WHY Intuitive Eating

(reason 4 of 4)

We’ve now reached the last day of the “WHY Intuitive Eating?” series. I’m excited to dive into the last topic in this series with you.

Intuitive eating allows you to reach your natural weight. Today, I AM at my natural weight (I’ve been eating intuitively since 2011). It’s easy to maintain. I don’t have to worry about eating a burger and my pant size increasing overnight. I feel calm around food.

You see, for me, intuitive eating meant gaining weight. It meant going from an all-too-low weight for my height to a mid-range weight that left me feeling “normal & healthy.” Not stick skinny. For a while, this was hard to accept. But only because I had become adapt and used to people seeing me as “the skinny girl.” You wouldn’t believe the pressure this made me feel. I always thought being skinny would feel good, especially if other people saw me as skinny, too, right? Perhaps you’d think the same? Ah, let me tell you, that wasn’t my experience. The only time this felt good was when there was nothing else in my life that I could control. I felt that I was at least doing something right. Wrong. This really doesn’t count. This really doesn’t matter.

Can I share? In my opinion, being thin really doesn’t mean anything other than wearing a smaller size clothing (and perhaps also feeling more pressure).

So often people have the idea that ONCE they’re thin life will be easier. “I’ll FINALLY want to eat healthy. I’ll FINALLY want to exercise and it will be effortless. I’ll FINALLY have the courage to talk at those meetings. I’ll FINALLY be able to wear cute clothes and feel confident.” Ever thought things this?

But what if this isn’t true?

What if one day, you wake up in a thin body, and you realize that you still have to make a choice to exercise or not. To eat healthy or not. To feel confident or not. To speak up or not. What will that feel like?

You want to know what being skinny was like for me? I’ll be honest with you.

For me, being skinny actually meant:

having more pressure to STAY skinny
feeling more restricted than ever
missing out on fun
riding an emotional roller-coaster
feeling identified by my body (so scary)
feeling afraid of change
letting things in my life go constantly (hard to deal with? Poof, gone!)
anxiety attacks like you’d never believe
feeling more insecure than I’d ever felt before
critiquing myself with every passing mirror/photograph
picking out my flaws
being so consumed with myself and my image
having a constant fear that I’d let people down if I made the “bad” choice
learning to put walls up
binge eating – starting over constantly
eating boring food and CRAVING the best there was out there
arguing with my parents anytime they’d bring a “trigger food” into the house
feeling out of control with food, while wanting so badly to control it
being limited in all areas of my life
feeling like my body was all I had
constantly feeling un-satisfied – never thin enough, feelings like “I could be skinnier”
judging myself with a negative, negative mindset that only felt “positive” if the scale confirmed
girls… even just writing this out… why do we aim so hard to be thin? I am CONVINCED that none of us are believing that THIS is the reality of being at an unrealistically low weight… If we DID believe this whole-heartedly we wouldn’t want it. What are you believing that being thin will do for you?

Being thin is NOT all that it’s cracked up to be. Let me tell ya. I was strongly disappointed, which is why ultimately, I was happy to get to a normal weight for my body. Plus, ladies, if we’re doing this for beauty, being thin does not equal being beautiful. No, beauty, my friends comes from joy, a kind heart, taking care of yourself, *chosen* confidence, focusing on others, helping others, and being a genuinely good person.

Is a thin, mean girl beautiful just because she’s thin? No.

Being at your natural healthy weight means wearing a comfortable size, no-pressure, more fun, feeling athletic, getting to move around, embracing the way your body was naturally meant to be, enjoying WONDERFUL full of flavor foods, getting to experience life, getting to feel powerful/strong, having the energy to do what inspires you, having healthy relationships, learning to communicate, not hiding, dealing with life, embracing life and ALL it has to offer…etc. I could go on and on about how good it feels to be healthy.

So how do you get healthy?

Over-time, with intuitive eating, you correct the behaviors that made you gain or lose weight. Things like binge eating, an all-or-nothing mindset, over eating, under eating, over or under exercising, emotional eating, etc…

Your body will eventually find HER natural weight. You can choose to love her at that weight & you *must* love her all along the way. It truly IS hard to make good choices when someone (you) is being mean to you all of the time. So, learn to love & respect yourself now. Stop waiting. You can choose to embrace your body.

Living intuitively is a choice. I’ll say it again. It takes responsibility, a healthy dose of discipline, and ownership over all areas in your life.

Well, that’s a wrap for these posts girls…

Your free ‘Why Intuitive Eating?’ group coaching session (a live call with me & Sim) is in just a couple of days… Sign-up for this free call here.