unfortunately, it pushes you just over the edge into feeling too full. Darn! You've lost your happy place.

What's the big deal with that? The "too full" feeling will only last a few minutes. But if you're like me, you will get in the habit of tuning out your body's full signal and you'll start overeating more and more. Once you stop eating intuitively (paying attention to your body's cues about being hungry and full - Tip # 5 in the book Stop Overeating Today!) it's easy to just focus on cleaning your plate and to tune out your body.

So that's why the little bit of food left over matters. The last few chips in the bottom of the bag, the rest of the cereal, those last few bites of dinner you don't really want but you feel bad throwing away and silly putting back.

It's okay to throw it away or put it back in the fridge. Once you stop listening to your body, it's really easy to do it agai.