3 CHOICES

Eating habits are not healthy.

Each time you eat a meal, you have one choice which is to satisfy your hunger. That is the purpose of eating. The way to do this is not so simple because of habits that tell you there are three choices when you see a large plate of food in front of you. These are:

#1: Allow things to work out is your intuitive choice.

This means you tune in to your body, and listen to your senses, and remember what you know from past eating experiences. If you tune in to your body and there is no hunger response, the choice is to not eat. You are not always hungry. This is listening to your inner truth. It is you, connecting with your intuition.

Allowing things to work out takes courage and determination. Courage is energy you are born with and can always tap into. Like your intuition, it is always present. ( March 2010 blogs speak about courage in depth.)

Allowing things to work out means trusting your inner truth, and
connects with your self-esteem.
Ultimately it feels great and you look great!

#2: Forcing your self is a habit.

When you force your self to eat certain foods, or within certain calorie constraints, you are fighting your self. The result is often dissatisfaction with your meal, and even rebelling by over-eating Even if you succeed in restricting your intake based on external rules, the victory is both hollow and temporary. 95% of people who lose weight by dieting gain it back.

Eating is natural. Instead of forcing your self, tune in to your body, and your heart, and reflect on what makes you feel good, when you eat. Connect with your whole self. When you trust your self, you will not be destructive.

Yes, it’s good to learn about diets and food. Curiosity is a powerful intuitive tool. Use it as a guide, and trust where you’re going. Reading this means you’re going toward your goal of being your healthy weight.

People who are starving are restricted by circumstances. Celebrate your good fortune by respecting your self and allowing things to work out. Keeping clear about your priorities connects with your inner courage and you feel liberated.

#3: Ignoring the problem is a habit.

Ignoring something doesn't make it go away. Because every meal brings a new set of circumstances, it is not always wrong to relax your sense of balance, and eat an extra donut to celebrate or have desert, because you are with good friends. However, ultimately you must respect your body and your senses, and not eat destructively. Cravings are often just habits.

It feels wrong to abandon your self-respect.
Remember, if it feels wrong, it is wrong.

Relaxing "self-control" does not mean abandoning self-respect. It means allowing your self to listen to your whole being- heart, mind, soul and body and to stay in the moment. Trust your intuition, don't ignore it.  Your intuition keeps your perspective clear so you can allow things to work out in your best interests.

You have one choice and you have habits. Habits around eating are not helpful. Lose those habits and enjoy the difference in your quality of Life!

Compromise = Heart Ache

Talking and Eating at the same time...

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

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

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

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

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

Being alert means seeing the big picture.

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

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

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

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

Don’t compromise your heart.

Compromise = Heartache

Body Language

Your body is talking to you. Learn body language.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let your intuition work for you.

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

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

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

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

Determination is will-power.  You have it!

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

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

Listen to your body.

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

Quick weight loss fix means quick weight gain.

A quick weight loss fix means quick weight gain.
Weight loss that is permanent happens slowly. We all know this, but with swimsuit season upon us, the quick solutions like “lose 30 pounds in 30 days!”, make us doubt our experience. So the question is, where does the doubt come from?

Doubt comes from fear. It is a fear of not being in control of our body or our weight. When you trust your 6 senses, you can use your intuition to let go of doubt caused by fear. You can trust your intuition because it is your inner personal trainer - always focused on your best interests.  When you follow your intuition, you are alert, determined and in control.

Martin Luther King quoted the bible many times, “The Truth Shall Set You Free!” But still we wonder- how can I know what is true?  

Your intuition will never lead you to do anything self-destructive. 

The truth feels good. That’s how to recognize it!

Listen to your intuition and you will recognize your questions. These include:

What am I really hunger for?

What am I eating? and Does it satisfy my appetite?

To know the answers use your 6 senses.

Let go of doubt and replace it with nothing.
Sounds easy but it's not so simple. What helps me to have this sort of peace of mind is my experience that only things that evolve slowly really last. Losing weight slowly means getting rid of it for good.

Eat slowly, enjoy every bite!

Be thankful that you are not hungry like so many are in our world.
Life is good when we remember to Live.  Live well by using your 6 senses. Intuitive eating feels good!

Chocolate - Share the pleasure.

This past week was my birthday, and I got a lot of tempting and delicious chocolate.

My friend Elan in Colorado baked me chocolate chocolate chip cookies from a French recipe that are huge and light and deeply, deeply, chocolate. These cookies are a delicious, amazing, seductive experience. And my daughter, gave me chocolate covered espresso beans and chocolate filled candy from an exclusive chocolatier in NYC. OMG. It has been at first very hard, because, of course, I wanted all of it.

When I spoke with Elan to thank her I confessed to actually eating 2 of the cookies in one sitting (which made me feel wildly overdosed on sugar) and she told me she only eats ½ of one at a time! Ouch.

Chocolate is wonderful, delicious, and fattening- so when you have chocolate, break it into bite sized pieces and share that wonder and delicious part with a friend or family member.  It makes them happy and it makes you feel good about your self. 

Chocolate: Connect with your body by really tasting it and savoring the flavor. Connect with your heart by sharing the pleasure. Connect with your intuition by doing what's best for you.

It doesn’t have to be your birthday to be surrounded by foods that will tempt you with their taste and make it hard to resist over eating. But do yourself and those you love a favor and keep temptation away by sharing. Take the box of candy to work and set it out on a table with a note: "Enjoy". No one will complain. And you will set a standard that feels healthy for your spirit. It’s a way of respecting your self.

Don’t be tempted by the illusion of satisfaction. Real satisfaction is a process, not a conclusion. You’ll feel good about your choice when you give your chocolate away. Having no temptation is a relief.

After talking to my friend, I remembered the Hobbits in the J.R.R. Tolkien books. They give presents to others on their birthday. So, I have been giving the chocolate cookies and candies as bite-size treats to friends to celebrate my birthday. Everyone is loving it, and I’m loving the way my body feels. It wasn’t easy but I’ve learned that difficulties can stimulate our greatest achievements! Giving away chocolates is an achievement.

Life is a gift and Intuition a S.O.R.

Loneliness is often the reason we eat when we’re not hungry. Food, in our busy and complex times, can be easier to get then human contact. Sometimes you may eat food because you are hungry for a human link. Remember intuition is your ultimate connector. It balances what you sense with what you know and what you feel, to give you the clear “right” choice. Let your intuition guide your eating choices.

Your 6 senses work with your body so that you can be clear about what you are hungry for. Your intuition will help you recognize: if you're hungry for company, or if you need to eat.  Eating what you don’t need, or want, is a sure way to gain weight.

Polishing your senses will help you recognize what to eat that makes sense for your body and to be your healthy weight. It will also help you recognize where your appetite is coming from. Importantly, fine tuning your senses opens up choices that are empowering in every area of your being.

Life is a gift. The dictionary defines a gift as “natural talent”. Fine tuning your senses nourishes your natural talents of seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting and touching, and opens opportunity throughout your Life by connecting you with your present.

Stress in our lives dulls our senses. Before you eat, choose to reconnect with the present and connect with your 6 senses. Use your intuitive breathing-  3 deep breaths in and 3 deep breaths out. Open your eyes, use your ears, listen to your heart, and respect your experience. 3 breaths in and 3 breathes out before the first bite.

When our senses are dulled we make the wrong connections.

Fine tuning your 5 senses connects with your intuition, and you strengthen positive links in your life.  Try it.

You will find clarity, and a sense of relief.

Resist Fear.

Feeling a little on the edge, about trusting your senses to lose weight or maintain your weight, is natural. Fear is an emotion. Emotional eating habits are bullies that don’t have your self-interest in mind. Emotions distract you from what's in your best interest. Tuning-in with your senses protects you form fear.  Intuition often is a feeling of clarity.

Trying new ways of doing things, takes courage. Don't underestimate your efforts.

 “Courage is resistance to fear, a mastery of fear- not absence of fear.”  ~  #Mark Twain

Many dieters are afraid that they will not be able to control their eating if they eat what they want. This is not true. Intuition connects with your survival instinct. It naturally protects your body when you eat. The way to recognize your intuition is by staying aware of your other senses. You gain weight when you are unaware of what you are sensing while you eat.

• Your senses: sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing are natural born guides for healthy eating and they connect you with that 'gut feeling', the little nudge - that's your intuitive sense.
• Your 6th sense, intuition, balances what you sense with what you know and what you feel, so healthy eating choices result.  
• Instinctively, you know what feels good to you and is good for your body.

If you're lonely or fearful about eating, it can be because you are ignoring responding to what you sense with your eyes, ears, nose and skin. The result is you don’t connect with your body or your food and so eat wrong foods that don’t satisfy you, or else, eat in a way that may harm your body. Ouch!

Practice fine tuning by noticing what you notice and you will connect with your inner courage. As you use them, your senses become walls of protection to help you eat wisely. It's amazing.

Make the commitment to be honest about how you feel, physically and emotionally when you eat. This is courage to be true to yourself. Instead of emotional eating, learning to connect with your body this way means you'll eat when you're hungry and stop when you're not!

Let your senses guide you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ATTITUDE CHECK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Traps, Tricks, and Rules

When have you felt trapped by your emotional appetites?  Share your story.

Every day eating challenges tend to be sneaky. They happen when you are vulnerable, due to exhaustion, both emotional and physical. Confronted with a huge plate of pasta or the option to have soda, habit tells us to eat. Then when we are feeling somewhat better, the overeating begins to feel bad. And so, we feel betrayed by our self. ouch!

Eating out of habit is a trap. The way to beat the trap is to follow the rule of intuitive eating. The rule is to use your senses.  When your plate appears, look at it before you pick up your fork.  Pause, and think about whether you really feel like eating it, or whether you feel trapped.  Listen to your intuition. Check in with your body. Trust you self. You know how you feel.

When you feel trapped, ask for another plate and place ½ of everything on the second plate. Have the 2nd plate removed. Then, eat slowly. See if you can recognize what you are feeling in your body and through your emotions. Tune in to your senses. Remember, you only need your feed your body - not your emotions.  Appetites are driven by dreams, fears, and fashion as well as by physical need.  The trick is to rely on your 6 senses to recognize your hungers and balance your appetite.

When we stay clearly in touch with the present by using the tools of our senses it becomes obvious what is pushing our buttons around food and eating.  Hunger buttons are not just physical.  Our emotional response can put us in an eating mode where we feel trapped.  When this happens, you can outsmart the emotional trap by fine tuning your senses.

Hitting the weight loss wall?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Say Hello to your Heart!

When you think about eating only in terms of body and calories, you are by-passing the core of who you are. The core of who you are beats 24/7, and is the source of your dreams.  Say Hello to your Heart!

 

Your intuition is a natural part of who you are, just like your eyes, ears, taste, touch, and sense of smell. It is your 6th sense and part of your heart connection. Intuition is your way to sense being complete and balanced within your self. Trusting your intuition is how to recognize eating priorities that work for your body and your heart. 

Your 6th sense automatically responds to messages from your 5 senses and to what is happening in your body.  At the same time your amazing intuition balances what you know, with what you feel. The job of your intuition is keep you clear about your priorities. As you recognize your 6th sense, you feel complete from head to toe. It becomes obvious that your body depends on your heart, and that your heart depends on your body. When we eat, feeding our heart and our body, our priorities are good health, and abundant energy. 

The-Intuitive-Diet is an eating lifestyle that nurtures your heart by being good to your body. In fact, by keeping your body in shape and a weight that is healthy, you are honoring your heart.

Before you eat, take a deep breath in and a long breath out, and notice the beating of your heart. Your heart is always working for you, to achieve your goals and dreams. Remember this, and use your senses, including common sense, when you eat.

When you start to trust your intuitive connection, you say Hello to your Heart!

Emotional Buttons and the Heart

Emotional hot buttons create self-doubt. To lose weight using your intuition, you need to know and trust your self.

Trusting your intuitive voice removes the confused energy of self-doubt, and opens opportunities for you to make choices that feel good to your body, and your heart. Your intuition is always kind, and allows making and correcting mistakes. Eating mistakes are generally the result of emotional confusion around food and eating.

As you fine tune your senses, you are constantly renewing a unique human connection within your self. This connection will keep you in the present, providing clarity and focus about what matters. Your six senses will help you recognize the power not only of your physical appetite, but also of your emotional appetites. When you are clear about these, you are in control, and eating choices are easier.

The habit of "dieting" create pools of emotions based on self-doubt. Doubt pushes deep emotional buttons that are experienced as fear, envy, anger, desire, vindictiveness, ambition, and even stubbornness. These negative emotions are ones we turn on our selves, and they always create some kind of renewed self-doubt and fear. Fear exaggerates our emotional buttons. Choosing to make your intuitive connection makes fear tiny.

Intuitive eating focuses on enjoying food for quality of life. Using your intuition, you stay clearly in the present, and recognize the experience of your emotional hunger, and the need to feed your physical hunger. As you feed your body intuitively, notice how you feel- when you open your eyes in the morning and throughout the day- about your self, about your body, and about your choices. Even though eating relates to nourishing your body for strength and health, making your intuitive connection is a choice that connects with your heart.

Your intuition will never desert you. There is always another chance to listen to your inner voice and do the right thing. Choose to feed your dream body. Be true to your heart.

Connect with Pleasure

Eating is a way to connect with pleasure in your life. Of course you eat to survive, but the gifts of your senses also encourage and allow you to enjoy the tease of colors, sights, smells, textures, and tastes. That’s one reason why it’s nice to eat slowly and in an environment where you are physically comfortable. Why not enjoy the tease?

As you fine tune your five physical senses, taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight, you are tuning in to your sixth sense, your intuition.

Your intuition gives you the distinct pleasure of knowing your self.

Connecting with your intuition happens naturally because, in fact, all of your senses are always working together. Being aware of this, keeps you clear about what matters to you when you eat. This is comforting and reassuring, and a form of being in control. Being in control means you are clear about what you are doing when you are eating. If you sit down to eat confused, or ignore what you are sensing, then misunderstanding happens, and the result is overeating, or eating for the wrong reasons, or eating what makes you feel physically or emotionally bad about yourself. This is the opposite of pleasure.

Do you know that expression: Wake up and smell the roses.”?  The point is that there are flowers blooming in your life all of the time- even while you’re asleep, or eating. The other point is that your nose enables you to enjoy their sweet scent. Have you ever walked in a room and smelled cookies baking, or someone’s perfume? Your sense a smell is a tool to use when you chose what to eat.

Each sense serves as a pleasure center.

Your eyes tantalize by revealing beauty and potential.

Your ears bring words and songs to encourage, lift and entertain.

Your sense of touch is the key some of your most tender and most erotic sensations.

Taste and smell work together as a constant source of satisfaction.

Your intuition pulls it altogether.

Trust and respect your senses. As you recognize your senses working in unison, you will receive the most satisfaction of your life. Satisfaction is the foundation of pleasure. When you sit down to eat, think of the pleasures in front of you.

Eat less, chew more, and let yourself enjoy the tease.