Is Intuitive Eating Working Against You?

Let's talk about why intuitive eating doesn’t always work.

Have you been trying to tune into your body, but it’s always feeling hungry or ready for a snack?

WHY??

What is the deal?

Are you not losing weight, or gaining weight. SO ANNOYING!

You don’t understand how you can accurately tell when you are truly hungry or truly full.

I want you to know you are not alone. 

So many women struggle with this and it is absolutely not your fault that you can’t figure this out on your own just by reading about it.

Intuition is something you feel.

There are two main issues at play here that can interfere with your body’s natural signals and make it hard to tell what your body is trying to tell you.

1.  If you have higher levels of circulating insulin and your body has been used to relying on you consuming calories (instead of burning stored fat), your hunger signals are probably out of balance.

Fix in theory: Get your insulin levels way down. Low insulin lets your body goes out of fat storing mode, and can start to use your stored body fat for energy.

Fix in real life:  To get your body to not release gobs of insulin, you need to stop feeding it the foods that cause high insulin release. What are those foods to stop?  You guessed it: starches and sugars. 🥯🥨🥪🍚🍝🍰🍪🥤 

2. Another issue can be that you have spent years and years responding to any form of hunger (physical and emotional) that you are not able to distinguish between the two forms.

Physical hunger requires nutrition, however emotional hunger does not get nourished by food.

"Oh, I’m not an emotional eater," you say?

If you are not at your ideal weight and you are eating when you’re not physically hungry, you may be using food to ease some feelings (mindlessly snack when tired or stressed) or highlight others (consume extra dessert for your birthday).

There is zero shame in this, so many of us are conditioned in this behavior that it’s second nature to us, so we don’t even know it’s happening!

Fix in theory : Stop most of the emotional eating and focus on the sensations your body produces when it’s physically hungry.

FIX in real life: Become aware of when and why you eat. Pay attention to your thoughts when you are eating. Work on your emotional and mental resilience. Over time, you can stop relying on food to make you feel relief or feel happy.

Once you can have the skills to solve for these top two issues, intuitive eating becomes easier and weight loss is not an uphill battle.

There is obviously more to this, however, when we start by identifying the main aspects and taking action, our confidence will produce RESULTS! Isn't this what we all want? I would say yes.

I am welcoming new clients to apply for my 1:1 program. In my program, I help coach you on these skills and so much more. Come find out what having a coach can do to accelerate your results.

If you’re ready to find out more, drop me an email to: penny@coachpennymd.com

or book a free Zoom call with me here to get a free jumpstart strategy session:

Book a free call with Coach Penny

Happy Spring to all!

Coach Penny