Free Yourself From Diets With Intuitive Eating!
posted on: September 18, 2017. posted in: Nutrition, Mindfulness
So what is "Intuitive Eating"?
I'd like you to take a moment to really take in the words that I'm writing. To consider their meaning. To really think about what I'm trying to say and the point I'm trying to make to you.
Just think for 10 seconds.
Have you got it yet?
Did you notice it?
"Notice what Liam, tell me!!"
You're breathing.
From the moment you started reading this post, to the moment you were reminded that you were breathing... you have been breathing naturally and normally... without even thinking about it.
But what if I told you...
"You can lose 1lb for every minute you hold your breath."
You might try and hold your breath for a minute. You might try and hold your breath for 2 minutes. And knowing some of you here and the rush you're in to get skinny...
You might try and hold your breath for 20 minutes.
And so a pattern begins.
Of holding your breath.
Then gasping for breath.
Holding your breath again.
Gasping for breath again.
Suddenly something that was once relaxed and controlled without you even thinking about it, has become stressful and out of control the more you try to control it.
You spend years and thousands of pounds on breathing plans, and breathing books, and trying and failing with hundreds of different breathing techniques. Only to find your breathing is getting more and more out of control, the more you try to hold your breath.
And then, one day, someone reminds you...
"You actually used to breath pretty normally before you started trying to control it. Why not go back to that?"
Meet INTUITIVE EATING.
Intuitive Eating is like breathing without thinking.
Except it's eating without thinking.
No rules. No diets. No attempt at control. Just going with the flow and letting it happen.
And just as when you allow your body and brain to control your rate of breathing, it finds the exact right amount it needs...
When you allow your body and your brain to control your rate of eating, it finds the exact right amount it needs.
The reason most of your are binging? Because you're trying too hard to CONTROL IT.
Which starves your body...
And makes your body think it needs more of it.
Intuitive eating is about allowing eating and binging to happen, accepting that it's natural for it to happen, and that... most importantly... it's happening because your body wants it to happen.
Binging is a defence mechanism against starvation, in the same way that gasping is a defence mechanism against asphyxiation.
The key message?
"If you try to control your gasping by holding your breath, your body and brain will only want to gasp MORE. If you try to control your binging by dieting, your body and brain will only want to binge MORE."
So at the heart of intuitive eating is INTUITION.
"a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning."
If the instinct is to binge, then binge. Let it happen. Don't consciously try to control it through dieting because you'll only make it worse.
It is the years of dieting and controlling your eating that is making you binge, not the other way round.
If you want to breathe easier, just go with the flow.
If you want to eat better, just go with the flow.
If you want to eat something...
Eat it.
If you feel the urge to binge...
Go with it.
Trust the process.
Repeat the mantra...
"It's ok... It's ok... It's ok..."
And with time and practice you'll be amazed that when you go with the flow and eat intuitively you stop fighting your body.
And you simply binge less.
Liam
p.s. If you're fed up of dieting and want to learn more about how to relax around food, join us on Winter Warrior™ this October!
