Afternoon Pick-up

  If a 'junk food represents comfort, and you know that and eat it in moderation, can it be bad?

Only you know the answer. Listen to your body. Check in with common sense.

The secret to looking and feeling great is balancing what you want with how you feel. Give yourself emotional and physical balance to tune-in to your body and reduce stress.  Junk stands for justifying what feels emotionally satisfying. You don't need to justify your emotional needs. Instead, be kind to yourself.

The habit of having a 'junk food' in the afternoon because it's easy, is like ignoring a red light because you don't like the color. Ignoring the reality of effects of junk food or red lights is equally devastating. Tune-in to what you sense. The point of seeing and feeling is to respond. The more you do, the more balanced your life will be.

Take cues from your body. Eat for energy and health. Responding to what you sense is being kind to yourself. Sometimes you need a physical pick-up in the afternoon and blood sugar will drop. The result is a 'down' feeling. If you need a "pick-up" every afternoon, then try these:

• Eat a good breakfast; then, have lunch an hour later than usual. Make sure lunch includes protein.
• Instead of eating a candy bar, leave the room to take a 3 minute walk/stretch to refresh your body. This refreshes your state of mind.
• Drink a glass of water; if you don't 'like' water, mix in a small amount of fruit juice for a flavor you find satisfying, but make sure at least 2/3 of the mixture is water. 

If you are still hungry,  eat what you want  and stop when you feel satisfied. To know when you're satisfied, make a commitment to enjoy the taste of your comfort food of choice.

• Decide to enjoy a candy bar or other treat by eating it slower. Put it down between bites. 
• Really savor the flavor and notice the taste with your tongue. Notice how your stomach feels.
•  Don't feel compelled to finish the whole thing. Why not save half for another day?

Healthy living stands for happiness and energy. Happiness is not a constant and it's not rigid. That's why intuitive eaters are flexible about food choices. When you need a pick-up, get it. It's important to nourish your whole self. Think with your senses. They are a gift of life that keeps you in touch with the pleasure of taste, touch, smell and sound. Eating is sensual. Make the most of it!

 #janebernard

Love Eating

People don't love eating just for the food. For the connoisseur, food alone is love, but for the rest of us, eating is a communal experience. Eating meals together, we drink each other in with our eyes, fuel our hearts with laughter and satisfy curiosity with conversation. We may learn what we need to know by a nod or a grunt. We connect and reconnect, not only with our physical selves, but also with people who share our lives. That connection is part of the delicious puzzle of love. 

Often, dieters hate eating because it represents restrictions, boring food choices or frustration. That attitude causes weight gain, binging, depression and anger. It's the opposite of love.

Intuitive eating is an attitude of self-respect, tough love and personal transformation. It's a direct connection with liking the way you look and feel. You may discover that you love eating because you like being good to yourself.

It's intuitive to love eating. If you find you've lost the love, now is the perfect time to reclaim it. Let yourself evolve into a more delicious person by giving up soul draining resentment and picking up good vibrations, like courage and dignity, when you're around food. Feed your soul some love. You deserve it. Instead of feeling deprived or hostile around food, try this:

• Tune in to the excitement of taking control of your choices. Eat less, but talk more.
• Talk about the taste. Ask other people what they think. If you're a parent, this is especially smart with kids. It slows down eating, creates easy conversation and tunes them in to their bodies.
• Choose to feel worthy. Honor yourself by not giving in to negative feelings. Turn fear about eating into a focus on sensual enjoyment. Feel the love.

Eating connects us with personal satisfaction, good health and added energy. When you choose to be a sensual eater, you'll discover eating is easy to love.  As you use your senses to really taste, smell and feel how good food is:

• Your body digests food more efficiently. 
• You burn more calories. 
• You eat less.

Eating is the opportunity to tease your senses with pleasure and bring comfort to your body. By sharing the physical pleasures of taste and smell at a good meal with others, we automatically feed emotional hunger. Eating connects us with each other. That's something to love.

Intuitive Magic

A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch. ~George Bernard Shaw

Curiosity is intuitive. It's something you feel, not something you think. The more curious you are, the more satisfaction you will discover with yourself and in your world.

Working to live intuitively is going to change the way you eat and feel. Trusting your intuition is being true to yourself. It's respecting your body, listening to your heart and not letting your head be bulldozed into someone else's thinking pattern.

Eating is about pleasuring your body - not in a lewd or sexual way, but in a way that fills you with the excitement of living. A satisfied body feels vibrant and alive. Real satisfaction around eating is nearly sacred. That's why there are so many rituals around food and eating.

When you diet, you develop damaging rituals around eating. These lead to bingeing and purging. They  create a mind-set of defeat. It's subtle until you realize you've gained 20 pounds or worse. Stop eating to fit in a mindset and start eating to fit in your own mind and body!

There is a simple ritual around eating that's intuitive magic. It opens your eyes and your heart. Doing it feels like common sense. The intuitive ritual around eating that I urge you to use is the ritual of Gratitude - before, during and after you eat. It will change everything.

Right now, stop looking at your watch and start looking at what you're doing. If you're offered a serving that's huge, there's no pleasure in packing food in as if you're a box to fill.

• Instead, savor the flavors. 
• Take a deep breath between bites and allow your body the space it naturally needs to relax and let the digestive juices flow.
• Pamper your inner health so that you can depend on it later.

Don't think of calories; think of the pleasures of great health. Don't look at the clock; be in the moment. Tune in to the magic.
Try it!

Bon Appetite!

Diet or Eat Intuitively?

Are you ready to let go of the stress of having to think about every thing you eat in terms of calories, portion control or programs?

Are you ready to eat for energy and good health?

If you answered 'yes' to the above questions, you're ready to eat intuitively.

Classic dieting doesn't work. It's a fact that 95% of dieters re-gain their weight.  Diets create stress that rolls into all aspects of your life. Diets:

-cause emotional dependency on program structure.

-create dependency on calorie counting.

-make you doubt yourself which sabotages self-esteem.

-claim to know more about your body than you do.

-sabotage your relationships by creating stress at mealtime.

Intuitive eaters maintain their healthy weight. Eating intuitively is liberating. Intuitive eating:

-is a focus on your how your body feels, what you value, and your personal goals.

-means you're the expert.

-brings an open relationship with food and eating that is flexible.

-has no emotional component so you enjoy eating.

-can bring new life to your relationships.  

When you make the choice to be an intuitive eater, you begin. Yep, it's that easy. Doing what you really believe takes courage. Making the choice is like turning a corner. The fact is: eating intuitively is a choice.

Intuition puts you in control of your eating because it keeps you clear about your priorities and your boundaries. That protects you.
Using your intuition means, your emotions don't rule, you do! When clarity is the foundation of your efforts to be your healthy weight, it happens. 

Everything you do takes effort, and every effort you make creates results. Be clear about your eating goals, and you will achieve them.  Make the choice.

  

“Life is the sum of all your choices.” Albert Camus

How to be an intuitive eater is made clear when you read Am I Really Hungry? The website for the book is being built right now and that will bring you forums and answers that you're looking for. Coming soon.

Say Hello to your Heart!

When you think about eating only in terms of body and calories, you are by-passing the core of who you are. The core of who you are beats 24/7, and is the source of your dreams.  Say Hello to your Heart!

 

Your intuition is a natural part of who you are, just like your eyes, ears, taste, touch, and sense of smell. It is your 6th sense and part of your heart connection. Intuition is your way to sense being complete and balanced within your self. Trusting your intuition is how to recognize eating priorities that work for your body and your heart. 

Your 6th sense automatically responds to messages from your 5 senses and to what is happening in your body.  At the same time your amazing intuition balances what you know, with what you feel. The job of your intuition is keep you clear about your priorities. As you recognize your 6th sense, you feel complete from head to toe. It becomes obvious that your body depends on your heart, and that your heart depends on your body. When we eat, feeding our heart and our body, our priorities are good health, and abundant energy. 

The-Intuitive-Diet is an eating lifestyle that nurtures your heart by being good to your body. In fact, by keeping your body in shape and a weight that is healthy, you are honoring your heart.

Before you eat, take a deep breath in and a long breath out, and notice the beating of your heart. Your heart is always working for you, to achieve your goals and dreams. Remember this, and use your senses, including common sense, when you eat.

When you start to trust your intuitive connection, you say Hello to your Heart!