Instant Gratification is a myth.

Instant Gratification is myth.  

Change that lasts only a short time is a tease. 

Only slow progress endures because we're organic.  Trusting organic change requires determination and responding to what you sense. Learn to think with your senses and feel with your mind.

Because we're conditioned to "trust" instant gratification, there's a disconnect from our intuitive truth.

Instead of responding to social conditioning use your 6 senses to stay in the present. The past is history. Tune-into your choices today. 

The truth is there is no such thing as instant gratification when it comes to long-term physical changes or long term personal accomplishments.  It takes time to climb any mountain and anything can be a mountain. Thinking with your senses makes the terrain easy.  

We're programmed by media to expect instant gratification. Diets promise we'll lose 5-10 lbs a week and be an 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 in July.  Aren't you tired of losing and gaining weight?

Don't buy into media hype about instant gratification. Since your body is a natural system, it requires time to process change. When you use all 6 senses at mealtime, physical needs and healthy food boundaries become obvious. Real nourishment is truly achieved when you're in sync with yourself. Make a commitment to know yourself and use determination to connect with messages from your body at mealtime. Go for real gratification. It is filling and satifying at the same time.

Don't buy into diet 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. You have the answers and they are very personal, custom tailored to what your body needs. Your body is amazing, alive and constantly evolving.

Use intuitive tools to trust your body. Tune-into how it feels. Your body is always focused on healing and creating energy. It is more efficient than the most advanced super-computer.

Gratificaiton that's real stays around so we can enjoy it. Everything worth having takes effort. Effort creates energy of excitement and anticipation. Anticipate loving your Life and enjoying your heart, body and soul. Anticipate what you're going to do with extra energy you sense.

Notice what you see, hear, taste, touch and smell before you put anything in your mouth. Natural intuitive tools connect your head with your heart and your body. Timing and eating have a lot in common. Download a copy of I Am Really Hungry : Body/Mind/Soul Food: intuitive eating Learn to recognize when you're hungry and when you're not. That's instant gratification.

Begin intuitive eating and discover vibrant living! 

#janebernard

Got time?

 

Got time? I don't know anyone who feels they have enough time.

Eating seems to be something people jam in, almost without thinking.The idea of healthy eating feels like an added time-consuming burden. When we weigh the results of bad eating habits at the scale, it's obvious that healthy eating habits can save time.

• Intuitive eating is eating to please your body, your palate, and your frame of mind. It's intuitive to seek the best quality of life. Make things easy when it comes to eating and maintaining your weight. Eating breakfast brings the feeling of getting more time by starting your day with a rhythm of purpose. Begin by noticing what you notice.
• Give yourself a solid foundation by eating breakfast.
• Use the time, while you eat each morning, to notice how your body feels, how your clothes fit, and to think about what makes you happy. 
• By eating breakfast, you won't need to take time to snack during the morning and you won't have a mid-morning dip in energy to slow you down. 
• Importantly, by having breakfast, you won't need to gorge at lunchtime.

Does lunch or dinner turn into business meetings? Talking more means eating less. Having breakfast, protects you from excess hunger and excess weight.You have more time to do business, gossip or generally socialize. By feeding your body a solid foundation at the start of the day, you have time to feed your social, personal and professional needs without the distraction of hunger.

Try these suggestions to make time feel lighter:

• Breakfast:  
• No-cook overnight oatmeal is easy to make in advance and is fortifying in the morning. Add some orange juice to create a power breakfast. 
• Lunch:
• If you skimp on breakfast and are 'starved' for lunch, take a few deep breaths to remember that hunger comes from your body, not your mind. 
• Have a protein-packed sandwich. This can be cheese, steak, fish, tofu or any kind of burger. Take just one bite and put it down on the plate. Chew, swallow and take a drink of water. 
• Often, when we're 'starving', our body is really thirsty. Water has zero calories and it's what your body wants. Do this with every bite and you will have eaten a quick and satisfying, hearty lunch.
• If you have a salad for lunch, remember to take the dressing on the side. 
• Dressing often makes salads high calorie, so be stingy with it. Once you add any dressing, toss your salad before you eat it. You will be amazed at how little is required to get the 'taste.' Even with a salad, your body needs water. Water helps burn calories by lubricating your metabolism.
• Dinner
• If you are going to eat, you must taste what's on the plate. This sensual experience automatically will help you eat less.
•  What you choose to eat should be balanced and visually appealing.The point is to enjoy the taste and give your body fuel. 
• If you have no time, cut your portions in half.  Then, follow the same process as outlined for lunch:  take a bite, put your fork down and take a swallow of water. Eating less means less calories, and drinking some water between bites means you are less likely to have indigestion. 

Intuitive eating is being kind to yourself by protecting your body.  Give yourself some time. Learn to use intuitive tools to change your habits into free time. Learn to drink water when you eat because it has no calories, helps you feel full, and your body needs it.

"Getting my lifelong weight struggle under control has come from a process of treating myself as well as I treat others in every way."   Oprah Winfry

Download: I am really hungry. BODY/MIND/SOUL Intuitive Eating  for easy tips for eating intuitively.

#JaneBernard

Inner Peace

Inner peace begins with intuitive thinking. 

Intuitive tools find your inner guidance system.

Take attitudes of courage, dignity, tenacity and self-respect to holiday parties.

Hunger is a physical reality. Binging is an emotional trap. Fighting emotional traps is intuitive. When you make an intuitive choice, it feels 'right'. Your intuition 'has your back.' Powerful intuitive tools bring freedom from emotional eating.

Holidays push our buttons. Anyone who has eaten food for emotional support knows the result is disappointment. Emotional eating is a trap. There is a way out.  The 6th Sense Diet  brings inner peace by revealing new solutions and understanding that change your relationship with your body from stress to satisfying. Putting pressure on yourself will be over.

Emotional eating or binging happens when we feel bad or sorry for ourselves. Even though the media would have us think differently, food is not a band-aid. It cannot mend a broken heart or make a mean person nice. Reality is that Life can be painful, unfair and hard. Responding to pain by eating more changes nothing; instead, we feel worse.

When emotions guide food choices, there is no inner peace. Intuition bypasses emotions. That's why we can feel deeply emotional around food and 'know' we're wrong to eat it. Using intuitive tools like tenacity, courage and dignity are your surprisingly reassuring anchor to personal peace. It's personal power.

  Three questions to ask yourself for inner peace:

• Does eating this leave me feeling physically comfortable, satisfied and healthy?
• If the answer is yes, then focus on comfort, satisfaction and health while you eat. 
• You will feel when you're had enough. This is feeling your mind working with your body. 
• Intuition balances what you want with what you know and what you feel. Power eating is listening to your intuition.
• Why am I eating this? 
• Being honest with yourself is the beginning of trusting your intuition. 
• The fact is, intuition is always protective. Trust it.
• Feel dignity in your heart and listen to that feeling.
•  If you're eating to satisfy emotions, stop. Decide to take control by being courageous. 
• You are stronger than anger or disappointment. You are stronger than sadness. 
• It's powerful to take control of self-defeating emotions, but it's not hard. Things that are wrong, crumble easily.
• Give yourself a smile of determination. Go for a short walk to cool off. Reset your perspective. The only reason to eat is because you're hungry.
• What do I really want? 
• You want to fight it. No one wants to be a slave to emotions. Eating, weight maintenance, diet, work, family, responsibilities - all of these weigh on us 24/7. We need help to be strong. We don't have a lot of time to cook. Write down what you really want and put the piece of paper where you can look at it any time.
  • Adopt an attitude of determination and stick with it. Get what you want. Comfort, satisfaction and health create quality of life. Eat less; chew more. Attitude is powerful.
• FitsMe is a Web app that helps you find meals and create plans that fit your diet. Tell the site your food restrictions, likes, and dislikes and it serves up recipes to satiate even your pickiest preferences. It can save time and help you plan. 

Peace comes when you focus on comfort, satisfaction, and health while you eat. Natural courage to zap fear and overcome doubts is part of your intuition. Determination and self-respect to follow through with what feels 'right', complete the picture. Be dignified when you eat. Find your inner peace; it's intuitive.

 "Anything is possible if you've got enough nerve." JK Rowlings

#janebernard

Me, Myself and I

Three Ways to Change the Way You Eat

It's Friday night and time to think outside the box. Decide to co-create your healthy shape with your body. Benefit by eating less and getting more energy from the food you eat. The way your body responds to food is a "team" effort. Think it as "Me", "Myself" and "I". Think of your body as a co-creator of your appearance and health and tune in to what you sense. Relax when you eat and feel your food transmitting energy and vibrance. Listen to the whisper of your body.

Be your own best friend. (ME)

• Commit to doing what you want.  Whether you want to lose weight or not, there is no reason why you can't still be your own best friend.
• Sounds like a no-brainer, but how often have you overindulged for some momentary pleasure, only to regret it the next time you put on your favorite pair of skinny pants?  
• "Me, Myself and I" is all you've got. Be your own best friend. You need a best friend who loves you. Look out for yourself by tuning in to what isn't obvious.
• Use Dignity and Courage to be your own best friend.  Let ME feel some satisfaction.

Trust your 'new' best friend. (MYSELF)

• When you commit to trusting that you want to eat to look and feel your best, you will discover that your appetite shifts. Once you commit, the next time that the huge portion of pasta with meat sauce beckons your taste buds, your heart and stomach will join forces to honor your commitment to eat less. They will rebel.
• It's "Me and "Myself" saying to "I", "ENOUGH!"
• This is Foresight. Foresight is looking ahead at the consequences before you do something.
• You will notice this as a slight turning feeling in your stomach. You will feel a little 'off'. That's your body communicating with you. Work with your body to look and feel your best. Don't fight yourself. You will feel younger!

Put destructive habits on 'lock-down'. (I)

• "I want" is the spoiled child who is tired, stressed, bored and self-destructive.  Reasoning doesn't work with "I". We all have an "I" who is emotional and spoiled.  Nobody likes a spoiled child.
• Tough love is true love. Tough love is doing what is right, instead of what is easiest. That's what a best friend (ME) would do. 
• Keep your sense of humor intact. Laugh at the old ways and manipulate your "I" with real love. Tune in to what you feel and listen to your heart.
• When you put "I" in its proper place often enough, you feel a whole new level of satisfaction.

Every bite of food you eat is you co-creating your health, appearance and state of mind with yourself. Listen to the whisper of your body. Eat with your senses first.

• Use your eyes to see what you feel like eating. 
• Let your nose begin the digestive process so that it's more efficient. 
• When you get that gut feeling, trust it. The gut feeling is your best friend. Together, you can do anything.

The payoff for being your own best friend is connecting with naked truths about who you are and what deeply matters in your life. When ME, MYSELF and I are in sync, all choices are easier. Get into the habit of using intuitive tools like Dignity, Courage and Foresight to keep the truth on the table. You will discover that you have amazing potential!

#janebernard

Caveman Diet or Intuitive Eating?

A friend of mine, who is uncomfortable with the words self-discipline and food in the same sentence, has been tricked into being an intuitive eater!  This happened because he tried a modified caveman diet option. He ate whatever he wanted five days a week. Then, on two random days, he fasted all day - only drank water - and then ate whatever he wanted for dinner. This worked for him because knowing he could eat whatever he wanted made him happy. The surprise is that he has stopped enjoying his favorite fast food items and his 'habits' are changing. The reason why is that he started tuning-in to his body differently.

He noticed that when he did eat fast foods - especially after a day of fasting - he felt lethargic. Also, his stomach started shrinking from the small amount of fasting. He's eating slightly less and has been steadily losing weight. I googled Caveman Power Diet and the website is easy to read, understand and follow. What they say makes sense to me. Cavemen certainly trusted their intuition. The reason why intuitive eating works for us today is, it lets us take control of our own choices and eating habits. We each are on intimate terms with our bodies. This means we can recognize what we want and need and when we feel full.

The way we eat is often a mirror of the way we approach living. When we are barreling through life, it's common go off in the wrong direction. It's helpful to pause and get our bearing. Living well and eating well is a balancing act. Connecting with what we want and getting what we need always makes sense. 

That's why, using our senses to notice what we notice and intuitive tools to connect with what feels good, is so easy. Life is complex; hunger is simple. We need to eat for energy and good health, but we don't need diet restrictions or eating habits. Our physical needs vary every day. We don't need to be cavemen to choose what we want to eat.

#janeBernard

Power Eating

Intuitive Eating is Power Eating

Hunger is a physical reality. Binging is an emotional trap. Fighting emotional traps is intuitive. It's liberating. When we make an intuitive choice, it feels 'right' and that is reassuring. Powerful intuitive tools free us from emotional eating.

Emotional eating or binging happens when we feel bad or sorry for ourselves. Even though the media would have us think differently, food is not a band-aid. It cannot mend a broken heart or make a mean person nice. Reality is that Life can be painful, unfair and hard. Responding to pain by eating more changes nothing; instead, we feel worse.

Anyone who has eaten food for emotional support knows the result is disappointment. Emotional eating is a trap. The only way out is to fight it.

When emotions guide food choices, we're going to gain weight. Intuition bypasses emotions. That's why we can feel deeply emotional around food and 'know' we're wrong to eat it. Using intuitive tools like determination, courage and dignity is surprisingly reassuring. It's power eating.

Here are 3 questions to ask yourself to know if a choice is 'right'.

• Does eating this leave me feeling physically comfortable, satisfied and healthy?
• If the answer is yes, then focus on comfort, satisfaction and health while you eat. 
• You will feel when you're had enough. This is feeling your mind working with your body. 
• Intuition balances what we want with what we know and what we feel. Power eating is listening to our intuition.
• Why am I eating this? 
• Being honest with yourself is the beginning of trusting your intuition. 
• The fact is, intuition is always protective. Trust it.
• Feel dignity in your heart and listen to that feeling.
•  If you're eating to satisfy emotions, stop. Decide to take control by being courageous. 
• You are stronger than anger or disappointment. You are stronger than sadness. 
• It's powerful to take control of self-defeating emotions, but it's not hard. Things that are wrong, crumble easily.
• Give yourself a smile of determination. Go for a short walk to cool off. Re-set your perspective. The only reason to eat is because you're hungry.
• What do I really want? 
• You want to fight it. No one wants to be a slave to emotions. Eating, weight maintenance, diet, work, family, responsibilities - all of these weigh on us 24/7. We need help to be strong. We don't have a lot of time to cook. Write down what you really want and put the piece of paper where you can look at it any time.
  • Adopt an attitude of determination and stick with it. Get what you want. Comfort, satisfaction and health create quality of life. Eat less, chew more. Attitude is powerful.
• FitsMe is a Web app that helps you find meals and create plans that fit your diet. Tell the site your food restrictions, likes, and dislikes and it serves up recipes to satiate even your pickiest preferences. It can save time and help you plan. 

Use attitude. Remember to focus on comfort, satisfaction, and health when you eat. Use the power of natural courage to zap fear and over come doubts. Use determination and self-respect to follow through with what feels 'right' and use attitude. Be dignified when you eat. It's intuitive power.

"Anything is possible if you've got enough nerve." JK Rowlings

#janebernard

Break Habits

Take control of what you eat by breaking habits.

Habits happen when we grab what is easy, convenient or fast. The result is emotional eating because habits are not a response to our body. Eating is not supposed to be a habit. We're supposed to respond to hunger.

Ignoring our body often means we are not satisfied by what we eat. Physical needs are unique and change all the time. When we ignore what we want, we feel lousy. Emotional eating is an unsatisfying way of rebelling against what doesn't feel right. Don't let emotional eating be a habit.

Habits are ruts. Being in a rut feels like being old. Worse, habits make us feel trapped. Yuck! Shake off eating habits by getting into the season. Open your eyes, inhale the new fragrance in the air. Try new foods that smell and look good. New experiences renew us. There is a feeling of excitement and anticipation that makes us look and feel younger.

• ·Habits limit choices and kill spontaneity, which makes us look drawn and tired. Eat to feel good.  Don’t be in a rut.

• Add spice to life with new experiences. Instead of a big meal, eat small amounts when you try something new. Really taste, smell and experience the newness. Eating is supposed to be a pleasure.

•  Be kind to yourself.  Don’t dwell on the past. It’s history. What matters is eating to keep healthy and fit today. Leave the past behind. Take a moment to be grateful for good health and the ability to move forward.

•  Initiate change in routines. Spring is the season to be spontaneous. Allow yourself time and space to do personal things differently. Eating is personal. If you don’t feel like eating, don’t; if you want to just have appetizers, do! Connect with curiosity you were born with. Have more fun. 

• Taste more by chewing and savoring what you eat. Stop talking about your body, weight, diet or frustration. Talk about ideas and what makes you feel good. Spring is a season of new beginnings.

• Simplify eating decisions by using your senses more. Notice what you notice. It will be clear if you’re bored, excited or hungry. Listen to your body. The rule is to honor yourself.

Take a breath. Take time to give yourself a chance. Stay in the present and enjoy Life!

• Think with your senses. Check in with the way you feel before and while you're eating. Make decisions spontaneously.

• Feel with your mind.  Use intuitive tools like courage, dignity and curiosity to guide eating choices. Before you eat, ask, "How will I feel about myself if I eat this?" Respect and protect yourself.  Be intuitive.

 Am I Really Hungry, 6th Sense Diet: Intuitive Eating  will help you reset mealtime priorities and recognize what holds you back from eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're not. Pick up a hard copy and stick markers on pages that help you stay true to yourself, or buy an e-copy and access intuitive tools from your phone!

#janebernard

#1 Diet Resolution : The Best Revenge

The #1 way to know you will be your healthy weight in 2013 is resolve to Be Good To Yourself. You will look good and you will feel good.

Because life is unpredictable, you cannot know what eating challenges lie ahead. Whether you're an emotional eater, a stress eater, a lonely eater or just a food lover, resolving to be good to yourself will keep you happy with your body. Here's how to do it:

• Tune-in to what's pushing your buttons. Eating will never satisfy emotions, beat stress or be your best friend. Instead, when buttons are pushed try this:
• Wait for 3 minutes to see if the urge to eat passes, which it probably will.
• Plan an alternate activity to use to diffuse these feelings.
• Call your mother/cousin/friend to see how s/he's doing. Everyone gets lonely.
• Take a brisk walk around the block to diffuse anger. Focus on what is essential for you and adjust accordingly. If someone is making you angry, it's their problem, and the way to deal with it is to honor yourself.

• Don't let eating be a habit. Volunteer to help others and discover how lucky you are. Helping others is cool. You will make new friends by being good to yourself and end mindless eating.

• When you eat check in with how your body feels for clues . 
• Notice personal changes and respond to them.
• Notice how smelling and tasting what you eat makes you feel.
• Notice when you're no longer hungry.

• Feed social and emotional hunger as often as you feed your body.
• Talk more, eat less.
• Share portions.
• Feed others. 

Being good to yourself is choosing to deal with the changes happening around you by going with the flow, but not compromising your priorities. You don't need permission to trust yourself, because you know what feels good and what doesn't. Trust yourself.

Intuitive tools will always protect you, as long as you use them. So, for 2013, here's how to be the #1 star in your life all year long. 

• Be curious before you eat to notice how your body feels and to respond to it.
• Use foresight as self-defense to think about how you'll feel tomorrow if you binge today.
• Connect with dignity when someone or something pushes your button. It takes energy to take the high road, and that burns calories. It has been said  "Looking good is the best revenge". Be determined to look good!

Feeling good and looking good go together. Take time to know your body. Share the pleasure of  enjoying tastes and the comforts of relaxing with someone you love. Have a Happy New Year and remember, you are #1.

For 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

Comfort Food Time Capsule

Everyone knows food is a kind of love. You've heard about food that nurtures or about aphrodisiacs or even love potions. Eating is comforting because it nourishes us physically, emotionally and spiritually. Everyone has food imprints connected with memories that help us feel better.

When you eat to find comfort, you want to experience those memories again. That's what you're looking for. That's when enjoying comfort food makes sense.

Comfort food is a kind of intuitive time capsule. It's the experience of bringing a 'taste' of well-being or comfort back to you from the past so that you experience it again. 

Wanting comfort is intuitive.  Protecting yourself is too.

The trick of intuitive eating comfort food is to use intuitive tools  to think with all 6 senses to keep clear about your priorities. Then, please, eat and enjoy a refreshing time capsule experience. 

Here's how to safely enjoy the comfort in comfort food eating:

• Accept that you are going to have a comfort food.
• Commit to enjoying it by savoring the taste and how it makes you feel.
• Limit the size of your portion to the size of your fist.
• Smile after every bite, whether you want to or not. 
• Come back refreshed.  

 Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

What are you craving now?

Cravings are personal. They hit emotionally and physically and can feel confusing.  We're hungry for more than food. We feel:

• hunger for comfort
• craving for love
• passion to understand who we are
• thirst to protect ourselves and live well

When you ignore these appetites and just eat instead, it causes physical and emotional stress. This happens because you're ignoring what you sense from your body and your heart! Using your 6 senses reconnects you with feelings of self-control.  Self-control feels like balance.

Why not protect yourself by using your 6th sense - intuition - to know what you're really craving?

Your body and senses are designed to relieve stress by focusing on the present. This keeps you in control of choices.  Here's how to do it:

• Notice what you see, smell, taste and hear. This puts you in touch with your body.
• Notice how your body feels. 
• Your body tells you when it's tired and when it's hungry. 
• Your heart tells you when you're frustrated or lonely. 
• Although the clock may say dinner, your body may not be hungry. Don't enslave your body to a clock. 
• You are not always hungry. 
• Never force yourself to eat. When you feel full, you feel comfortable. Use your senses to notice what feels comforting. 
• What you need to feel satisfied could be a good nights sleep, or you may need to call a good friend and vent, or just hear the sound of the voice of someone you miss. 

Use your 6th sense to respond:

• Are you craving love or companionship? Do something social.
• Are you famished for sports or excitement? Watch a game or find someone to play with.
• When was the last time you ate a relaxed satisfying meal with a friend? Maybe sharing the pleasures of eating and communicating will bring you satisfaction.     

Intuitive tools make it easy to recognize what you're craving and get it: without having stress. Your 6th sense always leads  to what's good for you. What's good for you, feels good, and will satisfy that craving.

Use Spring Fever to Lose Weight

Spring is a time of enthusiasm and a time of new beginnings.
You feel Spring fever in your body. Use that feeling to change the way you eat.

Begin to taste every meal,  savor every bite in your mouth,  share the enjoyment of it with others and stay connected with your body. Get sensual and lose weight with enjoyment, instead of diet-stress. De-stress means:

Don't Eat Simply To React. Eat Sensually and Slower.

Do Eat to Satisfy, Taste, Relax, get Energy and Satisfy yourSelf.

Stress is in your head. Digestion is in your body. When you're stressed it inhibits your body's abilities to get the most nourishment from what you eat. Stress impacts your ability to think clearly and it can release a hormone into your body telling it to hold on to fat!

De-stress and eat less. Forget diet dogma and tune into your body and your personal priorities. You know what feels good.  If you want to lose weight, make a commitment to yourself to trust your body and be honest with yourself about what matters, before putting something into your mouth.

Feel Spring. Let the enthusiasm of new beginnings free you from old regrets and old self-defeating habits. Today is your day to begin the rest of your life. Do it with dignity and self-respect.

Use intuitive tools to get liberated from extra weight and old patterns that are so 'last year'. 

See yourself in summer clothes looking happy, healthy and feeling fit. Feed that person! She's as real as you allow her to be. Go for it, it's Spring!  

Nature is forgiving, it begins anew each year. Forgive yourself for bad decisions and shed them with your weight by eating intuitively. Spring fever is a time to feel light with joy!

Start now by smiling. There's a billboard in Texas that says: "If you see a man without a smile, give him yours."  Do it and spread the fever.

Morning After Binge

Recently, I've been asked about Intuitive Eating and binging:

• Why do I feel so hungry in the morning after an evening of non-stop eating? Shouldn't I feel full instead?

You feel hungry because the food you binged on was not what your body needed for nourishment. When you eat for emotional reasons because you're stressed, frustrated, angry or bored, it has nothing to do with nourishing your body. Imagine if you put the wrong gas in your car, even if you overflow the tank - it won't run.

• Why does my body feel so sluggish and bloated? What happens physically?

Physically, you've clogged your pipes. When we eat without noticing how our body feels, we abuse ourself. Because our body,s efficient, it works to sort through, digest and get rid of the evening's onslaught.

• Why does this affect my mood, outlook and self-esteem? I feel like I'm a failure, have no self worth, and that this negative downward spiral seems to be my destiny - a life of self-inflicted ups and downs - all caused by abusing food.

It's frustrating to feel out of control. Your mood, outlook and self-esteem are not the result of abusing food. Instead they are the result of abusing yourself.  Your body is not an object, it's a very real connection with your heart and psyche. The first rule of intuitive eating is to protect yourself. It's part of your survival instinct. 

Use the intuitive tool of patience to give yourself grace. When you're patient- instead of angry with yourself, you can understand what pushes your button and how to protect yourself against it the next time. Once you use patience, you will discover you feel more peaceful. Then use the intuitive tool of foresight for self-defense. Make a plan to protect yourself.

• Why do I want to punish myself by abusing my body and my heart?

You don't! However you have been programmed by diet programs to believe eating certain foods is "bad" and that you are "bad" for craving them.  Programming whether it's from our parents, media or programs is inner dialogue that runs like a script in our heads. Your inner voice is your intuition. It may warn you with a gut feeling but it will never lead you to punish yourself. Read the sections Body/Mind/Soul Food: Intuitive Eating that explain how to know the difference between your inner voice (intuition) and inner dialogue (media/parents/programs). Use the index and get in-depth answers.

•  Why is so hard to regain control after several days of overeating? 

You may have all kinds of chemicals and sugar in your system keeping you out of touch with your body. If you're finding you're uncontrollable, treat food like a drug. If this drug is screwing with your body, it's destroying your health. Without your health, you cannot live.

Confusion caused by a chemical imbalance is hard to deal with. It's time to use tough love which is doing what is right instead of what is easiest. Read the chapter called Satisfaction to get intuitive ways to do this.

• How can I get back in touch with my intuition and break this cycle?

Life is always going to have unexpected stresses. Forgive yourself and allow yourself to get back in sync with your body and mind. Focus on using your 6 senses when you're around food. When you feel an emotional drive to binge, take control by giving yourself 3 minutes to use your intuitive foresight and patience. Make a commitment to honor yourself. Every day, every meal is a new opportunity to recommit to protecting yourself.

Listen to your body. Ultimately your body has a 'mind' of it's own and is clear about what feels satisfying and what foods make you physically at peace.

Get easy intuitive eating tips for getting in sync with your body and maintaining a healthy weigh. Download: Body/Mind/Soul Food, Intuitive Eating

and overcome eating challenges.

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