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. 

Dieting:

• causes emotional dependency on program structure.   
•  creates dependency on calorie counting.
• makes you doubt yourself which sabotages self-esteem.
• claims to know more about your body than you do. 
• sabotages 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 helps control of your eating because it keeps you clear about your priorities and your boundaries. That protects you.

Using intuition means, 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 has answers and the book tells you exactly how to take control of your choices, intuitively.

What are you craving?

July 4th is Independence Day. 

It's intuitive to crave freedom.

For intuitive eaters, freedom's not just another word. Freedom is self-control.  It's eating what you want, when you're hungry. No rules, no pressure to eat what you don't like. It's positively relaxing.

It's human to have cravings.

We crave love, sex, chocolate, money, happiness, understanding, affection, good health, companionship or a new pair of shoes. The list is personal. When you have a craving and your eyes look at food, ask your self, Am I really hungry? Most cravings are not for food, they're social.

Eating intuitively puts you in control of your choices. It's trusting and listening to your body. Instead of planning what to eat in advance, intuitive eater's look at food options and ask, Am I really hungry?

If you believe you're craving food, eat protein. People who diet are usually hungry for protein. Fruit and salad won't satisfy you if you need protein. Eat a handful of almonds or walnuts if you're on the run, and your body will relax and the craving will be satisfied. Nuts are a dense protein that take time for your body to metabolize.  When you eat what you need, suddenly there's time and freedom for other cravings to be satisfied- even if it's as simple as craving a good nights sleep.

 The 15 Minute Solution is about candy and craving.  It's a method you can trust to know if you're craving is social. Do you want affection or another piece of pie? Take control of your craving and feel some relief from the pressure. Connect with a freedom from cravings.

When you're alone and craving a container of chocolate ice cream, use The 3 Minute Rule, and you'll realize that you know what you want.

When you feel trapped by cravings, it's an uncomfortable gnawing inside. As you practice eating intuitively you'll know yourself better, and free yourself from cravings. When you recognize what's pushing your buttons and use your intuitive tools to keep an open mind, you make choices that bring long-term satisfaction.

When you are in sync with yourself, you always find choices. Ask yourself, Am I really hungry for food? and if you're not sure, give yourself the freedom to say, no. 

Take the plunge. Keep an open mind. Tune into yourself and eat intuitively. Nobody craves a ball and chain and restrictive dieting is a ball and chain. Nobody wants to feel trapped and when you don't feel in control of yourself, you feel trapped. Give yourself a chance.

Happy Independence Day from New York City!

Let the golden lights of the fireworks shine a path of eating freedom for you.

Speed-Eating helps you gain weight.

I was sitting next to an overweight man in his 20's who believed it was macho to eat really fast. It isn't. It's self-defeating.  Speed eaters don't taste their food, appreciate their meals or get good nourishment from their food. Speed eaters eat more. This man was convinced it's 'military style' to inhale your food. It's not.

People in the armed forces trust their intuition to stay safe. There's nothing safe or smart about speed-eating.

Intuitive eating means keeping clear about priorities like safety and strength.  When you eat at a moderate rate, you get more nourishment from food and can go longer between meals.

Eating slower lets you connect with your own sensuality which impacts other areas of your life.

It gives your body time to really digest food so that you get energy instead of stuffed. 

Eating slower is an intuitive way of controlling your weight because when you eat slower you eat less.

I just got back from a family vacation and meal-time was a big deal. Every meal is a big deal to your body. Your body only relates to food as a means to produce energy and ensure good health. That's why it's right to stop eating before you feel 'filled up'.

Just like you don't fill a coffee cup or bowl of soup to the very top because it will spill or overflow, don't "top off" your stomach when you eat. When you're on vacation and eating with gusto, think of your stomach and slow down. Chew more. Notice how your body feels.

There is a very thin line between healthy eating and over eating. People who eat really fast cross that line every meal. You know you cross the line when you feel bloated, tired, stuffed or general indigestion. Your stomach is designed to be active digesting food you eat. When you stuff it, there's no room for it to work efficiently. You feel bogged down instead of invigorated by your food.

It takes courage to do the right thing. To respect your body instead of stuffing it, is being tuned into your priorities in a safe, smart way. Chew more and you'll eat less.

Your Body is Talking!

Your body is talking to you. Are you listening?

Your body tells you when you're hungry and lets you know when you're not. Body language is a kind of a nudge or an ache. When you're needing to eat it's a push and when you've overeaten it feels like a kick in the gut. When you're not really hungry and you're around food, your body will communicate by feeling shut down. Learning to recognize body language guides you to eat when you're hungry and stop when you're not. Listening to your body will have it and you feeling satisfied and energized!  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!

When you're down on yourself you stress your body which releases hormones that make it hold onto fat!  

Listening to your body and being kind to your body  lets it relax and let go of fat!

This is a guarantee- try it! Let me know how it goes- and I'll post your results. 

 Posts will get a FREE consult with me about how to intuitively connect with your body to lose weight.

Second: Use your senses: see, smell, taste, touch, hear around food. Over eating happens when you don’t notice you're putting food into your body. Body language is loud when you tune-in. 

Let your intuition work for you.

Intuition keeps your priorities clear. It frees your mind from trying to control your body so you enjoy eating! 

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

Listen to your body.

Be proud of your body by respecting yourself - body, mind and heart. This is how to be kind to yourself.  Eat smart by respecting your self.  Your body will be purring, and you will be happy.

Say a prayer.

Feed your soul  and say good-bye to unwanted weight.

I received an e-mail from a woman I'm coaching to be an intuitive eater. She's started to silently say a prayer of appreciation before every meal and believes it's why her body's feeling healthier and she's losing pounds. 

If you're ready to lose weight and stop yo-yo dieting, feed your soul. 
Appreciate your food, whether it's humble or fancy. This feeds your soul.

Because you can eat when you feel hungry while others can't,
say Thank You before you eat.  

The more you feed your soul, the less your body weighs. It's a fact.

Intuitive eating is feeding your whole self. This shows self-respect for your mind, body, soul and heart. You're an amazing, beautiful and complex person. Appreciating who you are, and what you have, puts you in touch with your intuition. Try it.

If you wonder what you have, start with your 5 senses and be thankful your eyes can read this. You can hear the voice of someone you love, touch the hand of a child, feel the sunlight on your face or groom a pet. Saying a prayer of appreciation is simple and powerful.

The real way to be your healthy weight is to feed yourself differently.

When your treat your body with kindness,  you are feeding your heart love

Appeciate your whole self in the morning when you wake up. 

When you eat, ask yourself: What am I hungry for? 

and then, Am I really hungry?

You can discover how your intuition works and gain access to health and fitness, and end 'dieting' for good.  Am I Really Hungry?  teaches how to eat when you're hungry and stop when you're not. This book is the foundation of my IntuEating for success programs which I will soon be talking about.

For my loyal blog readers I am making copies available at a discount for a limited time. Contact me  and mention this blog. I will send you a copy of Am I Really Hungry? for 50% off retail price. 

with appreciation...

Bad Habits and Intuitive Tools

Bad habits are self-defeating. Use intuitive tools to stay clear about what drives eating choices and blows bad habits away. The purpose of intuition  is to reveal our priorities and boundaries for the best quality of life. 

Using intuition to stay healthy makes sense.

Intuitive tools are inborn guides to natural health for you to trust and lean on, like the way you use a handrail to help you up the stairs. When you hold onto the handrail, even if you slip -- you won't fall. Using  intuitive tools is the beginning of shedding bad habits. You won't fall back into the habit of yo-yo dieting.

If you want to lose weight by eating intuitively, but you're not committed to the experience, this means you don't trust yourself. This bad habit is awful. You experience it as a hopeless attitude about yourself and may feel isolated - which is not real. When we fall into the trap of bad habits, we're living in the past.

Dieting creates the bad habit of being tense at mealtime. Intuitive thinking connects you with natural inner strength. Inner strength feels like a calm awareness. Imagine being relaxed when you sit down to eat. That's intuitive eating.  

It's intuitive to eat for energy. That's being in sync with your body. Think of energy and strength like a river. When you are in sync with your body, the flow is natural and the current (your intuition) keeps you moving toward your destination. When you fight with or restrict your body, there are blockages or overflowed banks (weight gain).

Take the plunge, connect with your inner voice and trust yourself! Stop fighting with your body; learn to respond to it. Use intuitive tools to lose weight. You won't regret it -- guaranteed.

Start trusting yourself by using your senses to stay in touch with what's real, and you won't be eating because you're lonely. Kick bad habits out of your life by staying on track with intuitive thinking.

Instant Gratification and Diet Hype

• Change that lasts requires a long-term commitment from you. Instant gratification is a myth.  
• Diets promise we'll lose 5-10 lbs a week and have our ideal body in a month. The truth is: it won't happen. 
• Losing 5-10 lbs by starving yourself now will boomerang and end up around your middle by April.  Aren't you tired of losing and gaining weight?

Believing the myth of instant gratification means ignoring what's real. If something sounds to good to be true, it is too good to be true. If you believe you will get permanent results by ignoring your body, mind and gut - you're being manipulated. That's how you get trapped by dieting. Instead, you can connect with your body. 

• Your body is more efficient than the most advanced super-computer.
• Your body is always working to heal and create energy.  
• Your body is always a reflection of what you sense. 

Long-term weigh loss and real nourishment is  achieved when you're in sync with yourself. Intuitive eating keeps relating to yourself with an open mind. It feels liberating.

• Make a commitment to yourself. Be determined.
• Connect with messages from your body and senses at mealtime. Physical needs and food boundaries will become obvious.
• Go for real gratification.  That will make you feel good.

Don't buy-in to hype about the need to eat what, you don't want ,when you're not hungry, because of a scale or a clock or a book. It's a myth to manipulate you to buy-in to a program. Everyone's body DNA is unique and you need to respond to yours. The answers are very personal & custom tailored what your body needs. 

Don't buy-in to media hype about instant gratification.  

Since your body is a natural system, it requires time to process change.  

Only slow progress endures because you're organic. Trust yourself.

Long-term organic change takes determination and trusting your senses. It takes time.

Mental and emotional effort burn calories.

• Eating intuitively  tunes-in to your your answers. Try using your senses and intuitive tools like determination to keep an open mind about what you're really hungry for.  You will know yourself better and learn to recognize when you're hungry and when you're not. That's instant gratification.

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. Sabotage often is experienced as craving or binging. In fact, your 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! 

Catch Spring Fever & Burn Calories

Catch Spring Fever and burn calories! Let it lift your spirits and ground your commitment to honor and respect your body, mind and heart. Spring Fever connects with vitality and new beginnings.

Spring's a time of heightened emotional response. When Spring's in the air, suddenly there's a spring to your step. Colors are more intense and daylight lingering makes evenings more seductive. It's exciting. Spring is a time we naturally re-connect with our 6 senses.  Go with it. Get excited and lose weight intuitively.

When your senses are alert, eating habits become obvious.  Emotional eating is a disconnect from your body. Spring is the time to reconnect with your body. Connect with your senses and what feels good to you. Only eat when you're hungry. 

Balance emotions with common sense. Find nourishment for all of your appetites with your eyes, ears and heart. Spring is a time of renewal for every living creature. Renew the commitment to having a healthy body by embracing all 6 senses. Resolve to move forward by staying in step with Spring.

When you connect with your body, Spring Fever really takes off!

It's a new season so try new foods that are seasonal. Go on an adventure with your nose: inhale perfumes of flowers, aromas of your meal and the scent of fresh air. Use your eyes to really look at who you love and to love your Life. This sort of emotional nourishment is surprisingly satisfying.

Everything we do burns calories, including getting excited.. who knew? Yes, it's that easy. As you depend on your intuition, you feel in sync with yourself. It feels good. Spring is a time for renewal and re-connecting. Renew your commitment to being true to yourself.

Enjoy!  :)

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 pushed her into a corner of self-defeat. 

Taking a deep breath, Susan connected her senses with her heart and realized she was repeating old unpleasant habits. She used and dignity with  determination to change her mind-set.

Susan loves cake. She decided to visualize herself slowly eating one delicious piece away from the buffet - while enjoying conversation with her family. She even thought about putting some icing on her finger and enjoying licking it off! Susan used foresight to protect herself and ate a light protein dense dinner before the party so she wouldn't feel starved once she got there. She 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 real. Eating intuitively is a long-term weight maintenance plan. Stick with the plan and look great in a bathing suit this summer.  

As soon as you decide, you're doing a great job right now! It's intuitive to protect your body by keeping it healthy. Breathe in and out. 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.

Enhancing Your Sex Life with Food

Intuition is our 6th sense. Right now you are reading this but of course you are not thinking about using your eyes!  We use our senses automatically.  Right now - you are using your intuition.

The more you notice what you see, taste, smell, hear and touch, the more aware you will be of your sensuality and your intuition. The essence of great sex is great sensuality. When we really taste, touch and smell our food, arousal is heightened. Turning a meal into a sensual experience is intuitive eating.

In the film "Tom Jones" Albert Finney licks chicken bones and Joyce Redman looks like she's making love to an apple. What makes this scene really 'hot' is that the entire time these 2 eat, they give each other eye contact. Eye contact while we're eating can feel incredibly intimate.

When entering a bakery and inhaling the sweet aroma, or biting into a favorite meal- the sounds we make are "o-oh", "m-mm", "ahh".  Those are also the sounds of happy sex. Just like eye contact, amelling, tasting and listening can become suddenly intimate when we're eating.

When you want to enhance your sex life, notice little noises aroused by the pleasures of eating. You might lick your lips and let your tongue poke and taste your food. Chewing well not only helps us eat slower, digest better and manage our weight- it also connects us with pleasures of eating.

The 6th sense is our arousal sense. It takes what our 5 senses experience and pushes it up a notch so the experience is heightened.

Mixing pleasures of the senses with pleasures of the heart and mind is the kind of pleasure that is the difference between flying first class or coach. Sure we get there either way, but the difference is the quality of the trip and the ultimate pleasure of our ride.

Intuitive eaters choose food that satisfies hunger by pleasing the senses. Staying in touch with your senses keeps us in touch with your body. You won't over eat, other things will be on your mind.

Get helpful tips for intuitive eating. Download Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating

This week I'll be on these shows talking about eating and sensuality.

The Mancow Muller Show    Improving your Sex Life With Food
Morning Madness Talk Radio
www.talkradioinsiders.com
3. 15. 2011

NY NonStop, All Night with Joey  Tuning, Diet, Sex and Intuition

NYNBC, WNBC TV

3. 16. 2011

Morning Show    Turning a Meal into a Sensual Experience
92.9 The Big Cheese
WECL Eau Claire, WI
3. 16. 2011

The Eating Challenge, Take 2

Intuitive eating is knowing that what you need for energy and health is what you want to eat. It takes courage to maintain your intuitive connection through challenging eating situations.

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. Courage is when you recognize what you know, and you respect who you are. Courage is following through with what you know and doing what you respect.

Words make it sound easy, sure. Doing what sounds easy just may surprise you. The real eating challenge is to trust yourself to be good to yourself. 

Challenging eating situations happen every day. We feel tempted or starved, or like there is no choice, or like pleasing others. 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.

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. Listen to your intuition, and recognize habits that end up making you feel badly about your self. When it is 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 intuition, and eat only what you know and feel is right. When you tune into your body, and your hunger with courage, you start to recognize your eating needs. Then you trust your self and take control of feeding your hunger. This is not easy because 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.