Power Skills for Intuitive Eating

You feel in control when you balance what you eat, with what you need and how you feel. Balance is a power skill. Another name for intuitive eating is eating with an open mind. An open mind looks at the big picture, weighs the facts and sees what matters to achieve balance. The big picture is more important than calories. It's about you. Breathing drives power skills for intuitive self-control.

Here are 3 Breaths to Intuitive Eating:

1. Take a bite.

• Breathe slowly to recognize if you are very hungry or not. Listen to your body. Notice how you feel physically. Have you ever been too tired to eat?

• How it works: Breathing slower is the way to connect with your body to be clear about hunger.  Hunger is physical. Decide to listen to what you feel physically. Respond to your body.

•  Power skill: Tenacity. Tenacity is being true to yourself - mind, body and spirit.

2. Taste your food.

• Breathe naturally to connect with your normal rhythm. Notice how you feel in your head: Happy? Bored? Stressed?  Notice your food. If you're not tasting what you eat, stop.

• How it works: Natural breathing connects with your emotions and state of mind. Taste connects with what matters. When emotions drive eating, it offends you in your core by ignoring or abusing your body. Give yourself a break. Binging, no matter what the reason, hurts- because it's unbalanced.

• Power skill: Dignity. It's not what you do, but how you do it. Dignity is self-respect. You can feel it.

3. Put both of your hands in your lap.

• Take 1 quick deeper breath in and out to refresh the way you look at things, wipe your head clean and connect with the big picture. What is your overall state of mind? 

•  How it works: A quick breath is your reset button. Putting your hands in your lap gives your lungs more space to expand. A quick deep breath resets your rhythm. It thrusts you into the moment to uncover new options. When you take a full view of how you feel, what you feel & what you need, it creates a balance. The result is: your options change.
• Power skill: Prudence. It's like comparison shopping. Prudence is comparing options. You can always choose to get what you need from what you eat.

This is so easy that you may find yourself a little giddy. That's okay. Intuition connects with your 'funny bone.' Like your sense of humor, how you eat is personal. That's why the best way to know what to eat, is to check in with yourself. You have the power.

Stop thinking about food.

Get rid of fat from the inside out. Stop thinking about food. Instead of focusing on what you're putting into your body, think about how your body feels when you eat.

Learning to respect your body is part of the rite of passage from dieting to intuitive eating. Rites of passage are life changing. Change your life by changing your eating habits.

Getting rid of old habits gets rid of old fat.
Your body is more important than what you eat.
Start connecting with your body when you eat - instead of thinking about food. 

When you tune-in to how your body feels, it's automatic to make food choices that keep you feeling comfortable. As a result you will:

• Stay clear about your priorities. 
• Respect and protect your body by acknowledging it when you eat.  
• Develop healthy eating habits.

Lose fat from the inside out with these simple intuitive tricks:

•  Eat less by chewing more. Chewing burns calories. It helps you get more benefit from what you eat because digestive enzymes in your mouth prepare food for your stomach. The result is you feel full sooner.
• Make it a point to put down your fork or spoon between bites. This gives you time to chew. It also makes it natural to talk to the person you're eating with. Talk about how good the food tastes. It's a sexy topic for everyone. You will eat less.
• After you tune-in to your body, only eat what you really want. Check in with how you feel between bites. Notice if your food tastes good because this helps you stay in tune with your body. You will discover you are not always that hungry. Stop when you feel full. Soon, you will notice old eating habits that ignore your body, and now you can stop them.

When you do these simple tricks, your clothes won't feel as tight.
You'll have less indigestion and less insomnia.

Being overweight is often the result of stress and the self-defeating habits it creates. Intuitive eating  guides you beyond the diet mentality to experience a common sense way of eating and body awareness. It's common sense that if eating habits are making you fat, it's time to get rid of them.