The Importance of Trusting Intuitive Hunger Signals and Listening to Your Intuition by
Intuitive eating, what is it and what can we understand from it? Intuitive Eating is a topic that is not actually talked about as much as one would think; yet, there is some really good information surrounding intuitive eating and how we can truly benefit from it.
One really good book, Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch is one of the first books that I’ve read regarding intuitive eating and how it is a self-care eating framework that focuses on trusting your body’s innate wisdom to guide your food choices. It works on the idea of tuning into your body’s intuitive hunger signals and allowing them to guide you when to eat. The goal is to eat when you are truly hungry and not just eat when you are bored, happy, sad, stressed, excited, etc.
Research has shown that based on The Caregiver’s Eating Messages Scale by Kroon Van Diest and Tylka students, I believe college age students were used to rate the degree to which parents/caregivers emphasized the following types of behaviors while growing up.
-Told you that you shouldn’t eat certain foods because they will make you fat.
-Talked about dieting or restricting certain high-calorie foods.
-Commented that you’re eating too much.
What research has found is that high levels of critical and restrictive eating messages from caregivers associated with low intuitive eating scores and higher BMI scores. So, the idea of coaching kids in reference to labeling foods that will make you fat, using “high calorie” terms, and commenting that they’re eating too much has a counterintuitive effect and can lead to higher body mass index and lower intuitive eating scores.
What I want to emphasize is the power of trusting our intuition above all else, against all odds. It is so important that we truly tune into our inner knowing, recognizing that we do have the answers within us. On our life’s journey, I have learned that when we trust our gut, our inner-knowing, our own intuitive instincts, whether it comes to hunger and many other situations, we are on target to walking in our authenticity, our purpose, our north node and our mission.
Tuning into our highest levels of discernment is vital for us to truly align with our highest selves, tap into our own internal compass, and trust that we have the necessary guidance within us to make the right decisions in order for us to align with our highest vibration. Meditation, prayer and truly aligning our chakras and energy centers can best help us to move forward into our true north node, allowing us to transform into the greatest version of ourselves, one day at a time.
