Eating intuitively is what we're on about here. It is the safest, most sensible (and most importantly enjoyable!) way people can move towards being their most comfortable weight. It used to be easy to do. Just look at babies when they are hungry. They cry for milk and turn away when they're done. That is intuitive eating, which basically means listening to your body. Most people think intuitive eating is a food free for all, leaving you eating pizza and ice-cream all day. Nope. Thats not the point of intuitive eating. Intuitive eating is about nourishment on all levels, learning to say no when you're full and saying yes to any food that you really feel like. Another word for intuitive is innate, that is, something that's a natural part of us that we do without thinking. Aka eating! But along the way we have parents telling us to clean our plates, doctors giving us lollies after a needle, 'junky' food at parties etc. These rules and external societal factors all mess with our ability to actually listen to what we need. So by the time we're adults we often don't have a clue how to eat because our mind is full of should and shouldn't around food. 

I'm here to clear a path for you so that you can get back to your innate eating ways! These three questions can help you tune into your body signals and reach for foods that truly satisfy. 

Question 1: How hungry am I?

The saying is true, hunger really is the best seasoning. We are all born with the body signal 'hunger' which sole purpose is to tell us when to eat. Hows that for amazing! But when was the last time you were aware of how hungry you are before you grab something to eat? Or allowed yourself to get hungry? Or did not ignore your hunger but ate appropriately? It's not about being perfect in only eating when you're hungry but it is increasing the mindfulness around hunger levels. So asking yourself 'how hungry am I' can help you get a sense of what you need to fill up. Where are you on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being absolutely starving and 10 being absolutely full? Maybe if you are a 4 on the scale you just need something light until you next meal. Or has it been hours since breakfast and you needed a burger 2 hours ago. Try not to judge your sensations just be aware of them and act accordingly. 

Question 2: Which foods am I hungry for?

Think about sight, smell, touch and taste. Tune into your sense to discover which food you feel like right now. Is it something smooth and creamy? Or crunchy and fresh? Or warm and hearty? This may seem like a lot of work just to eat something! But remember its relearning a very natural skill so it shouldn't take too long to start choosing foods that you feel like. Its usually more daunting than hard because in this step, we are remaining neutral about our food choices. So if you feel like an ice-cream that is just as ok as if you feel like a salad. There are no right or wrong foods. Trust your body to lead you to help you in selecting the food that it wants and more often than not needs. 

Question 3: Which foods will satisfy me the most right now?

There is a big difference between satisfying our stomach hunger and satisfying our head hunger. In other words if we're not choosing the foods we really feel like, we may be filling up on food but are not satisfied. The aim here is to satisfy both stomach and head hunger. Lets explore this a bit more. Say we eat a salad sandwich for lunch because we're quite hungry and feel like something fresh and wholesome but also yummy. After eating it we're full because the sandwich was enough but we're not quite satisfied and hunt around for something more. This is often the case when we try to be healthy with our food choices. Or sometimes its just a misjudgement on what we were really feeling like. What can we do to make sandwich more satisfying? Add chicken or cheese or mayonnaise. Or did we really want the pasta in the fridge and would that have satisfied us more? Choosing the most satisfying foods at the beginning will prevent us from eating more in the long term as we are less likely to keep looking for more food.

Question 4: How am I likely to feel physically after eating?

Observe what foods make your body feel energised or sluggish, what gives you headaches or makes you tired and bloated. By being aware we can better choose foods that make us feel good. And thats the point isn't it?! This one takes time, and learning by trial and error and thats ok. One example for me is scones. I love scones and enjoy them regularly but have found they make me feel tired and weird in the head as they are high in rapidly absorbed carbohydrates. I don't want to miss out on having scones so I have found a way to still include them and feel good after eating them. I try to pair them with a bit of protein and fat such as full fat greek yoghurt or a handful of nuts. Meal pairing are a perfect example of this - a sandwich usually has protein, meat is eaten with veg etc. I find getting a good combo of macronutrients at each meal is a sure way to leave the meal feeling good. 

When I tell people I'm a dietitian they naturally assume I'm going to be the food police and tell them what they're eating is bad and what they should be doing instead. But... I actually don't care that much about what you eat. I care about why you eat and how you eat. I care about your thoughts around food, how you see yourself in the mirror and if you are well nourished inside and out. Weight loss is not the answer. The medical world claims it is the answer to the problems that they see but in reality weight loss diets is one of the most harmful things we can do and has one of the least success rates of current prescribed medical interventions. Instead, I practise the non diet approach, which is evidence based and the most helpful way dietitians can help their clients.  

I believe in body positivity

One of the worst effects of dieting is that it goes hand in hand with the desire to lose weight or change your body in some way. It is saying to yourself, 'I'm not enough' or 'I need to change this in order to be that'. Think about how often those thoughts pop up. I still get those thoughts frequently regardless of the effort I put in trying to fight against them. They are strong, pervasive and damaging. We live in a society that prizes one body type, which is mostly unattainable and is unrealistic. We think that we can't be beautiful if we do not look like the women portrayed in the media. Can I just stop there for a minute and say this is wrong and I'm sorry because not one of us is immune to this. But we each possess our own individual unique beauty. And how wonderful this is! Short legs, muscly arms, lean torso, large chest, rounded hips, narrow shoulders, long face.

We all have a beauty of our own. We need to start embracing this in ourselves and others. Whenever we act on the thoughts that we need to change we are automatically starting the diet cycle leading to deprivation and then ultimately beinging or overeating. One of the best things we can do to prevent this is being ok with our bodies right now. This will take time and some good support but nothing will change for the better until you start appreciating your body for what it is and at the same time know that bodies are not the most important thing in this life!  I love the way Taryn Brumfitt of 'Embrace' documentary puts it: 'my body is not an ornament, its a vehicle to my dreams.'

I believe food is for enjoyment, not a tool to manipulate our body

Food is a wonderful thing. What else is delicious, built into the days schedule and required for life?! The fact that our social lives are intertwined with food tells us that it is not just fuel but an integral part of community and our psychological health. We have some our best moments over a lovely meal and have fond memories from just a smell of our grandmothers cooking. All these parts of food is what makes it good and what makes dieting almost impossible. Dieting dictates everything about what and how we eat leaving very little enjoyable experience - and don't count your 90% dark chocolate treat scheduled in at 9pm every night because clean eating rules say thats allowed.

No, we need free choice with what to eat at every meal because we are guaranteed to want variety. This is normal and good. Our brains naturally seek out different textures and tastes. A study showed that women who ate over 16 different foods reduced their risk of dying from any cause by 42 percent when compared to women who ate less than 9 different foods. It is also known that populations such as the Japanese and Greek have long lifespans and have a common feature of eating a wide variety of foods. All this is to say, enjoying a range of foods is very beneficial and there is no need to cut out food groups or forgo traditional staples such as wine, cheese and bread. 

I believe we can get more out of life when we're not consumed by food/body thoughts

Those of us that restrict/deprive ourselves have way more food thoughts than those who don't. Why is there such a link between the mind and our eating? Its a survival mechanism. When we are not getting enough food or even just knowing that our favourite foods are off limits can trigger the brain to seek out food at every opportunity, which is why dieters are thinking about dinner before they even have breakfast. Do we really want our thoughts constantly going towards this?

Or could we take up a new hobby, invest in our relationships, enjoy choosing whatever food sounds good for now without worrying about it. Dieting is all about worrying about food! It makes us weigh food out, count calories, meal plan like we're crazy, keep little baggies of chopped raw veg that we never feel like eating, get on the scales, obsess about the number on the scale, look at menus of restaurant days in advance to find the most diet friendly option. This is all exhausting, soul sucking and joy less! And at the end of the day this mental and physical energy is not going towards anything worthwhile. Just to let you know: your appearance and what you ate today are not the most interesting parts about you. 

I believe we can be our healthiest selves when we can eat all foods without guilt

When we are just as much enjoying a slice of cake as we are a bowl of fruit salad and we are not thinking of the nutrition content, that is normal eating. It is choosing what you eat based on how hungry you are, what feels good now and what will satisfy you. In this way, we are likely to choose a whole range of foods and take in all the nutrients we need because we can trust that our body wants to maintain a comfortable weight. There is nothing more healthy than going out to eat and choosing the thing that sounds most delicious on the menu and enjoying it with company. Saying no to a social invitation because of food is one of the detrimental effects of dieting and only leaves us feeling miserable and reaching for ice-cream. 

Healthy does not need to be in a box defined by a label (paleo, no sugar, low fat, raw etc). In fact this type of restriction is not healthy at all. Perfection has no place for 'normal' eaters. They are able to think about a meal as being one of many in the week so that no single food matters much by itself. Overeating and underrating happen and thats just part of life. So is eating foods simply for the taste of it even if you're not hungry.  Not caring too much about what we eat so that we can go after life is very very healthy indeed. 

I believe we are able to regulate our appetite and maintain our weight quite effortlessly  

Thinking we have to lose weight and going on a diet puts a lot of trust on external influences (the clock, food rules, meal plan, calorie target) and very little trust on internal influences (hunger, fullness, satisfaction, moods, cravings). Many of my clients after having dieted for a long while really struggle to know what hunger and fullness feel like. Yet we are born with these signals to direct how much food our body needs. And listening to them and responding makes a whole lot of sense when our aim is to feel healthy and eat what is right for us.

From the 'Endocrine Review' Journal: the complexities of the neurochemical regulation of food intake are not surprising when one considers the varied inputs involved in the determination of feeding behavior. With depletion of an organism's energy stores, a series of signals arise which force the animal to hunt for food.' When we start messing with lowering our food intake, we will eventually seek out food any way we can, and ultimately overeat. On the other hand, when our food intake is appetite driven our weight settles where it wants to be. And we can't easily trick our bodies! A simple way we can get back to eating based on internal influences is asking ourself, how hungry am I? before eating and 'what food do I feel like?'. We can trust that our bodies will tell us what is too much by signalling fullness. Eating to our appetite eliminates the need to obsess over food, weight and shape and gives you the freedom to enjoy all kinds of foods.  

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