Download Day 2 worksheet here

Transcript:

I know intuitive eating can sound a little airy fairy or even daunting - trusting your body to tell you when it’s full or what it feels like eating? Bit risky ;) Yet we happily put our trust in the hands of the latest diet craze or celeb pushing that craze. Everyone’s body, metabolism and digestive system is slightly different. 

A diet which works for one person isn’t necessarily going to have the same effects on another person - in fact there are various studies to show that this has even been proven in identical twins. Intuitive eating is about tuning into what you feel like eating and paying attention to fullness levels - this isn’t always possible but you’ll feel much more satisfied with food and eating if you can make it happen more often. 

In order to get to the root of our own eating habits, stories and beliefs we have to rewind the clock. Take a moment to think about what food rules were present in your childhood. No eating before dinner? No chocolate or sweets on weekdays? An empty plate meant you could leave the dinner table? No snacks before dinner? What food rules can you remember from your childhood?

Rules of restriction can often trigger behaviours and habits which stick - for example maybe the no snacks before dinner led you to secretly eat a chocolate bar or biscuits in your bedroom as a child or teenager due to being hungry, causing feelings of anxiety and guilt. This then continued on through adulthood, the feeling of guilt quietly bubbling away as you quickly shove a biscuit in your mouth, hoping no-one sees. There’s nothing wrong with eating a biscuit, no one is going to tell you off, yet the anxiety and guilt remains. 

What behaviours did those rules lead to? Jot them down in your notebook. When we can pin point where the behaviour or belief comes from and explain it to ourselves, the grip it has on us often loosens. It doesn’t seem quite so important anymore. 

I’d like to take this moment to remind you that parents usually always have their children’s best interests at heart. They are not to blame for the hurdles we have to overcome when it comes to eating and body acceptance. These are personal issues which have come about via a variety of factors, not just childhood food rules. Parents were doing the very best with the information they had to hand. Nobody is to blame, but we are personally responsible for working on this and absolutely flying over those hurdles with sparkly fairy wings to boot! 

Something that I often hear is “I just eat and eat and eat until I feel sick” pop your fave emoji below if you can relate to this at times. As children we’re often told “eat just a spoonful more” or “just finish those veggies there”, “no you can’t have another sandwich!” They are all very well meaning suggestions from people who love us and want to take care of us but unfortunately, if followed, these suggestions lead us to override our hunger signals as children and we lose the ability to recognise what feeling full or hungry is like. 

Physical hunger is a pretty simple one to recognise once you become aware; it gradually gets stronger, it’s something that comes on slowly that we notice little by little. 

If all of a sudden, we’re hungry out of the blue, this is likely to be emotional hunger. Emotional hunger is that instant hit of cakey pangs, or choccy pangs or maccy D pangs. Next time you feel that instant hit of hunger as yourself how you’re feeling - stressed? Happy? Upset? Angry? 

I often nibble on things when I’m excited. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH EMOTIONAL EATING - at times it can be the only soothing comforting thing we have. Please don’t deprive yourself of that if there is nothing else which will comfort you. You aren’t failing at life if you comfort eat. However, at times there are other remedies that will offer greater comfort than that instant, but short lasting, soother food offers. What things offer you comfort when you feel upset, angry, tired, stressed etc?

You may have some of these on your list: chatting to a friend on the phone, a hug, a cat cuddle, swimming, walking in nature, losing yourself in Netflix, reading. Jot down the ones you’ve come up with to stick to your fridge as a reminder for the next time you go and open that door hoping the taste of something in there will make you feel better. 

Dive into the why. Why have you recently comfort eaten, what caused it? Why you chose food over another remedy and what needs you haven’t been meeting in life lately is something I often go further into with clients when working on intuitive eating, why not take time to journal through some of these things later?

So, when it comes to physical hunger we need to ask ourselves if we’re eating enough or too much. I love the analogy I use in my journaling ebook Nourishing Soulfully - Gentle Journaling prompts To Uncover Your Personal Answers. Your driving along in your car on a long journey, you notice you have half a tang of petrol left, as you continue to drive along, the pin on the petrol gage slowly lowers, easing its way to the red ‘empty’ marker. You’re on the motorway, you can stop at regular points to refuel the car. You regularly notice the pin sliding towards the empty red bar. The car regularly BINGS to tell you that you need to refuel. Would you continue on without re-fueling? No? So why do that to your body? 

We need to eat regularly to top that gage up and for each of us that will look slightly difference when it comes to quantity, meals, snacks and portions. You may find that 6 meals a day works better for you than the traditional 3 meals and a snack or two. You may find snacking all day long keeps your energy levels topped up. You may find that it changes throughout the month or seasons. Take note of your hunger levels before your usual meals each day, you want to sit around a 4 or 5 just before a meal - 0 being starving and 10 being that awful feeling after eating thirds of Christmas dinner. After eating, ideally you want to comfortably sit around an 8. Do you think you’re eating enough? Are you aware of fullness levels before you get too full? 

Things that can help with noticing fullness levels:

• Placing your fork down after each mouthful, waiting to fully finish what your chewing before picking the fork up again

• Eating slowly and pausing a few times during the meal, to down cutlery and check in with how full you are

• If you’d like a dessert but think it may fill you up too much, check in with your fullness levels throughout your main - once you get to a 6 or 7 stop and leave room for dessert.

Let’s move onto finding the foods that make you feel good. The food evaluation I included in today’s workbook is a simplified version of one I use with clients which you can do on your own, this will help you to brainstorm foods you like, don’t like, and foods you would like to try. With the list you end up creating, use the ideas to create a meal and snack list that really excites you and makes you smile. For meal and snack inspiration head to Instagram and Pinterest and search for different meal ideas. On Pinterest use keywords such as “comfort winter dinner ideas” and on Instagram search via hashtag like #lunchatwork 

If you’re someone who enjoys planning out meals and snacks, you can have a really great week planned ahead of you and then something doesn’t quite go to plan and you end up not being able to eat what you had originally set out to eat on Wednesday evening. This has the potential to send us into a bit of a spiral. When this happens imagine the following scenario in your head, which I always find really useful: You’re driving a long a road and come to a road block, so you follow the directed detour. You arrive at your destination at pretty much the same time, you just took an alternative route. Do you feel bad? Does it play on your mind all day? When it comes to food planning, your destination is eating something which satisfies you and fulfils you. Did your meal do that? Does it matter if you took an alternative route to that destination of eating something which satisfies your needs? 

I know that it all sounds lovely, eating what you want, when you want and often life can totally not provide us with the fair weather circumstances to do this, but there are ways to work around this. As someone who spends 10 hours a day at her day job, enjoys moving her body most days, works as a kindness coach the rest of the time, I know that a busy life and a healthy relationship with food is possible. Here are some tips of how I get into my food flow each week:

What we feel like eating can often be influenced by the weather, when it’s hot and sunny we’ll crave lighter, fresher meals and snacks. When it’s cold and wet, we’ll often crave more comforting, filling foods. At the weekend I make a list of foods I’ve really fancied throughout the week and what I feel like I’ll enjoy eating the coming week. I delve into recipe books, Instagram and Pinterest for inspiration too. From this list I head to the supermarket to stock up on ingredients and I spend a morning each weekend batch cooking meals and preparing snacks for the week ahead:

This usually looks like a few main meals, such as a soup, curry, pasta dish or rice dish

A few things I can pop on to add a little excitement: chutneys, salad, nuts or seeds

Snacks: hummus, energy balls, cake and fruit, oh and chocolate of course. 

I pack my lunch and 3 snacks for work each day. As I’ve just eaten my breakfast and I’m full I’ll often think “oh I don’t need those snacks today” which is a big mistake. We can often mistake what we fancy eating throughout the day with our current fullness levels. Always take more than needed. I don’t always eat all of the snacks in my bag, but it’s nice to have something there when I’m peckish at work. It inevitably stops me ending the day absolutely starving and stopping off at the shop on the way home just to grab something, ANYTHING to eat because I’ve let my hunger go too far. We reach a point with hunger, where if we’re too hungry, all rationale and tuning into what we feel like eating goes out of the window. We just need food, any food and our survival instincts kick in, meaning we’ll be searching for foods which will give us an instant hit of sweetness, energy and fulness. 

When I eat at work, whilst I often eat in a hurry, I try to slow down and check in with fullness levels. If I’m still hungry I’ll have a snack after my lunch. If, before eating lunch I’m not that hungry at all, I’ll have one or two of my snacks instead of lunch and save that for later. You will be able to tune into hunger levels and intuitive eating with time, it takes practice, kindness and patience on your part and honing the skill. I often find that clients feel like they just don’t have the time but start small, try checking in with yourself around food just on a weekend day or a slower day for you and work from there. 

Let’s recap on what we have soul dived into in this session:

• Childhood food rules and eating behaviours 

• Hunger signals - noticing fullness levels and checking in

• Finding the foods that make us feel good

• When food plans don’t go to plan

• How a busy life and a healthy relationship with food is possible.