Intuitive Eating

Modern Homo sapiens appeared around 300,000 years ago in Africa.

While our ancestors have been around for about six million years, the modern form of humans only evolved about 200,000 years ago.

Civilization as we know it is only about 6,000 years old, and industrialization started in earnest only in the 1800s.

And only for the last 70 years, we have unbelievable and unlimited access to food varieties and marketing stimulation.

But our human body evolution takes thousands of years to adapt.

Today we will talk about the natural way of nourishing your body and making it healthy, keeping you young and feeling energetic.

Intuitive eating is a natural way to fulfil your body with what it needs as no one else on this planet can know better than you are. It is not dieting. It’s a lifestyle that encompasses different aspects of living and helps you recognise your body’s need through the senses.

To make things more comprehensive, Nude brings in a few points to help you start listening to your body and adapt intuitive eating habits:

Understanding the philosophy

Intuitive eating is all about understanding that you are the best person to make healthy decisions for yourself. Thus, when you start believing that your body is unique and has its way of functioning and responding to food, you can make mindful choices. The concept is based on satisfying physical hunger without causing guilt and the need of the body. The core of intuitive eating lies in eating when hungry and stopping when full (which would mean not eating out of emotional need).

Cater to hunger

It is vital to keep your body running on an optimum energy source via the basics of food like carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and fats. Lack of essential nutrients can trigger the impulse of overeating…which often ends up being easy, fast food. Learning the instinct of your body and its biological signs will help you satiate hunger and redefine the trust in yourself when it comes to food.

Normalize love for food

We need to start loving ourselves more and stop pushing ourselves into the guilt of eating what we love. If we prohibit ourselves from eating something with cants and shouldn’t have, then we make it a luxury in our brains, leading to an intense feeling of deprivation or uncontrolled cravings that could push us off the wagon…after all, love for food is pure love. Eating forbidden foods with numerous contemplations can cause overwhelming guilt, and let’s be honest, food is the last thing we would want to be guilty of – ever!

Embrace food satisfaction

We as humans have put the simpler joys of life in the backseat, and the culture of sticking to rules and following agendas to achieve the goal has become the only source of motivation. Take a moment to pause, to relish the most fundamental gift of existence- the joy and pleasure that can be through food. When you eat what your heart and mind desire in a welcoming space, the happiness you will get out of that experience will keep you satisfied and content for long. When you practice such ideas of intuitive eating, soon you will realize that it takes just the right amount of food to decide that you have had enough.

Acknowledge your appetite

One of the fundamental practices of intuitive eating emphasizes being in sync with your mind, body and soul…to acknowledge the signs of your body. Next time you feel hungry and see something delicious, go ahead and give yourself unconditional permission to eat. When you practice this, take small portions and tell yourself that you can always go for more later…while eating, enjoying the food, and asking how hungry I feel now and if I feel full. Start observing the signs that tell you that you have had enough. Make sure you drink plenty of water, as sometimes the hunger might come from not drinking enough water.

Understanding emotional hunger

Anxiety, boredom, frustration, loneliness, etc., are a few of the emotions that we have all felt at some point in our life. The same feelings have their share of triggers and appeasements…which could often manifest into eating comfort food. But like we mentioned before, intuitive eating is a holistic approach towards eating which means that we need to fix our emotions and not collaborate them with food. Though food can help with the temporary resort, it will not help in the long run. Therefore, try to understand your emotions and walk yourself through rational thinking of keeping such emotions and food separate.

Honour your body

Intuitive eating will push you to understand the genetic-built of your body. We need to understand and respect our being’s unique individuality and how what might work for others may not be the best-suited choice for us. When we start respecting our body in the way we eat and condition, we begin to love and accept ourselves more. So, it’s time we stop projecting ourselves to unrealistic and overcritical standards and start giving it the dignity it deserves.

Active lifestyle

It’s imperative to break the stress cycle of eating, feel the guilt of it, and then be harsh on yourself in the gym. Instead, try to shift the focus from calorie-burning exercises to how it feels when moving your body and putting it into an active space. Soon, you would start feeling the difference and hitting snooze would become a rare occurrence.

Love for taste

Start bringing healthier options that tickle your taste buds and honour your body. Also, help yourself understand that being healthy doesn’t happen overnight, so build a routine that helps you enjoy food that you like without guilt and then pace up as per your body’s need. Aim for progress and not perfection.

In the end, it is vital to start being mindful of the signs your body is trying to convey and build habits that help you cater to them most healthily.

Life is too complex to bring that further into your body…relax and start falling in love with yourself all over again.