Eat less; taste more.

Stop struggling with your body to lose weight.  Why not love yourself, eat less and taste more instead? It's much easier.

Taste is personal and so is our body. Our bodies are designed to be part of a flow. Just like our hearts, internally everything has a rhythm. Ignoring who we are inside doesn't change it. It's easier to identify with who we are and then be good to ourselves.

Starving, binging and overly ambitious self-discipline are all hostile to our body. When we do these to our selves, instinctively our body feels physically threatened. This releases a protective hormone that signals our system to grab a layer of fat for survival.  It may sound crazy, but that's what happens.

From a sensual intuitive perspective, the point of eating is pleasure and satisfaction.

Eating for pleasure is all about taste. Besides enjoying that moment when the perfect taste of your choice explodes on your tongue, taste includes sharing that sensual experience. We are all sensual beings. Eating is a perfect time to let that part of us shine. Find someone whose tastes match yours and split your favorite meal. If you're really close, feed each other. Be sure to include eye contact because this makes the taste experience even more amazing.

The kind of satisfaction our body gets from eating is finding more energy, physical comfort and good health. None of these can be forced. Instead, eat less and taste more. When we really taste our food, it takes less food for us to feel satisfied.

Be kind to you. Decide to give yourself the chance to lose weight naturally by enjoying food more! While your body is personal it is also an efficient, independent machine with systems, connections and its own way of keeping you alive. Work with yourself and watch the results!

#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.

Chocolate, Libido & Binging

Valentine's Day is packed with libido raising chocolates and other waist expanding temptations. How do we enjoy it without being trapped by the sweetness of the treat?  Of course the celebration of love is a good thing. How do we avoid unhealthy temptation and embrace tasty love?

To separate love and libido from unhealthy temptation when you're enjoying a treat, look at your sweet and your sweetheart and check-in with the way you feel.

1. Confusing eating with satisfying intimacy causes disappointment that leads to binging. The libido thrives on anticipation, not big meals. Taking it slowly keeps you in control. Plan a light meal like tapas and put on some music. All of our senses connect with libido. Be creative with the way you choose to enjoy your treat and your evening. Rub a piece of chocolate across your lips and try to have your partner lick it off without either of you laughing. Of course, laughter is a libido boost- way more than chocolate. Libido is the drive for physical intimacy a feeling of anticipation, an openness to possibility and romantic potential.  If you feel this:

• Be true to yourself by taking your time. Patience heightens anticipation which makes your experience more exciting.
• Take it to a higher level with eye contact while you savor your treat. Also give the verbal pleasure signal of "mmnnn". 
• Just take a nibble, because you want your body to be relaxed for the next part of the evening. Feeling full signals your body to focus on digesting food. That kills libido.
•  Say Thank you! and mean it. Let the big picture come into focus naturally. 

2. Love, like eating, is an inner connection.  Food only represents love when we savor it; binging is a kind of disconnect. A great and enduring love affair is founded on open communication and mutual respect. The loving way to eat is to keep open communication with your body by tuning-in with your senses before and while you eat. It's the intuitive way to respect your body and to respect yourself. Love feels like a light in your heart, or it is a peaceful, gently exciting sense of being appreciated that is relaxing and deeply affirming. Real love is a direct connection with dignity and self-respect.

• When chocolate represents love and you take a nibble, your energy will soar. This is a happy feeling that lasts as long as you stay true to the feelings of dignity and self-respect.
• Get sensual. Love yourself by eating lightly and let that lightness connect with your heart. Touch your partner's fingers. Smile while giving your partner eye contact. Make love with your eyes - if you dare!
• Share a taste with your partner and say, Thank you! from the heart. You will feel satisfied, leaving the remaining chocolate as a symbol of love and anticipation for the future.

3. Temptation, created by emotions and stress, causes binging. Taking control of the temptation can be a turn-on for both of you, because it makes priorities clear. Take control by focusing on the big picture. Your priority is to appreciate each other and the meaning of the celebration. What you eat should compliment the evening, not rule it. Temptation is an urge often accompanied by a subtle feeling of frustration, a whiff of self-defeat in the air. If you feel this:

• Remember to be true to your body and your heart, together. To stay connected with your intuition, use determination to feel good about your experience.
• Take a taste and savor it with a "mmnnnn". Look your partner right in the eye and feed him/her a taste.
• Say Thank you! and mean it. 
• Thank yourself because you are focused on what you want and who you are.  You are honoring yourself. Love will find you through your smile as temptation turns into self-confidence. You will feel it.

Plato said, At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet. I guess, in a perfect world we would all be poets. Enjoy your chocolate, dance with your libido and fall in love all over again this Valentine's Day! Be loving towards yourself. Write a poem about chocolate instead of eating it, or share it with a stranger. Tweet about it. Remember, whether it's a cold winter day or hot in July, Love for you is in the air every day.

For more common sense ways to deal with temptation and frustration around eating and to learn how to tune-in to your body with intuitive sensual thinking download: Am I Really Hungry, 6th Sense Diet:Intuitive Eating

Body Games

Restrictive dieting is a body game that hits us emotionally. Does your body complain? Being nagged - whether it's physical, like cravings or emotional, like social pressure - is unpleasant and tiring.

When emotional demands override physical needs, the result can be craving junk food, which starts a cycle of binging. Binging is a knee-jerk reaction to stress that fills us with guilt and our body complains with tension, high blood pressure, discomfort, exhaustion, and a general sense of dissatisfaction.

Our bodies don't play games with us. Our body is a vehicle we use to maneuver through our day and our life. Our senses are how we tune-in to our body. Even though noticing what we sense helps us stay on the path of healthy eating choices, when we're trying to watch our weight, working hard, dealing with social stress and don't have a lot of time, it's easy to ignore what we sense.

 Small decisions you make every day create the big picture of your life.
When you're around food, notice what you see, taste, touch, smell and feel in your gut, and your options will be healthier.  

In our busy lives, we need more time to succeed; we don't need body games. The next time you're craving something, here are some healthy options to junk food binging to have in your freezer.

• Unsweetened frozen blueberries, strawberries, blackberries or raspberries are satisfying for sweet noshing. Berries taste good, and contain anti-oxidants and fiber. Anti-oxidants are good for fighting the effects of air pollution, and fiber keeps us regular. 
• Unsweetened frozen cantaloupes or mangoes are also delicious to have on hand. 
• I like to freeze seedless grapes for a cool snack.

Frozen fruits can be mixed in the blender with ice cubes, milk, unsweetened juice, or yogurt for a fruit smoothie. In the morning, have a smoothie with a handful of walnuts and almonds for a quick, healthy, and power packed breakfast.

To get more great tips for healthy eating or help understanding how eating can push your button, download: Am I Really Hungry, 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating. 

For gently connecting with your senses, download: Fine Tuning, Connecting with Your Inner Power

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.

Get practical intuitive solutions that are common sense for maintaining a your healthy weight, download: Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating

and overcome eating challenges.

"If you can't solve a problem, it's because you're playing by the rules." P. Arden

Feel Good Food Connection

You want to have a certain look. You need to eat, too! What's the connection?  It's you!

When you feel good about yourself, it's easier to have patience with your eating choice. Feeling good tunes you into being kind to yourself.
 
Intuitive eating is all about you. Being unhappy with the way you look means it's time to change the way you treat yourself.

• Binging is a way of beating yourself up.  It's like banging your head against the wall.
• Rushing through a meal is like inhaling calories. When you rush, your body doesn't have time to feel full.
• Sneaking a bag of cookies is like poisoning yourself. It's doing to yourself the opposite of what will make you feel good.

You deserve respect. The first person you need to get it from is you!

• Eat for energy or do not eat.  This is different from eating just because you're hungry. Try it!
• Share the pleasure of eating. When you really like what you're eating, pause to taste it better. Then, talk about the satisfaction you feel.
• At parties, put something you don't like on your plate. Instead of eating, carry it around and talk to people. BUT don't talk about food or eating. Parties are for feeding social hunger. Don't let food get in the way of finding social satisfaction.

Still not happy with what you see in the mirror? 

• Wear a different color.
• Smile at yourself.
• Vow to respect your body and your heart at the same time. Since your body is the home of your heart, this makes a lot of sense.

If you feel like you've gained weight, you can be sure you're gained some bad habits. Bad habits are often created by stress.  Take the pressure off by giving yourself a chance to eat intuitively. Time is your tool. Take time to notice what makes you feel good about yourself.

• Eat less, chew more.
• Take control by being kind to yourself.
• Recognize self-defeating eating habits and decide you've had enough!

Binging - Getting Intimate

Let's get personal and talk about intimate relationships. The most intimate relationship you have is with your own body. 

• You sleep with it every night, dress and feed it. 
• Your body gives you pleasure and physical power. 
• You wash it, touch yourself, use your body to get places and use it to be noticed.

Maybe you work out or maybe you hide your body with certain clothes. Everyone has an intimate relationship with their body. It's an emotional connection. 

Classic diets insist you focus on a plan and ignore physical messages from your body. 

• That's why people binge. 
• When you ignore what you feel physically, you stress out your body. 
• The result is an unhealthy emotional relationship with food. 

Binging happens because you lose your natural connection with physical satisfaction. It's the result of an emotional sense of confusion and isolation.

• When you binge, taste is not on your mind because you are thinking with your emotions, not responding to physical hunger.
• Binging is a desperate, very personal plea for comfort.

Your body is the power source of your mind, your heart and your soul. Pay attention to it. 

• Eating intuitively is a natural connection with satisfaction.
• Use dignity and courage to respect yourself.
• A healthy emotional connection is protective, not abusive.

Eating intuitively is relaxing when you eat, so you taste your food and notice how your body feels. Stay intimate with yourself. Stay connected with your body.

Get off of the diet dogma treadmill of emotional isolation and notice your intimate needs. You can use your senses to connect with your body.

• Stress around eating impacts every physical pleasure you might enjoy. 
• It's not good for intimacy in any part of your life.

Being intimate starts with respecting yourself. Honor yourself by forgiving binging and then, give yourself a chance to listen to your body.

• It's a skill you can re-learn.
• Enjoy your body; don't abuse it.

Guilt and Stress

Guilt around eating is motivated by a short term perspective and it creates unhealthy stress that leads to binging.

Guilt around eating is not part of intuitive eating. Guilt is a short-sighted 5 letter word. Binging is a self-destructive temper tantrum. Anything that motivates you to abuse yourself is not intuitive. 

 A habit of dieting is to think about eating foods as "good" or "bad". This creates guilt and stress. Try to let go of that. Instead, think of eating intuitively, as satisfying or comforting. Use your senses, including common sense and eat to feel good. Intuitive eaters eat what they want. When they slip, intuitive eaters get back on track because they are motivated to look and feel good. 


It is natural to learn from eating experiences. There is no magic mirror of approval when it comes to your body. Measuring progress at every meal creates emotional stress and misses the bigger picture. What you eat is the foundation for the rest of your life. Every meal is a step along your path. Nobody walks a straight path because stuff happens. 

Intuitive eating is a long-term perspective because your body is constantly changing. It's intuitive to see the bigger picture instead of judging every meal. Eating is about nourishment. Life is a do-it-yourself project. You can adjust, correct, and not-repeat choices. You are in control. Your body will be the result of choices you make today. Decide to eat what looks and feels good.


This is a new year and a time of new beginnings. Respecting yourself is a combination of trust and honor. Now is a perfect time to respect your self. Really trust your heart, body, mind, and six senses to protect you and let that self-respect honor and guide your eating choices.

Breaking up is hard to do.

Why Good Diets Don't Work Long-Term...

Leaving a diet program can feel like defeat or even like a broken heart. But instead, it's the way of being true to your body.

My neighbor was ecstatic for 2 months. She was losing weight, feeling great, and 'knew' that she had finally found "the one". No, she had not found the man of her dreams, but she believed she had found the diet that worked for her. It was exciting, something like love.

And then stuff happened. First it was the backlash from a really horrible day, which resulted in a box of donuts with a coke, and that was followed by a great party where she thought she was having fun- until the next morning. Feeling let down, nothing was making sense for her. Emotion driven hunger had put her out of touch with her body, and out of touch with her common sense. 

There are many good diets. The reason they work in the beginning is the diet is new, full of potential and promise. In the beginning instead of feeling restricted, you feel like you're part of the program. 
Problem is, the program is consistent and does not vary, but Life is not consistent and your body's needs vary. 

So after the flush of new wears off, you start to become physically weary of this wonderful diet, and start rebelling, by breaking the rules of the program. It's intuitive to be true to your self. But when you're emotionally invested in a diet program, it's hard to do it without feeling guilty and emotionally let-down. This is when self abuse starts.

When you reach the point where your diet is becoming frustrating, or inconvenient, or just isn't working, it is time to use common sense. Common sense tells you to listen to your body, not to abuse it. My neighbor didn't realize that she could have outgrown the great diet. Her body was telling her that she needed to change.

A good diet is not the same as a romantic commitment. A good diet is only good while it works for you. When a good diet gets stale, it's time to fine tune your senses and tune into intuition and your body to see what's missing. 

Sure, breaking up is hard to do, but changing what you eat, and how you do it, is natural, healthy and keeps you slim. Visualize your ideal body, and see it when you see yourself. That's where your heart is. 

A diet is an agenda. If the agenda works for you, do it. When it gets stale, find a new agenda.