Compromise = Heart Ache

Talking and Eating at the same time...

I got the following question about last weeks blog that I want to share with everyone.  I think the question about how to be social and pay attention to the smell and taste of food is one many people have.  Let me know if this helps!  ;)

Good blog. Especially relevant is being alert when eating. All too often, I find myself picking up the fork by rote without paying any attention to the smell and taste of the food. A huge challenge to this is while engaged in conversation with a table mate, how do you concentrate on the food when you're trying to pay attention and stay in the conversation? from Linda K.

Instead of focusing on concentrating on food only, be completely in the moment. Bring what matters to you in to the conversation. While engaging in the conversation, why not mention how good the food smells or tastes? Or why not mention the obscene size of the portion? Both of you are eating. I expect that the person you are socializing with also is wanting to be his or her healthy and attractive weight, and has concerns about food and eating.

You will discover that when you let the moments flow and keep alert about the big picture, then everything will happen as it should. When you relax while you eat, this is easier. When you relax, the person you are with will also! Try it and see!

It’s all connected- food, conversation, politics, your life.. Relaxing is to trust your self. Being true to your self means staying connected to the big picture of your Life. When you are eating and talking, the moment is not just about the conversation, or food, or why you two are together.

Being alert means seeing the big picture.

Following your intuition means:
Trust what matters in your heart- and what matters is that you are committed to being good to your body, and your Life, by using your senses when you eat. Being kind to your self is not an option, it’s a responsibility. Life is a gift that comes with strings attached.

Many people don’t realize how fabulous Life is until they are dieing, or badly injured. Don’t wait to be disappointed.  Instead, love your life. Be kind to your self.

Inner truth needs no defense. People find it charming because it feels “right" when they hear it.

Why limit what you feel in your heart?
Some limits make sense because they give us strength.
Limiting what matters to you in your heart, is self-defeating.

Don’t compromise your heart.

Compromise = Heartache

Body Language

Your body is talking to you. Learn body language.

Your body clearly tells when you are hungry. It has a language all its own that is a kind of a nudge or at times a push, or even a kick in the gut. At other times, when you are around food, your body will communicate by feeling shut down. Learning to recognize your body’s language will help you to stay tuned in to when to eat and to what's good to eat.

Listening to your body will have it, and you, feeling satisfied and energized.

Tune in to your body language by respecting and feeling it.
Here are ways to stay connected with your body when you eat:

First: Be Tolerant of your whole self- body and mind, by acknowledging that you are trying hard to eat smart for your body. Part of being tolerant is forgiving the past and staying in the present.

Hey- the present is the only thing that exists right now!

Second: Stay Alert by using your 6 senses (see, smell, taste, touch, hear, intuition) when you are around food. A lot of over eating happens because we don’t even notice we are putting food into our body. Being alert you will notice how your body feels when you eat. 

Let your intuition work for you.

Trust your intuition the way you trust your ears and eyes. Using your 5 physical senses when you eat takes you away from what you’re thinking and connects you with your body.

Your intuition stays in touch with your mind, body, and your heart to keep your priorities clear.

Third: Stay Determined to follow through with being Tolerant and Alert. 

Determination is your commitment to connect with your whole being for eating smart. 

Determination is will-power.  You have it!

You can rely on following your intuitive truth to create the changes you want.

Don’t wait until your body is screaming at you with gas or bloat pain. 
Don’t wait until your body is embarrassing you when you put on your bathing suit or when you’re ready to make love. 

Listen to your body.

Then: Be proud of your body. Respect your whole self- body, mind, and heart and you will be proud of your self. Eat smart by respecting your self. Your body will be purring, and you will be happy.

Let your senses guide you.

Don’t resist your natural knowledge. You know much more then you realize.  Use your senses to realize how amazing you are.

Sometimes when you decide to lose weight, eating seems to be the problem but, it's not. Eating without noticing what you notice or how your body feels leads to overeating.  Instead of seeing eating as an obstacle to losing weight, use the natural tools of your 6 senses to relax around eating. Then you can more easily recognize and respond to energy flowing from your senses and use it to be in sync with your body when you eat.

1. Notice messages from your body. Tune in. Are you hungry? How hungry? What do you feel like eating?

2. Notice your eyes. Look at your plate. What do you see? Does the food please you? Does it look enormous? Does it look fattening? Does it look boring?

3. Recognize your nose. Smell your food. Does the smell make you want to eat it?

4. Intuition is a connector.  It connects the messages from your senses, with what you feel, and what you know. Recognize the role of your intuition. Use it to pause, and breathe in and out, 3 times. This will relax you and aid your thinking and your digestion. Your body will burn calories more efficiently and you will eat less.

5. Make sure the portion is not bigger than your fist. If it is- remove the extra from your plate.

6. Use your senses of taste and touch. Eat slowly, and ENJOY your meal.

Make it easy to lose weight by not resisting what you know by using your 6 senses. In the beginning, this will seem like very little because you are not used to realizing what you notice. But by deciding to be open to what you notice, suddenly you will see the food on your plate from a new perspective.

In fact, you know what you feel like eating and how eating makes you feel. You have the answers. We are all part of things we cannot control. Still, you can see where you are and where you want to be, and point your self consciously in that direction by using your senses to guide your eating choices. This way, you can control your self.

See eating as the solution. Use your senses of taste, smell, sight, and touch and listen to your heart and mind. Intuitive eating is a choice to make to reach your eating goals for the best quality of life. Doing what is in your best interest makes sense.

ATTITUDE CHECK

When you don’t believe you can lose weight and keep it off, this attitude is communicated to every cell in your being. A habit of being cynical, skeptical, or even indifferent, towards your body and your ability to be a healthy weight, cripples your 6^th sense.  Habits shut us down.

In our fast-paced world, we forget to give our self, breathing room. The way to check in, and then change limiting attitude habits, is to give your self space.  Space is breathing room.

At meal time, slowly breathe in and out at least  3 times, before you even think about eating choices. It’s what I call doing the “intuitive pause”. You can think of this exercise as the way of pushing your own  "refresh" button.   

Take 3 long, slow, deep, breaths in, and 3 long, deep, breaths out, and give yourself the opportunity to take some time to tune in to your heart, body, and soul.  Then use your 5 physical senses to be clear about your eating choices from this re-freshed perspective.

If you are eating alone, write short answers to these questions when you take your 3 breaths. Doing this will connect you with defeating attitudes towards your self and eating that are habits.

            Breath #1: Who is the person I am feeding? 

            Breath #2: What do I really want out of this meal?

            Breath #3: What is my attitude about food and eating?

This is an opportunity to connect with your self-respect. Practice doing this and all of your effort will pay off. Visualize your ideal body and feed that body when you eat. 

As you fine tune your 5 physical senses, taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight, you are tuning in to your 6th sense, your intuition. Because all of your senses are always working together, it happens naturally.

As you become firmly committed to respecting your whole self- body, mind, heart, and soul, you will discover that your attitudes evolve, and that your intuition about who you are, what you really want, and how you feel about your self becomes clearer. You will learn from experience how to create what serves your genuine desires. This happens over time.

You will discover this attitude change lifts the weight of fears and doubts from your being. Ridding yourself of the habits of self-defeating attitudes literally rids you of weight by connecting you with your natural intuitive voice.  Try it!

Hitting the weight loss wall?

Sometimes the reason you can’t achieve weight loss goals is because you’re so used to following the old rules about eating that you’re are in a rut, hitting a wall. It's a mental trap.

Really connecting with your body by noticing what you see, taste, smell, touch, and hear, will re-fresh you, and bring a new perspective about diet and eating.

Everything you know about dieting comes from eating experiences accumulated over years of trying to lose weight. In fact, following the same old rules brings the same unsatisfying conclusions. You are not the same person- physically or emotionally you were a year ago. Old solutions only work with old problems.

Your eating challenges are brand new. Today is not your past. This is your ‘now’.

Sure you may still find sugar sexy, a jar or mayonnaise seductive, or a quart of ice cream irresistible. But you are thinking differently now. That’s why you’re reading this. Connect with self-respect and listen to what your 6 senses tell you. Visualize your body the way you want to see it.

Treat it the way you want to be treated. It’s intuitive to protect and respect your self.

When you hit your weight loss wall, tune in to your senses, and everything else will follow. Fine tuning by noticing what you are seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling connects you with your body. It also frees up your mind to wander, and puts you in the present when you sit down to eat. It's liberating!

Fine tune your senses and you will open your mind to your dreams.  Staying in the present means being clear about your eating priorities.  Eat to be healthy and feel good. Walls will be gone.

Making a choice.

Classic dieting doesn't work. It's a fact that 95% of dieters re-gain their weight. Intuitive eaters maintain their weight.  They use inner courage to connect with their intuition

As I was talking about courage, a woman asked me, what about risks?
Risks are part of living. We take a risk when we cross the street, or go out on a blind date. Really living puts us in touch with risks every day. Risks are about danger. Being courageous is a form of inner resolve.

Eating with courage is not dangerous, so it’s not taking a risk. It is choice based on trusting your intuitive wisdom to guide your eating. 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 gives you clarity.  When you make eating choices based on using your 6 senses, your emotions don't rule, you do! When clarity is the foundation for 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

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The Eating Challenge

It takes courage to maintain your intuitive connection through challenging eating situations. Learn to recognize hot buttons to make good choices.

Courage is when you recognize what you know, and you respect who you are. Courage is following through with what feels good to your body.

You may need to eat bread with your meal, or protein, or you may just feel like having yogurt. You may decide that you had such a big lunch that you will just have an appetizer for dinner. Sounds simple, but it takes courage.

Challenging eating situations happen every day. We feel tempted or starved, or like there is no choice, or like pleasing others. None of this is real. The truth is we have abundant food and only have to please ourselves

The challenge to be true to physical needs, while feeling pressure from stress or from exhaustion, is often the result of not trusting what you intuitively know your body needs. It's natural to tune-in to your body. In fact, when you do, eating what works for you long term becomes easier.

Take the eating challenge and observe yourself around food. Use your eyes, your ears, taste, touch, and smell. Notice messages from your stomach and notice how you feel in your heart and your head. Fine tune your senses.

As you do this you will recognize habits that end up making you feel badly about your self. When it's time to eat, use your senses to smell, taste, and see what you are eating, and think about how your body feels and what you want for your self. Give your self a chance.

Intuition is a kind of natural courage. Connect with your it, and eat only what you know and feel is right. When you tune into your body, and your hunger with courage, you recognize your eating needs. Then you trust your self and take control of feeding your hunger. It's probably not something that you thought about before. So, give yourself a chance to think. Take a deep breathe in and now breathe out really, really slowly until there is nothing inside. Good.

It takes courage to recognize and trust your self.

It takes courage to stand up for your self.

It takes courage do what is right.

It takes courage to acknowledge what you need.

It takes courage to recognize habits, but if you don’t, you will never be happy with your weight. Ignoring your senses, your body, and what you know, creates a vicious cycle when you eat, and all it takes to stop, is connecting with the courage to follow your truth.  Ah yes, that is the eating challenge.

Guts, Balls, Nerve.. The Intuitive Diet

Guts, balls, nerve, boldness, confidence, all signal courage. These are inside you, and connect with your 6th sense and your intuitive diet.

Until you fine tune  and respect your senses, 

the simplest things like eating for health and energy seem like the hardest.  

Until you smell your food, you will not taste it. 

Until you see what’s on your plate, you will eat anything. 

Until you can feel your stomach, you won’t know if you are hungry or not. 

All of this is simple. But to change bad habits is not easy. 

Being true to your self- while obviously a most valuable and awesome habit, takes courage.

Courage is a big word that we throw around. We are not in the habit of thinking about courage when we think about our self, so I will talk about it a lot, because it’s a lot to swallow. Courage is an energy you are born with. But when you focus on negative thoughts around eating, you are in the habit of ignoring your courage. This is self-sabotage.

What is courage?
Courage is the choice to eat what you intuitively feel is right, despite what others say. It’s something that you use to be true to your whole self as an intuitive eater.  It takes courage to trust your self.

Why?
Because it's a kind of boldness. When you trust your self, you have the courage to think about how your body feels, what you are sensing, and what you know in your heart - before you make an eating decision.  

It takes courage to think about eating intuitively. So please realize- you are being bold as you read this. You are already connecting with your intuition, and it feels good to connect with what feels right.

The magic thing about courage is that it opens doors. It opens doors to your dreams. Turn the knob, and trust your courage. Walk through the door and you will wonder why it was so hard. That’s life, isn’t it – full of surprise and wonder.

The first step of using courage, with your self as an intuitive eater, is to be willing to receive the messages from your 6 senses, and to be alert to what you feel in your body. Try it.

Eat with insight and courage. Learn about what works best for your body. Keto Food Chart
Read: I am Really Hungry, Body, Mind, Soul Food: Intuitive Eating

#janebernard

Self Sabotage

Not using your 6 senses is a form of self sabotage. It's leaving yourself in the desert of Life without water. Notice what you sense to know what you need.

Intuitive thinking is a way of being tuned into yourself and the bigger picture. Your 6 senses keep you in touch with your body, heart, mind and soul. Don't sabotage a great meal or miss a Life opportunity by ignoring what you sense.

When you chose to live intuitively, you are making the choice to be clear about what you are eating.  Intuitive tools with your five senses give you skills to do this. Your sixth sense balances messages from your body about hunger with what your senses reveal about your eating choice at the instant you begin a meal.

The habit of not using your senses while judging what you eat, is a form of self- sabotage. This habit is like wearing blinders and earplugs when you go to an event - You really can’t know what’s happening. Passing judgment while you eat is listening to negative thoughts about the past or the future that have no connection with your meal at all. Certainly you are not connecting with your food or enjoying eating.

When we don’t use our senses, we perceive what we’re doing incorrectly. How can you know what you’re eating when you don’t look at your meal, taste it, smell it, or feel it enter your body? Eating is supposed to be sensual. It is intuitive to relax and enjoy your food with your senses. Try it and you will find a smile on your face.

Decide to let go of negative thoughts in your head when you eat. The past is history. Allow yourself to be present. The way to do this is to chose to respect and trust your self and commit to using your senses to enjoy your food. Remember: To respect your self is to protect your self.

Spring is in the air. True love is a combination of trust and honor. Spring is a perfect time to fall in love with your self. Really trust your heart, body, mind, and six senses to protect you and let that love honor who you are when you eat.

#JaneBernard

Are you a yo-yo?

Does your weight go up and down seemingly at the bite of a donut?
If you think eating is all about gaining or losing weight, think again. Gaining and losing weight can be the result of illness, abuse, or just mis-information. Most likely it is about not really knowing why you’re eating.

Why eat?
Food builds the foundation for your health, physically, and mentally. That is the reason to eat. What you eat today will power you tomorrow. The food you eat is the source of all of your energy. Without feeding your body for energy, it can be hard to get out of bed in the morning.

When you eat for energy and health, your body feels good. Some people tell me that when they eat for energy and health, it makes them feel sexy. This makes sense because, being physically comfortable with your self is key to enjoying other pleasures in your life. By eating intuitively, you respect your self and focus on eating what your body really needs. Using all of your senses, you won’t gain weight, instead if you need to lose weight, you will.

The beginning or intuitive eating is to suspend dis-belief generated by the habits of dieting, and use your 6 senses when you relate to food. Why not give yourself a chance to lose weight without feeling physically and emotionally bad?!  Fine tune your senses, and you will recognize that little voice, common sense.

Okay, back to that really tasty donut- Eat it intuitively. Look at it, smell it, feel it with your fingers, tongue, mouth and inside you.Make sure when you eat that donut, you are glad you did.
Be brave and be honest in your heart.

Become a voyeur and lose weight!

Remember your ideal body? Can you see it?

Your ideal body feels good, moves the way you want, and radiates a quiet self respect. You automatically like the way you feel when you really look hard at it.

Visualize the way you like to see your body clearly in your mind. 

 Look at your ideal hips, or see your self in a pair of jeans.  

Get bold. 

Feel like a voyeur.  Enjoy looking at your ideal body.

That is the body you intuitively want to feed.

Your intuition connects your eyes with your mind. The next time you eat: Remember you are feeding your ideal self, and look at your food to be sure it's right. Think about how your ideal body looks and as you do, you will also connect with your stomach and become aware of what your body needs to eat. When your intuition is fine tuned, all of your senses work together, and that keeps your mind in sync with your body. If you need to lose weight, you will.

See your body at the weight you desire. Feed that body.

Use your 5 senses to see it better.

It so easy, a cave woman can do it.

Zig Zag Eating

If you are caught in a cycle of dieting you may be a zig zag eater.

You are a zig zag eater when you pre-judge your self- by looking forward to protect your self from imagined results of eating, by looking backwards - to undo what you have done. Being a zig zag eater means what you eat is driven by doubts, habits, and fears, and feels like confusion around eating. 

Confusion creates doubts that your body looks ‘good’ and then blames food on your plate as the reason. It is like judging a book by its cover. Open the book and read it: Your body right now is breathing, digesting, supporting your vital organs, and holds the keys to your dreams.  Use your senses to pay attention and recognize messages from your body.

Intuitive eating is a focus on you, your body, mind, emotions and your 5 senses. It is not about comparing your body or rate of dieting progress with others.  Doing this raises all kinds of emotional flags, like envy or resentment. If you are busy looking forward and also looking at the past, the present just slips by.  By using your senses of smell, taste, touch, seeing and hearing when you eat, you will force your mind to stay in the present. This way, you will find your emotional doubts are not so big.  Intuition connects you with a real time perspective about who your are, what your appetite is for and your hunger.

Your intuition works in the present. The job of intuition is to make sure that the present evolves in a way that clearly focuses on your best interests. If you need to lose weight, you will.  When you base your eating on your past, or choose what you eat based on what you anticipate in the future, you are ignoring what your body needs right now, and not using your intuition.

Instead of zig zagging between what happened in the past and what could happen in the future, stay clear about where you are. Your body will look and feel better.

Begin to be an intuitive eater one meal at a time.

Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet tunes you in to how to use your intuition when you eat. Move forward to eating less and a new you.

#janebernard

Juiced?

As you recognize your body when you’re hungry, you connect with your mind. Then you know how you want to eat. By respecting your senses, you give your body good energy from your heart through the intuitive balancing connection. That gives you a good feeling about what you’re eating.

Are you juiced? Being juiced is when you really feel alive.  That feeling happens when you tune into your senses.  Here are 2 examples:

Have you ever felt like you were on fire, in a good way?  Have you ever suddenly realized as you walked along that you were smelling flowers blooming, but as you looked for them you couldn’t really see them on the hill, but it didn’t matter. And the smell was everywhere..

>That’s a kind of juice- smells, aromas, anticipation, signals, pleasures

Did you ever get in to bed, take a deep breathe in and realize that you are bone tired, and had been too busy to notice, until as you now exhale. Then a second later, the bed is incredibly good, the gentle firm kind of good that that holds you just right, letting your whole spine relax. You can feel it.

>That’s a kind of juice- touch, feel, inside and outside of your body, signals, comfort, pleasure

Are you juiced now?

No?  Well, if not, perhaps you’re not getting enough sleep.

Did you know that when you get enough sleep, that it’s easier to loose weight? I learned this from an intuitive eater. He said, when you relax your body, your digestive process is healthier.

I asked him how he knew this, and he looked right into my eyes and gave me the kind of smile that made me feel juiced.

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

The Intuitive Diet: Q & A

A Sound Bite of Insight

Eating connects with all of your appetites: a hunger for comfort, a craving for love, a passion to understand who you are, and a thirst to know how to protect your self and live the best quality of life. All of this is intuitive. Beyond eating, your intuition is always present and coordinates everything in your life as it’s happening.

My name is Jane Bernard. My 1st book, Fine Tuning, Connecting with Your Inner Power was written during a time when I felt nothing but emptiness and was searching for my passion. This is what happened: On the way to connect with my passion, I discovered my intuition. I also discovered a lot of amazing opportunities! By fine tuning my senses, I learned that individually they are amazing and that together they are my Life force. Fine Tuning is not an intellectual book, but it is full of truth. Joey Reynolds, the radio personality, says that every page has a “sound bite of insight”. (more at www.FineTuningBook.com)

You were born with 6 senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, and your intuition. Your intuition, the 6th sense, is your inner drive that puts you on the path of possibility. It is the sum of your potential and it is always available. Your intuition connects your heart, mind, body, and soul. When your senses are set on automatic, often you will make choices that you later regret.

Every person has -at least once- suddenly intuitively jumped out of harms way. According to a study done by Dr. Jennifer Murphy at the Army Research Institute, as your intuition tallies cues, big and small, it sends out an alarm so you can react physically before understanding in your mind, before recognizing why. This means that you can count on your intuition as a clearing house where eating options crystallize and priorities are realized. Use your intuition to make eating choices that keep you on track. Fine tune your senses and start to feel the buzz.

Because I speak and write about connecting with your intuition, many people have asked: “Can I use my Intuition to lose weigh?” The answer is yes, and I decided to write about it, and this blog is a taste of what will be in The Intuitive Diet book.

Questions people ask:
-Does everyone have intuition?
Every living creature has intuition. It is your 6th sense and the most common way people refer to it is, “the survival instinct”. Your intuition connects you with what makes sense.

-Why do some people seem to have better intuition than others?
Some people trust their intuition more than others. For example, police, soldiers, nurses and artists all tend to rely on their intuition to know the truth.

-How can eating be intuitive?
After all, eating is part of your survival instinct. Nothing is more basic or more your intuitive than the will to live. Every animal has it.

-Does every animal have intuition?
No. Only people have intuition. However, every animal is born with strong instincts. All animals except us live by their instincts. Instinct is spontaneous. Human intuition is an internal guidance system that balances what you’re sensing with what you’re feeling and what you know from experience.

-What is the difference between instinct and intuition?
Instinct is a kind of clarity and intuition is a kind of focus. Instinct is a part of nature, so when you trust your nature you will tune into your instincts. Intuition is a coordinating and guidance system inside of you. It is through your instincts that you perceive your intuition. Intuition is a uniquely human wisdom.

-What about a “gut feeling?”
A gut feeling is usually an intuitive response. If you have a gut feeling you must determine whether it is your 6th sense protectively guiding you, or if it is guilt of some other emotion that is pushing your button.

-How do I know if it’s my intuition?
Intuition is never destructive. Your intuition will never guide you to do something destructive to your body. Just like your other 5 senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing, your intuition will protect you or lead you to a pleasurable experience. If you think your ‘gut feeling’ is to eat a 2nd or 3rd huge slice of pie, or an entire box of cookies, or a whole quart of ice-cream, think again. Something else is pushing you to do things that hurt your body and ultimately your self image. Once you master the core tools for staying connected with your 6th sense, you won’t be confused by manipulative emotions.

-How can intuitive eating make me aware of portion control or healthy eating?
Because your intuition is the clearing-house for what you have experienced as well as what you feel and sense, portion control and eating what your body needs becomes natural.

-What is the best way to Fine Tune my senses?
Use them. For example: Use your eyes. Whether you look at what’s in front of you not, it will still be there. If you ignore what you’re seeing, you might trip, fall, or crash. Also if you cover your eyes, you are hiding from your self. Look at what is in front of you and you will create what you want. Decide to be brave.

The Intuitive Diet is a practical, natural approach to successfully achieve and maintain your healthy weight because it’s custom tailored. Reading this blog will help you recognize reliable intuitive choices about what to eat. You will learn to use your intuitive tools to overcome dilemmas about what, when, and how to eat to be your healthy weight.

To really get answers about weight control, I interviewed dieters and non-dieters and learned that people who are “naturally” their healthy weight have two important traits. I learned the secrets and I learned the tools that will keep you connected with your 6th sense.

Intuitive eating is effective, not abusive. It is not just about food, it’s about you. It is a way of self-respect. You will see your self, and eating, differently. You already have all of the answers, and I’m going to help you connect with what you know. Get ready to smile.