Becoming an Intuitive Eater: Understanding Appetite Cues

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Becoming an Intuitive Eater: Understanding Appetite Cues

Appetite cues, also known as hunger and fullness cues, are the sensations we experience in our bodies that help to communicate when our body needs nourishment and when it’s had enough. They are regulated by a complex system of hormones and other chemical messengers. However, this internal regulatory system can also become dysregulated, making eating in response to these cues quite challenging. So, how do we eat intuitively if our appetite cues are all out of sorts?

In this post we’ll discuss:

  • How dieting and disordered eating contribute to appetite cue dysregulation

  • How to re-regulate and reconnect with appetite cues

  • Other possible disruptors to appetite cues and what to do if we experience any of these.

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6 Reasons to Embrace Intuitive Eating This Summer

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6 Reasons to Embrace Intuitive Eating This Summer

Intuitive eating is a non-restrictive, internally directed approach to eating that honors your body’s innate wisdom (e.g., your appetite cues), your individual food preferences, and your whole health and wellbeing. It recognizes that food nourishes us far beyond fueling our physical bodies and supports us in cultivating a peaceful and positive relationship with both food.

If you are done with the on-again-off-again diet cycle, now is the perfect time to start exploring intuitive eating.

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Intuitive Eating: Clarifying Misconceptions & Inspiring Hope

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Intuitive Eating: Clarifying Misconceptions & Inspiring Hope

When I first learned about intuitive eating nearly 10 years ago it blew my mind. It helped me understand why I was feeling so ineffective and unfulfilled professionally and laid the groundwork for me to find my way to where I am today.

What I’ve learned since that time is that intuitive eating is nuanced. Much more so than I appreciated early on in my learning. And, much more so than social media would ever suggest. Yes, it consists of 10 seemingly straightforward principles. But, those principles can be so easily misconstrued and overly simplified, to the point of being totally inconsistent with the true spirit of intuitive eating.

Here I’ll explain some of the common misconceptions about intuitive eating, explore some of that nuance, and share some of the ways in which I see intuitive eating transforming the lives of the clients with whom I work.

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Food Rules: What They Are and What To Do About Them

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Food Rules: What They Are and What To Do About Them

These and other rules that we impose on ourselves when it comes to eating often lead us further from a health-supportive relationship with food. What may start off as a well-intentioned effort to be mindful of food-related behaviors can evolve into a rigid set of rules that leads to disconnection from your body and its needs. This can make knowing what, when, and how much to eat in order to adequately nourish our bodies and feel good, confusing at best. This confusion erodes trust in your body and its signals and may perpetuate further reliance on external rules to guide your eating, continuing the cycle.

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Reconnecting with Your Innate Inner Wisdom: 3 Tips to Get Started

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Reconnecting with Your Innate Inner Wisdom: 3 Tips to Get Started

Diet and wellness culture teach us that we cannot trust ourselves to make decisions about food. If left to our own devices we will subsist on only the most sinful and indulgent foods, and we’ll never stop eating, which will spell disaster for our bodies. If we’re hungry – diet culture tries to teach us how to ignore that cue or to prevent ourselves from feeling it to begin with. If we want chips – diet culture tries to convince us that some low-calorie alternative will be just as satisfying (hello air-popped popcorn with no added butter and kale leaves dried out in the oven).

What you need to know is, if these don’t work for you, it’s not because there is something wrong with you. It’s not your body betraying you. It’s actually your body, in its infinite wisdom, trying to protect you.

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