Turn cravings to comfort.

Cravings and Candy

Change cravings to the comfort and pleasures of self-respect in 15 minutes. 

Every emotional dip on the roller coaster of living is a time of heightened cravings. Family and friends ask, what do you want? Our classic response is emotional, physical and social! When teased by sweets, we see food not only with our eyes, but also with our heart. Intuitive eaters use dignity to tune-in and trust their gut/heart response.

If you expect to be in a stressful eating environment, eat a hard boiled egg before you go out. It will take the edge off of your hunger, provide healthy protein and is an easy way to know you're in control of what you eat.

Did you know it takes a full 15 minutes for your brain to know that your stomach has had a sweet treat?  Use that 15 minutes to give yourself times to socialize or relax! This way you will give your head time it needs recognizes if you still are physically craving sweets. What will happens during the 15 minutes is, your other priorities will become exciting. Try it! You will be surprised.  

You might just eat 1/2 of what you crave and then use the 15 minute rule before you go for more. During your 15 minutes, imagine how you feel when you take control of your choices. You feel pretty good!  When you're hit with emotional stress, keep an open mind, stay clear about what matters to you. 

Everyone is unique. Eating is a personal experience. Trust your physical process to be the best you can be. Acknowledge cravings and stay clear about what matters to you in the long run at the same time. Eat less, taste more because you can. While you eat a piece of chocolate, be sure to really taste and enjoy it. Make your senses and loving your body a priority when you eat. 

The difference between intuitive eating and eating 'unhealthy' cravings is, you feel good about yourself an hour after you eat with dignity. When bullied by emotional eating demands, you feel lousy about yourself an hour later.

You can balance what you crave with what you need. Eating a square of chocolate because it makes you feel good and you like the way it tastes, is healthy. Chocolate is an anti-oxident. Your body uses anti oxidents help to clean pollution from your system.  Craving to eat something can mean that your body needs it. Yes, even chocolate!  You can work with and satisfy your body by trusting what you sense in your gut.  

Social, emotional needs, and physical needs are equally important. We all crave and need respect and affection.  The first person to get if from is you. Respond to your needs by going after what you really want. Make yourself happy. 

Learn more practical tips for eating intuitively, by knowing  how to take control of what pushes your buttons with Am I Really Hungry - 6th sense eating. As always, feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions! You are amazing.

Trust your process. 

Intuitively you know what makes you feel good.

#JaneBernard

jb@transitionspress.com

Inner Peace

Inner peace begins with intuitive thinking. 

Intuitive tools find your inner guidance system.

Take attitudes of courage, dignity, tenacity and self-respect to holiday parties.

Hunger is a physical reality. Binging is an emotional trap. Fighting emotional traps is intuitive. When you make an intuitive choice, it feels 'right'. Your intuition 'has your back.' Powerful intuitive tools bring freedom from emotional eating.

Holidays push our buttons. Anyone who has eaten food for emotional support knows the result is disappointment. Emotional eating is a trap. There is a way out. The 6th Sense Diet  brings inner peace by revealing new solutions and understanding that change your relationship with your body from stress to satisfying. Putting pressure on yourself will be over.

Emotional eating or binging happens when we feel bad or sorry for ourselves. Even though the media would have us think differently, food is not a band-aid. It cannot mend a broken heart or make a mean person nice. Reality is that Life can be painful, unfair and hard. Responding to pain by eating more changes nothing; instead, we feel worse.

When emotions guide food choices, there is no inner peace. Intuition bypasses emotions. That's why we can feel deeply emotional around food and 'know' we're wrong to eat it. Using intuitive tools like tenacity, courage and dignity are your surprisingly reassuring anchor to personal peace. It's personal power.

  Three questions to ask yourself for inner peace:

• Does eating this leave me feeling physically comfortable, satisfied and healthy?
• If the answer is yes, then focus on comfort, satisfaction and health while you eat. 
• You will feel when you're had enough. This is feeling your mind working with your body. 
• Intuition balances what you want with what you know and what you feel. Power eating is listening to your intuition.
• Why am I eating this? 
• Being honest with yourself is the beginning of trusting your intuition. 
• The fact is, intuition is always protective. Trust it.
• Feel dignity in your heart and listen to that feeling.
•  If you're eating to satisfy emotions, stop. Decide to take control by being courageous. 
• You are stronger than anger or disappointment. You are stronger than sadness. 
• It's powerful to take control of self-defeating emotions, but it's not hard. Things that are wrong, crumble easily.
• Give yourself a smile of determination. Go for a short walk to cool off. Reset your perspective. The only reason to eat is because you're hungry.
• What do I really want? 
• You want to fight it. No one wants to be a slave to emotions. Eating, weight maintenance, diet, work, family, responsibilities - all of these weigh on us 24/7. We need help to be strong. We don't have a lot of time to cook. Write down what you really want and put the piece of paper where you can look at it any time.
• Adopt an attitude of determination and stick with it. Get what you want. Comfort, satisfaction and health create quality of life. Eat less; chew more. Attitude is powerful.
• FitsMe is a Web app that helps you find meals and create plans that fit your diet. Tell the site your food restrictions, likes, and dislikes and it serves up recipes to satiate even your pickiest preferences. It can save time and help you plan. 

Peace comes when you focus on comfort, satisfaction, and health while you eat. Natural courage to zap fear and overcome doubts is part of your intuition. Determination and self-respect to follow through with what feels 'right', complete the picture. Be dignified when you eat. Find your inner peace; it's intuitive.

 "Anything is possible if you've got enough nerve." JK Rowlings

#janebernard

Power Eating

Intuitive Eating is Power Eating

Hunger is a physical reality. Binging is an emotional trap. Fighting emotional traps is intuitive. It's liberating. When we make an intuitive choice, it feels 'right' and that is reassuring. Powerful intuitive tools free us from emotional eating.

Emotional eating or binging happens when we feel bad or sorry for ourselves. Even though the media would have us think differently, food is not a band-aid. It cannot mend a broken heart or make a mean person nice. Reality is that Life can be painful, unfair and hard. Responding to pain by eating more changes nothing; instead, we feel worse.

Anyone who has eaten food for emotional support knows the result is disappointment. Emotional eating is a trap. The only way out is to fight it.

When emotions guide food choices, we're going to gain weight. Intuition bypasses emotions. That's why we can feel deeply emotional around food and 'know' we're wrong to eat it. Using intuitive tools like determination, courage and dignity is surprisingly reassuring. It's power eating.

Here are 3 questions to ask yourself to know if a choice is 'right'.

• Does eating this leave me feeling physically comfortable, satisfied and healthy?
• If the answer is yes, then focus on comfort, satisfaction and health while you eat. 
• You will feel when you're had enough. This is feeling your mind working with your body. 
• Intuition balances what we want with what we know and what we feel. Power eating is listening to our intuition.
• Why am I eating this? 
• Being honest with yourself is the beginning of trusting your intuition. 
• The fact is, intuition is always protective. Trust it.
• Feel dignity in your heart and listen to that feeling.
•  If you're eating to satisfy emotions, stop. Decide to take control by being courageous. 
• You are stronger than anger or disappointment. You are stronger than sadness. 
• It's powerful to take control of self-defeating emotions, but it's not hard. Things that are wrong, crumble easily.
• Give yourself a smile of determination. Go for a short walk to cool off. Re-set your perspective. The only reason to eat is because you're hungry.
• What do I really want? 
• You want to fight it. No one wants to be a slave to emotions. Eating, weight maintenance, diet, work, family, responsibilities - all of these weigh on us 24/7. We need help to be strong. We don't have a lot of time to cook. Write down what you really want and put the piece of paper where you can look at it any time.
  • Adopt an attitude of determination and stick with it. Get what you want. Comfort, satisfaction and health create quality of life. Eat less, chew more. Attitude is powerful.
• FitsMe is a Web app that helps you find meals and create plans that fit your diet. Tell the site your food restrictions, likes, and dislikes and it serves up recipes to satiate even your pickiest preferences. It can save time and help you plan. 

Use attitude. Remember to focus on comfort, satisfaction, and health when you eat. Use the power of natural courage to zap fear and over come doubts. Use determination and self-respect to follow through with what feels 'right' and use attitude. Be dignified when you eat. It's intuitive power.

"Anything is possible if you've got enough nerve." JK Rowlings

#janebernard

Break Habits

Take control of what you eat by breaking habits.

Habits happen when we grab what is easy, convenient or fast. The result is emotional eating because habits are not a response to our body. Eating is not supposed to be a habit. We're supposed to respond to hunger.

Ignoring our body often means we are not satisfied by what we eat. Physical needs are unique and change all the time. When we ignore what we want, we feel lousy. Emotional eating is an unsatisfying way of rebelling against what doesn't feel right. Don't let emotional eating be a habit.

Habits are ruts. Being in a rut feels like being old. Worse, habits make us feel trapped. Yuck! Shake off eating habits by getting into the season. Open your eyes, inhale the new fragrance in the air. Try new foods that smell and look good. New experiences renew us. There is a feeling of excitement and anticipation that makes us look and feel younger.

• ·Habits limit choices and kill spontaneity, which makes us look drawn and tired. Eat to feel good.  Don’t be in a rut.

• Add spice to life with new experiences. Instead of a big meal, eat small amounts when you try something new. Really taste, smell and experience the newness. Eating is supposed to be a pleasure.

•  Be kind to yourself.  Don’t dwell on the past. It’s history. What matters is eating to keep healthy and fit today. Leave the past behind. Take a moment to be grateful for good health and the ability to move forward.

•  Initiate change in routines. Spring is the season to be spontaneous. Allow yourself time and space to do personal things differently. Eating is personal. If you don’t feel like eating, don’t; if you want to just have appetizers, do! Connect with curiosity you were born with. Have more fun. 

• Taste more by chewing and savoring what you eat. Stop talking about your body, weight, diet or frustration. Talk about ideas and what makes you feel good. Spring is a season of new beginnings.

• Simplify eating decisions by using your senses more. Notice what you notice. It will be clear if you’re bored, excited or hungry. Listen to your body. The rule is to honor yourself.

Take a breath. Take time to give yourself a chance. Stay in the present and enjoy Life!

• Think with your senses. Check in with the way you feel before and while you're eating. Make decisions spontaneously.

• Feel with your mind.  Use intuitive tools like courage, dignity and curiosity to guide eating choices. Before you eat ask, "How will I feel about myself if I eat this?" Respect and protect yourself.  Be intuitive.

  Am I Really Hungry, 6th Sense Diet: Intuitive Eating  will help you reset mealtime priorities and recognize what holds you back from eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're not. Pick up a hard copy and stick markers on pages that help you stay true to yourself, or buy an e-copy and access intuitive tools from your phone!

#janebernard

Four Steps to Slim

It's spring. Give yourself every chance to move forward and fall in love with your life all over again. This is a season of new beginnings. Here are four easy, non-stress steps to feeling slim. Start following these today and by June, you will notice a difference.

(1) S - START using all of your senses more throughout the day - including common sense. Common sense is balancing what you know, with what you feel, to do what is in your best interest.

• It's common sense to eat slower and it's easy!! Put your fork or sandwich down between bites.
• When we really taste and chew food, we eat less. Don't be lazy - taste your food!
• Portion control is as basic as using our eyes to see how much food is on the plate. 
• If you go out for dinner, ask to have your main course on a salad plate and only eat what fits on that plate.

(2 ) L - LET go of diet dogma and tune-in to your own body. 95% of dieters gain back more weight than they lose.

•  Diets are generic; you are not. Learn which foods are nutritious and then eat what you feel like having, for energy and nutrition. Here is a helpful site for nutrition facts.
• Self-control is about yourself. Eating is personal. Do what works best for you.
• Try enjoying soup or dessert with a teaspoon instead of a large spoon. You will eat slower and less.

(3) I - INTUITION is our friend. Everyone has it. Intuitive tools are a total support system with guidelines that connect with what we value. These help us stay in control of eating mentally, physically and emotionally. Intuitive tools are an attitude to bring to the table every time you eat. Tenacity, determination and dignity are examples of intuitive tools.

• Tenacity is being true to yourself.  When you make a decision to have this attitude, you connect with an attitude of determination, which stops feelings of frustration! Instead of stress around eating for nutrition and energy, your priorities realign and you are more patient with yourself. It's awesome.
• An attitude of dignity is always an asset. You feel it in your chest. Don't ever put yourself in a position that offends your dignity!

(4) M -ME. Think about "me" when you eat. Experience your own body, your own mind and your own soul. Be kind to yourself and honest with yourself. Love has a way of helping us. Love yourself at mealtime. Loving starts by forgiving yourself for every bad eating decision you ever made. That's a secret for moving forward.

• Before you get out of bed in the morning, close your eyes and visualize your ideal, healthy body. Imagine what it feels like to be fit and how much energy you will have during the day.
• Appreciate your ability to make choices and your strength to follow through with being the best you can be.
• Connect with an attitude of gratitude for little things that make your life easier. It's those little things that we can count on that help us stay on track when the going gets rough.

Am I Really Hungry, 6th Sense Diet: Intuitive Eating  will help reset your priorities and you will recognize what's holding you back from eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're not. Pick up a hard copy and stick markers on pages that help you stay true to yourself, or buy an e-copy and access intuitive tools from your phone!

#janebernard

Diet Crisis : Frustration Tips

A diet crisis can happen if we're frustrated or even when feeling good! Either way, it's going off the track of what we really want, and it feels lousy. Stuff happens; we're human. It's time to keep moving forward. Don't get stuck in a diet crisis.

The way to start moving forward is to forgive yourself. 

Do it to reconnect with the relief of momentum! 

Remember, no matter where you are, if you don't keep moving, you won't reach your goal.

Here are tips for staying on track. They are intuitive, and easy to remember when you feel a crisis. Before you begin eating, especially when you feel frustrated, always take 2 slow deep breath in and out. Look at the food and see what feels right to you. This connects you with your intuition and your body.

4 intuitive tools to connect with calm and relief:

• Patience with yourself ends frustration and helps overcome the temptation to give up. It is an opportunity to prove yourself to you, to be all that you can be. Patience connects with the big picture. This keeps our attitude flexible and we feel less pressure.

• Determination to follow through is deep inside each of us. You can call on it by remembering that you are worthy of fighting for. Fight for yourself by eating just enough and no more. Listen to the voice of determination that lives in your heart. This creates the comforting feeling of balance and control.

• Dignity to honor yourself is especially helpful if you feel frustrated, deprived or sorry for yourself. Dignity directly connects with determination. This means when you try to feel dignified when frustration happens, you will get an extra assist from your intuition to honor yourself. You will discover an inner attitude of gratitude that takes away your appetite.  Dignity is a guide to see, do, feel and be what is best.

• Prudence is like comparison shopping. It connects with common sense and is very helpful for shedding self-disappointment, frustration or doubt. It is the intuitive way to recognize that there are always options. Frustration connects with a self-defeating victim mentality. Prudence guides us to see choices. It  keeps our minds open.  In fact, determination proves that there is always another option, and prudence is a stress-buster.

There are ten organic, intuitive tools that are amazing for getting rid of frustration at any time. Find them in chapter 15, 'Frustration', in Am I Really Hungry? 6th sense diet: Intuitive Eating.

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.

Your Inner Rebel

Louise was trying to lose weight, walking every day and being conscious of portion size. Louise was doing a great job of changing her body. She was converting fat to muscle and felt tighter, but since muscle weighs more than fat her weight was the same. Louise didn't trust herself or even deeply believe in her efforts. Instead she depended the scale for validation. But the scale didn't budge and she felt defeated.

Using a scale to validate your progress to lose weight sabotages by undermining your efforts.  The scale is an obstacle in the way to connecting with the needs of your body.  When we define ourselves by measuring 'progress' we're not allowing the space and time of organic change to unfold in a natural or enduring way. 

When you decide to lose weight, instead of supervising yourself with rules, listen to your body. Imposing control that feels stressful won't bring long-term weight loss. That type of control feels restrictive and encourages your inner rebel. The inner rebel is your survival instinct- it feels stress and holds on to those fat cells until it feels safe. 

Use your eyes to see portion size and use taste to judge quality. Get moderate exercise and eat slow enough to notice how you feel. Let experience remind you that respecting your body is respecting your self. Respecting yourself  makes your body feel safe and allows it to let go of fat.  

Use the intuitive tools of dignity and determination to allow your body to complete it's process so you look and feel good.  Dignity, determination and self respect is how to walk the walk of long-term body health.  

It's a bold step for a dieter to trust her body. Spring is a time of new beginnings. Take the first step to change by tuning in to your senses to notice what you notice. You don't need a scale to validate your efforts. Use dignity and determination to fortify the bold choice to trust yourself. You're worth it! 

Keeping momentum and dropping pounds

Sometimes when you're achieving an intuitive breakthrough you won't notice it's happening. Habit is to focus on what isn't happening and how bad you feel about yourself which puts you in a fog.  Use your senses to wake up to what's real- You are a work of art in progress. Be open to your natural momentum and you will drop pounds.

Susan planned to go to her brother's anniversary party knowing that it would hit all of her emotional buttons. Filled with self-doubt, she felt fear, anger and stubborn. She imagined standing by the buffet eating one piece of cake after another and hating herself for doing it, for being fat and feeling awful. Doubt was pushing her into a corner of self-defeat. 

Taking an intuitive pause, Susan connected with her senses and her heart and realized she was repeating old unpleasant habits. She used dignity and determination and changed her mind-set.

Susan loves cake so visualized herself slowly eating one delicious piece away from the buffet - while sitting down enjoying conversation with her family. She even visualized putting some icing on her finger and enjoying licking it off! Susan used the tool of foresight to eat a light protein dense dinner before the party so she wouldn't feel starved. This was taking control of the situation. An instant later she felt a lightness of contentment and comfort. Momentum and self-control feel like the same thing.

April is the time to start thinking about looking great in a bathing suit.

Working hard to lose weight can feel disappointing because it's easy to lose sight of change as a process not a moment. Instant gratification is not enduring gratification. Eating intuitively is a long-term weight maintenance plan. Stick with the plan and get ready to look great in a bathing suit this summer.  

You're doing a great job right now! It's intuitive to protect your body by keeping it healthy. Breathe in and out and keep the momentum going.

The Blame Game

Do you play the 'Blame game'?  

Jessi is a dieter who is becoming an intuitive eater. She decided to have a healthy snack and opened a bag of carrots. She took a bite and the carrot tasted strange. The inside of her mouth felt tingly, even fuzzy. Jessi ignored her senses and decided it was her fault for buying the carrots in a bag instead of fresh. Because she 'knew' that carrots were 'good', Jessi assumed she was 'bad' and the source of the problem.

Her mouth was practically screaming that the carrots were unhealthy. But the diet mentality is to blame yourself and ignore your body, and so she did.  She ate 5 carrots and then grabbed a cupcake to get the taste out of her mouth. No one wins the blame game.

When you play the blame game you stop noticing what you notice with your senses. Ignoring your senses betrays your inner dignity. This feels really awful. 

  

Forcing your body to eat what it rejects is not intuitive.  

Eating intuitively is to respond to your body. 

As soon as you respond to your body, you are in control. 

That's all it takes!

Jessi is learning to notice messages from her senses. Her tastebuds told her the carrots were bad. But the habit of diet programs told her she was bad. This blame game had become her habit. Once Jessi realized it was a habit and that she could take control, she felt like a different person. 

Notice what you notice. Habits are hard to break. But self-defeating habits are worth breaking. It is never intuitive to 'blame' yourself. The intuitive choice is to look for options when your senses give you a heads up.

The Myth of Self-Control

Change happens inside us. 

'Self-control' imposed by ideas or rules can feel like a threat to your body. Feeling threatened puts your body in the survival mode. 

Your body :

              - is genetically programmed for survival. It can force you to eat, breathe or sleep to survive. 

              - will be fat any time it decides that being fat is the best way to keep you safe. 

              - decides how much you weigh, not your conscience or a book you read. 

That's why self-control is a myth. Since our body controls itself, it has complete control over how fast we burn fat. Because it's intuitive to protect and empower your body, trusting your intuition keeps your body feeling safe. 

Tune in with your senses and notice what you notice. Your 6th sense will kick in to enhance your observations and what is right to eat to be your healthy shape will be automatic.

Intuitive eating feels like self respect. Your body relaxes, you enjoy eating and the pounds fall off! That's what's happening with people doing my IntuEating program right now! It's easy to talk about, but letting go of self-control is a challenge when you are used to dieting. Be patient with yourself.

Begin this way:

            - Nourish your body every day by only eating what you really want.

            - Listen with your senses to your heart and body.

            - Visualize your healthy fit body, exactly the way you want to look and feel before you get out of bed in the morning and before every meal. Feed that body.

When you force yourself to lose weight, you are violating your bodies natural laws and it rebels by holding on to fat. The real path for self-control is to connect with yourself using dignity and your senses to be clear about what feels right. Take a deep breath and realize that your body is talking to you.

Listen to your body and trust yourself.

Eat Cake

Yep, you read that right.  Hey, say there is something to celebrate and you want to eat cake.  Well, as an intuitive eater, that works.  Intuitive eating is not about denying yourself. It's about enjoying what you eat for the best quality of life. Oh, I can see you rolling your eyes in dis-belief, and I get it.  How can you eat cake and lose weight.  The answer is: with dignity.  

What does dignity have to do with eating cake? Well, everything. Dignity is a kind of self-respect and that is connected with your 6^th sense.  All of your senses give your pleasure and protection. Your 6^th sense, which is your intuition, has the job of balancing messages from your 5 senses: taste, touch, smell, hearing, and seeing with what you have learned from experience. But that is not all intuition does. Your intuition also responds to your emotions. When it comes to celebrating and eating cake, emotions are big.

Ah, cake- that is a pleasure.  I love to eat cupcakes, partially because they are already cut to size and this saves me from being tempted to ignore my common sense and over eat. Over eating is not a pleasure.  It not only makes my body feel bad, but ultimately I don't feel good about my self when I overeat. Intuition is connected with common sense.

Common sense is part of your intuition because it keeps you in touch with what is real.  If you think you don’t have the common sense that other people have, think again.  When it comes to eating, common sense is connected with your other 5 senses and your body. When you eat, connecting with your senses and your body keeps you clear  about what you are doing (eating) and how you feel about it (stuffed).  Try fine tuning your senses when you eat to help connect you with your common sense.

This is my story. My friend, Emma had a birthday party complete with a cake. After we sang “Happy Birthday”, delicious over-sized pieces of red-velvet cake with vanilla butter cream icing  were served all around the table. An unnaturally large piece was placed in front of me. As soon as I looked at it my mouth was watering. Red velvet is a kind of chocolate with a reddish hue, red is the color of excitement, and I was very excited to get this treat. Connecting with my eyes, I could see it was moist and then the smell of it hit me like a sweet kiss.  I really wanted this cake.

I know my intuition connects my body with my senses and my mind, so briefly I checked in with my stomach. And then I realized, I had just eaten a big dinner, and worse, that I wasn’t really very hungry.  I still wanted the cake.

I looked around the table and all of my friends were deep in to their cake. Plus, the person next to me, who btw was a slim lady, said that it tasted really good. Of course, I thought, just my luck, I’m watching my weight and get this. I needed to connect with my common sense.  I continued fine tuning my senses. I looked at my piece again and it was seductive.

Well I already knew how this cake looked and smelled.  So for taste, I discretely stuck my finger in the soft icing and then I licked my finger. Rolling it around on my tongue, I recognized sweet, delicious, and full of butter. Suddenly the man sitting opposite me burped, not loud, but I heard him and our eyes met.  Sheepishly, he said to me.  “I guess I ate it a little fast.” And yes, his whole slice of decadent red velvet cake was gone. This surprised me because I was still checking out my piece of cake. I realized that by checking out the cake I was doing "the intuitive pause".  It was giving me time to connect with my common sense. Meanwhile, my 5 senses were telling me that this cake is yes, a definite treat. 

My stomach was quiet. Obviously, my dinner had satisfied my hunger, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to eat the cake. I love cake and I wanted to celebrate.

As an intuitive eater, I’m committed to being true to myself.  That means that I have to respect my emotions as well as my body and my experience.  Sounds easy but because it’s not automatic, I work at it. My intuition was saying that my stomach would rebel if I ate the whole thing, but that my heart would resent it if I didn’t eat cake. My 5 senses were in complete agreement with eating the cake.

I looked at the cake again and took my knife and cut the piece in half.  I reached across the table and picked up my burping friend's empty plate and put half of my piece on it. He said, thinking I was doing him a favor, “Are you sure?”  And I said, knowing I was protecting my self from over indulging, “Yes, absolutely.” And we exchanged smiles.

           

I felt better immediately. I knew that I would be having this cake and that I would love the taste and texture and that it would make me happy. Following my commitment to using my senses, I ate the cake slowly, smelling the sweet kiss and really tasting, and enjoying it completely. 

I visualized my ideal body as I ate. That, is the body I protected, and that is the body I fed the delicious cake to.  I was happy afterward because I realized I had not over-eaten, but I had had my red velvet cake. My body was not uncomfortable and I was proud of my self.  I had eaten with dignity.

The next time you’re celebrating, eat cake.  Eat with common sense.  Let your 5 senses guide you and remember to pay attention to your body.  Protecting your self is done by respecting your self.  Eat cake and do it with dignity.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Ghandi