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.

Lights are flashing!

Feed your ideal body.

Instead of rejecting your body which every dieter does out of habit, think about the real you.  Acknowledge what bugs you about your shape, and think about how you ideally see your body.  Give your body some love by seeing it as healthy, flexible, and attractive. The way to show love to your body is to trust it.

Trust that by fine tuning your senses and connecting with your hunger and your appetites, your body will  adjust to become your ideal self-image. Appreciate your self and your efforts.  Work with the messages from your body. Let your intuition guide you.

Sounds obvious, but it isn’t.  Sounds like a given, but it’s so taken for granted we ignore trusting our inner self! We do it the same way we ignore what we see, hear, or feel.  We ignore our heart the same way we ignore our body when we eat.  We’re a mess!

Lights are flashing, gongs are banging, and we eat destructively.  Why? Because we don’t pay attention to our body, and we ignore the insights we’re getting 24/7 from our six senses.

Use your intuition to balance your eyes with your heart and mind. You will see your real potential

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

Recognize Your Signals.

Re-connect with your body and lose weight!

How? By fine tuning your senses, you automatically use your intuition to respond to physical hunger.  Start today. Tune in and learn to recognize the signals.

For the serial dieter, hunger comes from an emotional place. Our ‘hot buttons’ around food and eating are legendary!  In the future try to recognize that if you feel pressured around your eating choices it means you are emotionally entangled. This is the reason for binge eating.

No, I’m not saying hunger is in your head, I’m saying hunger is deeply connected with your stomach, and your emotions are driving you in your head. Your intuition connects with your body. Your senses: touch, smell, taste, see, hear, and taste, connect with your body.  When you start to pay attention to what your taste, you will relate differently to what and how you eat.

Taste your food! and your intuition will balance what’s driving you so that your eating is not just emotion driven. As you fine tune your senses of smelling, touching, seeing, tasting, and hearing, you will eat differently. Absolutely, your appetite and your hunger will come from a different place then it does right now.  That’s a guarantee.

Physical hunger comes from your stomach. It signals you through your 5 senses. To be your desired weight, you need to be clear that what you eat it is about the hunger in your stomach and realize it’s signaling you.  Every minute you eat, your senses are sending you signals. Choose to respect your body by responding to your senses.

As you recognize your body when you’re hungry, you connect with your mind. Then you know how you want to eat. Connecting with your senses, you will instinctively lose weight. 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.

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.

Celebrate Your Self!

It’s time to celebrate, celebrate ourselves!

Yes, we are on the cusp of Spring and every fantasy and reality it brings! Trust that feeling of excitement, and let your senses guide you to eat to celebrate your Life.

Eating Cake with dignity:

Betty Jo wrote: Tomorrow is my birthday, and I promise to eat my cake with dignity.

This is an example of how natural and easy it is to eat intuitively. Betty Jo has made a promise to herself to connect with what feels dignified to her when she celebrates her birthday! Wow, it is an amazing feeling that happens when we make that kind of commitment.  Try it. That feeling is a direct connection with your intuition. As soon as you decide to eat cake in a way that honors your body and your emotions at the same time, you are activating your intuitive connection. Congratulations, Betty Jo!

Betty Jo Tucker is a highly respected film critic and self-confessed movie addict.  Her weekly radio show is full of zero calorie tasty insights and tidbits, and her love affair with the big screen is contagious. www.BettyJoTucker.com  Happy Birthday, Betty Jo! 

We all have a coordinating and guidance system inside us. We call it gut instinct, or 6^th sense, or our intuition. The coordinating job of intuition is to connect messages you get from your 5 senses with your emotions and thoughts, and to prioritize them so that your best interests are served. Some people seem to have a more pronounced 6^th sense than others because these people trust their 6^th sense. A commitment to feed your self cake with dignity is the beginning to connecting with this empowering natural gift.

This is a fact that you can absolutely depend on:
Your intuition is never destructive.

Linda wrote: I don’t know if I will be as strong as you when faced with a similar temptation.

20^th century diets are full of reward and punishment. Most of the punishment is self inflicted either as demeaning conversation with yourself or by physically abusing your body with binging or purging. 20^th century diets are based on you not liking your body! OUCH!  These diets create a mentality where you are constantly passing judgment on your self, judging if you are being ‘good’ or ‘bad’.  This is not intuitive. Suspicions and doubts are attitudes that interfere with the ability to listen to your 6^th sense.

Self-judging short circuits your intuition because is it shows a distrust of yourself. Ask yourself this question:  If you cannot trust your self, who can you trust?

The first step to being an intuitive eater is making a decision to be deeply honest with yourself about your thoughts, your feelings and what you want for your body. Linda suspects that she is weak around cake, and she doubts that she will be “strong”.  The fact that she wrote this shows that she is open to seeing herself trying to eat cake with dignity. That takes strength to say! Linda, when you long for a solution, it’s natural to feel restless. Don’t interpret that as fear, instead see it as an opportunity to honor who you are. Part of eating with dignity is to trust your self.  When you trust your intuition to focus you in the protective direction of your eating goals, you will find it easier to make decisions that feel good to your body. 

To connect with her intuitive truth, there are 3 steps for Linda: (1) recognize her emotional urge to eat a lot of cake, (2) connect with what she really believes about this and how her body feels, and (3) commit to herself, to use dignity and enjoy eating the cake.

Once you realize that you are in control, there is no need to allow self-defeating judgments to drive your eating.  Instead you will recognize that by listening to your 6^th sense, you feel a calm inner balance. Balance is what keeps us in the comfort zone of being self-protective. 

Every step, whether it’s a baby step or a leap, is huge as we connect with our intuition. Congratulations, Linda!  Your honest comment tells me that you are on your way.

Access your intuition by being honest with yourself. You can’t lie to your self and connect with your 6^th sense at the same time. But have no fear, just like your eyes see, even when you are not ‘looking’ and your ears respond to sound, even when you are not ‘listening’, your intuition never abandons you.

Celebrate your choices by using your 5 senses to connect with your intuition. Spring is a time of new beginnings. Every meal is an opportunity to begin eating with dignity. We know from experience that everything worth achieving takes effort.  Being and intuitive eater is a new experience. Honor your efforts by not judging your self.   

Visualize your ideal body when you eat and as you eat, Celebrate your Self.

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

Mind Trash

Pay attention, your 6^th sense is guiding to you.

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.  Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.  (Carl Jung )

Have you ever imagined that you have an amazing amount of innate power?  You do. As you fine tune your senses you will discover an energy force inside that is constantly directing your attention at sights and sounds and smells. Take your desire to have a slimmer, healthy, body seriously, connect with your innate power, your 6^th sense, and watch what happens.

It won’t happen over night, but it will become obvious within a few weeks that by eating intuitively your habits have changed and so has your body. There is no magic trick, but there is the danger of mind trash that will sabotage you if you are not aware of it. 

Mind trash is an enormous mental burden that we all carry. It’s a pre-occupation with negative thoughts, belief systems, concerns or fantasies about our body or our self that stir up “justifiable” anger or impatience or feelings of being helpless. You don’t need any of it. Mind trash blocks your natural protective intuitive response to what you are about to eat.

What happens when you allow mind trash to trash your eating is you binge or purge or resent your meal. Mind trash clutters your way to the body you want with layers of fat. It creates feelings of dependency when you really are free and you really are in control.  In fact, you are free and in control every time you eat. No one is standing over you with a whip saying, you’re bad, instead, the pre-occupation with negative thoughts is making you insecure. When you eat start with your eyes.  Your intuition will connect what you see, with what you know in your mind from experience, and you can chose what and how much to eat, based on what feels right. 

Mind trash is like a road block to your intuition.  Your senses of hearing, seeing, taste, touch, and smell are the way to connect with your intuition. Use your senses to free your self.  When your senses are not fine tuned, it can be hard to know what you really need to eat to feel your best and have the best quality of life. Fine tune your senses and you will tune in to your innate power, your intuition. 

It’s time to throw out the trash, and start fresh. Every one of us makes mistakes, and every one of us can change the way we see things. When things aren’t real, they are a waste of time. Use your senses to connect with your 6^th sense, and tune in to what is real for your needs. By really smelling and tasting your food and listening to your body, you let your intuition guide you.

Often we justify what we eat or don’t eat because we dislike the truth.  You know that expression, The Truth Shall Set You Free?  Of course, you’ve heard it with your ears. Try listening to it with your heart. Try to imagine what you are really looking at when you sit down to eat. The truth is that portions in this country are often impossibly over-sized. The truth is your stomach is talking to you, telling you it hurts when you stuff it.  Hey, that’s the truth, but are you listening?  Or instead are you listening to mind trash?

The next time you sit down to eat. Before you begin, visualize your ideal body.  Now, if you’re alone, play with your food a little bit, and smell it before you taste it.  Look at the size and quality of your food. Feel your appetite and relate to your physical hunger. As you think about what you really want to eat, your focus will create an emotional emphasis that will propel you, and your intuition will guide you to protect and respect your body.

What do you see? Do you see calories, do you see rules, do you see something delicious, do you see something that will give you gas, do you see a plate full of food that will keep you up all night? Okay- if you do, you have a choice. Don’t eat it. 

Your mind is trashed when you believe you are bad because of a number on a scale, or if you believe you are unable to know what is best for your body, because a book says, “this is the answer, do this and lose weight”. While there are many excellent diet books and methods to wade through on the way to weight loss, there is only one expert when it comes to your body and that is you.  It is natural, when you’ve lost touch with your senses that you may feel out of control with eating. But that is easy to fix.

Remember this, if you cannot see that you have a choice then there is apparently no choice.  You cannot see if your eyes are covered with doubts about your self or your body because these doubts are negative filters that fuel mind trash. Open your eyes.  Every person sees exactly what they want to see. It’s only when you balance what you see, with what you hear, and what you know from experience, with what you feel in your heart, that you connect with your 6^th sense and see your truth. Then, feed your truth.

Keep your mind open as you fine tune your senses. Doubt is a form of self sabotage. Why not trust that you know more then you realize about your self and your needs. All of us are conditioned to ignore our intuition. This is especially true when it comes to eating which is amazing since our intuition, our appetites, and our hunger are all connected.

What are you thinking?

When you choose pay attention to your intuition, you are creating a loop that includes your mind, heart, and body. Intuition balances and connects the energies from these. Now that you are starting to fine tune your 5 senses, open your self up to enjoying the pleasures they bring. Start listening to your 6th sense and feel a broad smile across your face.
Visualize having your ideal body and feed that body the next time you eat.
Your body is the home of your heart and mind,
and your body is the source of great pleasure and satisfaction in your life. 

Look within. 

The secret is inside you. 

(Hui Neng)

Intent

Intent means taking time our to reflect on what you are doing several times during the day in order to focus on and remember what matters to you. Your intent will be different depending on what you are doing. When you are driving, what matters to you at that moment is your safety. If you are with someone that you love, what matters is that you are communicating. If you are doing your job, you want to do your best, or if you are brushing your teeth, you will want to reach those hidden spots where potential decay lurks. Now that you are an intuitive eater, what are you thinking when you grab a bite to eat? What is your intent?

If you’re thinking about what you just did or what you want to do you are eating in a way that is unconscious. This is bad for your body because it’s like putting fuel in the tank of your car without seeing if it the right kind and you know all about the burps, bumps and grinds, not to mention downright ruination that can occur if you put diesel fuel in your car. It’s like washing all of your clothes without looking to see what colors they are and what could shrink, shred, or bleed. Of course, your body is not a car but it does need fuel. Your body is not a washing machine but you do put all kinds of stuff in it that may or may not fit or blend well. What are you thinking about when you put food in your body?

Intent means being conscious of why do what you do. In fact, intent is a way of actually realizing what you want. When you use your senses as you eat you will realize what you’re eating, how you feel about it and if it’s what your body needs.

As an intuitive eater acting with intent means that you create within your self positive and productive energy that supports your eating goals. Your intention to lose weight, or to eat smart will pave the way to the body you want. When you use your 6 senses to connect with what matters to you, intent helps your support your desires.

Remember, your intuition balances messages from your senses, your brain and your heart. Every time you think about what is really important to you, energy is focused from your mind to your heart and back to your mind. That is your intuitive connection.

Think about your ideal body. Imagine that you are living with your ideal body. Feed your ideal body the next time you eat. What you chose to think about is what you will create with your intent.

The next time you eat, look at what is on your plate. Smell the aromas of what you eat. Put your fork down and in your mind, imagine that you will feed your ideal body. Thing about what you are putting into your body. Slowly begin, be sure to chew well so you really taste your food. Use your intuition to know how your stomach feels and use intent to listen to all of your senses.
Using intent is a way to protect your self by respecting your self. That’s intuitive.

Make it your intention to treat your body like it is the home of your heart and mind, and the source of pleasure and satisfaction in your life because it is.  Enjoy. 

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.

When you ignore your senses, you sabotage your happiness.

Connect with your body when you eat.

If you think about eating strictly in terms of calories and rigid diets, you are missing the point of eating which is to re-fuel your body so you can have the best quality of life possible. It is intuitive to respond to your body when you eat. Your body is clear about when you're hungry, what you're hungry for, and how you feel about what you eat.

Being in tune with your 5 senses keeps you in touch with subtle bodily feelings that you may currently be ignoring. Then your intuition connects what you sense, with your mind, and that is how you realize when a decision that might habitually seem perfectly natural and reasonable is not really focused on who you are or your hunger. Intuition balances and connects your senses, mind, and emotions, it constantly gives an update that is an empowering perspective. You perceive this as an insight.

The fact is nobody rules your hunger, or your body, but you, which is why it is good to connect with your body by listening to your senses. Trusting your inner voice frees you, from rules imposed by the experience of others, to create ways of eating based on your own life realities. It also frees you to adopt rules others have discovered that intuitively feel right for you. As you learn to recognize your intuition, you will have a different perspective about eating choices.

It is not always easy to know what we want to eat because often we are a slave to our desires. This morning I saw a TV commercial for a vegetable chopper. A great looking guy in his 20’s was really enjoying chopping onions while he said, “You will have an exciting Life with (product name).”  “You can chop your troubles away!”  “You will get skinny again, one slap/chop at a time.” The target of this commercial is our desire to live a great life. But the reality is, even if this is the best vegetable chopper ever invented, it won’t bring excitement into your life. If you are a slave to your desires, you will call that 800 number right now. If you listen to your intuition, you will laugh out loud at this charming and audacious commercial.

Fine tuning your senses helps you identify and change deep-seated patterns or habits in your diet decisions that prevent you from realizing your long term diet goals.

Ignoring what you see, hear, smell, taste, or see hurts your body. When you ignore your senses you are not in control of your appetites.

Ultimately, when you ignore what you want, by ignoring your senses, your body knows it and shows it. Remember the role of your senses is to give you pleasure and protection.  Protect your self.  Use your senses to connect with your body and you will recognize that you are in control of your choices.

Will really listening you your senses guarantee that you will lose weight?

No.  Paying attention to your senses is the beginning of recognizing your 6th sense. It's like opening the door. Intuitive eaters maintain their 6th sense connection by depending on intuitive eating tools. Once you master the tools, this diet is guaranteed.

Dr. Alan Hirsch, a neurologist, inventor of SENSA and Neurological Director of The Smell and Taste treatment  and Research Foundation in Chicago, has done remarkable studies on taste and weight loss and observed the profound effect your senses of taste and smell have on the amount of food you eat.  Dr. Hirsch discovered that patients who lost their sense of smell gained 10 to 30 pounds.  As a result he theorized that if the loss of smell leads to weight gain, that enhancing smell can promote weight loss.  And it does! Smell you food before you eat it and watch your habits change.

Wake up to your life potential!

When you respect your self, You protect your self

Intuitive eating is a commitment to respect your self.

Everything about your senses makes sense because your intuition connects what you sense with your brain and your heart.  As you fine tune and follow your intuition, you will discover that you see and understand your food options differently.

Your palm is both a connector and an enabler. The same is true of your intuition.  Your fingers work together because of your palm.  Just like your palm connects your fingers with your mind and heart,  your intuition provides communication between your five senses and connects this input to your body, mind, and heart. If you hurt your palm, it’s hard for your fingers to work together to catch a ball or hold a baby.   When you ignore your intuition, which is your 6^th sense, your other five senses cannot work to your fullest advantage. This leaves you physically, intellectually, and emotionally handicapped, and not realizing your natural potential.

The more you pay attention to you senses, the easier it will become to recognize signals from your body.  You will relate to your body differently. The result is you will know which foods work best for your needs and when your needs change.

Suppose you're in a restaurant and a plate of food is placed in front of you.  Visualize the body you are about to feed as your ideal body.  Before you pick up your fork, smell your food.  Next, look at it.  Now, what do you feel, and what do you think?  How hungry are you?  Is there too much food on the plate for your body to feel good?  Does your feeling make sense?  Maybe this is not the right meal!? Maybe it's exactly what you need..

Remember the role of all of your senses is to provide pleasure and protection. Making the connection between what you sense and what you think is a big step and the very beginning of recognizing your private source of self protection, your 6th sense, your intuition. This is exciting.

Respecting your senses by recognizing them and responding to what you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell is a way of respecting your self. Intuitive eating is a total immersion experience because it involves your senses, your body, your mind and your heart. Wanting to connect with your senses is the way to begin. Quietly you will open your mind as well as your heart to trust your self.  Making the choice that honors who you are gives a new perspective every time you have a meal.

Intuitive eating refreshes, recharges and renews your awareness of what you eat.  With the intuitive diet, eating only makes sense when your food feels good to your body, tastes fresh to your mouth, smells good, and look appetizing, is how you respect your self.    

The intuitive eating lifestyle includes making the commitment to give your self the chance to succeed. This is part of being true to your self.  A fact about human nature is that until we believe we are doing the right thing there is a chance we will draw back.  Don't take that chance.  Make a commitment to pay attention to what you notice.  You can ignore the facts but you cannot change them.

An Eating Lifestyle and A Quality of Life

“Man your Ships, and may the Force be with you.” 
Star Wars, George Lucas

Your ‘Ships’ are your 5 basic senses:
   Taste,     Touch,     Seeing,    Hearing   and    Smell.

The ‘Force’ is your 6th sense, your Intuition.

Look at your hand, and think of your five fingers as your five senses, and your palm as your intuition. Your palm connects your five fingers. In fact, if you hurt your palm it’s hard to pick up a book or hold a glass. The way your fingers work well together is through being connected by your palm.  

Think of your palm as your intuition and your fingers as your five senses. Just like your fingers work together, usually your different senses work together. You hear a noise and turn to see. Or you see something, smell it and then taste it, or touch something and then smell it. Your senses are your source of recognizing what you are looking at, what’s touching you, or a tone of voice.


It is natural to use all of your senses when you eat. Taste and smell join together in their double roles of safety and seduction by warning of danger when foods are spoiled, or you may be excited by the smell and taste, of your favorite meal. You see attractive, desirable food, and also what looks fattening or poorly prepared. You may hear the crunchy sound of food that’s fresh, or sizzling of food that’s hot, and we know when each is right to eat.

         You touch food with your hands as well as your mouth. Sometimes it feels rotten or too hard, or is too tough to chew, or has a consistency that you spit out. Other times you may enjoy biting into a crisp apple, or enjoy the succulent texture of kobe beef. Your intuition gives you pleasure and protection by heightening all of your other senses. It is the invisible glue that unifies and balances your perceptions.

What is intuitive eating?
Intuitive eating is an eating lifestyle that focuses on enjoying food for quality of life. It is about eating for pleasure from a personal place of integrity that includes nourishing and respecting your senses, mind, heart, and body, simultaneously. Intuitive eaters are a healthy weight. When we use our intuition, our mind and body work together, and there is a surge of gentle energy that we recognize as being in sync with our self.

Lose weight without suffering with The Intuitive Diet.

Release stress around eating choices by using your intuition.

Americans have been struggling with diets and exercise to maintain a fashionable weight for over 50 years. It’s no secret that it’s not really working. With classic 20th century dieting, our emotions drive us. Often for dieters there is guilt, self-loathing, and stress around eating. 20th century dieting usually means suffering, restrictions and most likely only a temporary fix. Images in the media often distort our self-image, and this, too, hits us emotionally. The good news is: intuitive eating lets you end this cycle of emotion driven self-abuse that is often experienced as over-eating, or self-induced starving. Instead of trying to control your eating, The Intuitive Diet works with your body.

Diets are by definition, restrictive. Feeling restricted creates stress. Stress can create weight gain and prevent weight loss. Intuitive eating works physically, emotionally, and intellectually to create your natural weight because the focus is on feeling healthy, not restrictions or weight loss. It’s the weight to go. Instead of stress, you feel satisfied. As a result of using your intuitive tools, you will recognize what works and doesn’t work for you. You will discover your common sense, and in the process, you will achieve the weight that makes sense for your body and your lifestyle.

By fine tuning your senses, you will learn to recognize eating choices that feel good the next day . It’s as easy as deciding you’re ready to do it. “It takes as much stress to be a success as it does to be a failure.” Emilo James Trujillo

It’s time to change your relationship with food and eating. When you are driven to have a certain “look”, you push your self to eat or diet at a pace that ignores what you see, hear, taste, touch and smell. The result is you feel stressed and have dulled your senses. When the senses are ignored we make the wrong connections! You see a plate of brownies and eat on auto-pilot, or you sit in front of the TV and eat an entire bag of chips! Are you comforting your self or are you being hostile to your body? As you connect with your senses you will start to notice connections with your body.

Intuitive eating connects you with values that define a quality of life every one needs. It is understanding the way balanced eating feels and knowing when you’re satisfied. It puts you in touch with your body so that you really are in control of your eating. And there is no suffering.

Intuitive eating is being in control of your self, what you eat, and how it happens. As you connect with the satisfaction of intuitive eating, you will feel good. Your relationship with food will change. You will feel good about your self. People who are ‘naturally’ slim have two powerful traits. First, they trust their intuition about what to eat. Second, they have core tools that keep them on track, which are always accessible. In fact, we can all do this. Everyone can connect with their intuitive tools, and learn to use and depend on them. With practice, it gets easy.

What is intuition?
Intuition is your 6th sense. It is your internal guidance system. Intuition is like your sense of hearing, a passive way of receiving. It is like your eyes and can be focused. It is like taste and smell, because you can savor and develop it. And intuition is like touch because it can comfort, or shock you. In fact, your intuition is how your five basic senses interact. You can always access your intuition. Pleasure and protection are the supreme gifts of our senses. When our senses are finely tuned, so are we!

How do I do it?
Begin to eat intuitively by simply renewing appreciation of your five basic senses- taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound. You will discover it is refreshing. Doing this will make a drinking a cup of coffee, eating a fresh peach, or walking through the supermarket, a brand new experience. This is the attitude of embracing your intuition. Start today. It is said that those who gain experience while retaining a beginner’s state of mind become long-term survivors. The benefit of intuitive eating is a long-term reality.


You will start to release your stress when you pay attention to your senses.
As you do this you’ll notice your own energy flow. That’s because our senses are how we receive and share energy. Listen carefully, and you will discover that you have insights about your hunger and your appetites. Use your eyes and you will recognize things that you thought you missed and you will feel literally, more awake. Energy is a subtle as breathing or as obvious as running a mile. Peace of mind, the body you want, and enjoying meals is at hand.

Children notice every thing. They are open to what they’re seeing hearing tasting and smelling. Adults tend to sleep walk through their sensory experiences – except for extreme pain or extreme pleasure. Your senses are all about different kinds of personal pleasures. Discover the energy and pleasures of your senses by being more childlike. It’s a very cool way to release stress.

As you learn to use and depend on your intuitive tools, and you will be able to recognize and handle hunger, frustration, stress, temptation, and satisfaction, around eating, so that you look and feel good. Connect with your senses and enjoy it. It's time to stop suffering and to start enjoying eating. Doing this, you will connect with your self intuitively, eat what makes sense and feel liberated.

Welcome to 21st century eating.

Namaste.

Feel the Buzz- Connect with Your Intuition and Lose Weight

Feel the BUZZ! Connect with your intuition, you will lose weight, and fine tune your life. Fine tuning your senses connects you with your intuition, and that puts you in control of your appetites.

We are living through times of massive change. The rug is being pulled out from under our feet economically, environmentally, politically, culturally, and in ways we don’t even recognize. Fine tuning your senses is the art of changing with the times. It is a way of using your natural gifts of the 6 senses to connect with what you want, need, and must deal with in order to get results in your life that make it feel right. Fine tuning and connecting with your intution is the way to get through these changes and come out feeling good.

Connecting with your intuition is as natural as breathing and as powerful. When you are fine tuned you are in sync with your body. You feel the Buzz. Intuitive eating is eating what you really want when your really want it. There are tool we use to do this. I'll start blogging about them soon.

Fine tuning your 5 senses helps you recognize your appetites. It puts you in control so you will achieve balance in everything you do from dealing with eating to being your right weight, from knowing what’s important, to knowing what it’s like to feel beautiful. Fine tuning your senses creates a renewed level of human connection, and people who fine tune feel the Buzz.

What are you hungry for? Healthy eating is like healthy dating. Sometimes we go for flash or size or smell or taste, or we give in to peer pressure. Other times we go for what’s good for us. Your intuition will go for what's good for you every time. Absolutely!

Until you connect with your appetites, you can’t know what you’re hungry for. The way to connect is by using your 6th sense, which is your intuition.

Start connecting with your intuition today by hearing, smelling, seeing, tasting, and touching your food. *Hear what makes sense about food choices. *Look at what is on your plate before you eat it. *Smell food before you put it in your mouth. *Taste your food as you chew it. *Touch what you eat. This will probably slow down your eating so you won't have as much time to eat and you will eat less, and that's a good thing. It's all part of the magic of your intuition.

Anonymous posted the comment: How does intuitive eating help me lose weight?
When you fine tune your intuition your become aware of your body in ways that you now may take it for granted. Using your senses puts you in control of your body and what you eat. Instead of seeing foods as bad or good, your intuition gives you a fresh perspective on eating and a handle on achieving your weight goals. If your are committed to losing weight, you will! That is a promise.

Namaste.