Many people dream of losing weight without significant food restrictions, and this has become possible thanks to new system called "intuitive eating". Its basic principle is that the body knows what it needs to work properly, so you need to listen to your desires.
What does intuitive eating mean?
There are many examples when a person exhausts himself with diets and physical activity but does not achieve the desired result. This is due to the fact that the body simply protests such restrictions. The psychology of overeating and intuitive eating are directly interconnected, since this technique allows the use of all products in the quantity required by the body. Perfect option but it looks unrealistic. Suggested by Stephen Hawkes intuitive nutrition after he experienced it for himself. He claims that you can achieve results if you learn:
- recognize the signals of your own body;
- control your appetite;
- understand when hunger strikes and when overeating is felt.
Intuitive Eating - Principles and Rules
There are certain principles that help you learn to understand your body and lose weight:
- Avoid diets completely, as temporary food restrictions only give short-term results.
- Do not ignore, because the body may think that a crisis has come and you need to stock up for the future. In addition, it is important to understand that hunger and appetite are two different things. Principles intuitive eating are based on fractional consumption of food, and the serving should be approximately 200 g.
- No need to perceive food as the main culprit of excess weight. Do not scold yourself for the desire to eat sweets, because this is how the body signals a lack of glucose.
- Intuitive eating is based on recognizing feelings of satiety. Use a scale from 1 ( strong feeling hunger) to 10 (overeating). You should focus on the value of 5-6 points.
- Do not take food as the main joy in life. It is important to adjust to enjoying quality, not quantity.
- Intuitive eating, the rules of which are simple and clear, involves the rejection of stress eating and reward through food. Instead of a cake, it’s better to buy a new dress, and get rid of a bad mood with the help of music and so on.
- Love yourself with all the flaws, because you can lose weight only with a positive attitude.
Intuitive Eating or Healthy Eating?
In fact, it is wrong to compare these concepts, since they are very similar. The thing is that many have the wrong idea about proper nutrition, because this is not a strict diet at all, but the principle when a person eats healthy foods. The best solution, according to experts, is intuitive eating, the menu of which is based on the principles healthy diet. The only clarification, if you really want to eat an unhealthy burger or chocolate bar, then do not deny yourself the pleasure.
Cons of Intuitive Eating
The disadvantages of this method of nutrition are insignificant, so it is worth noting the difficulty in compiling a diet. Its author does not offer a menu, so you have to do everything yourself, focusing on the existing rules and foundations balanced nutrition. Many, describing the disadvantages of intuitive eating, note that you should always have “favorite dishes” on hand so as not to lean on buns, fast food, and so on.
The Intuitive Eating System is designed for advanced and smart people who have a good understanding of their desires and so on. Another disadvantage of this technique is the lack of discipline, which increases the risk of breaking loose. The developer has not provided any restrictions on the time, frequency and amount of food, so there is always a temptation to break loose and eat something extra. In addition, there is no exact figure that people who want to lose weight should be guided by.
How to switch to intuitive eating?
Taking the first step is difficult, so to switch to intuitive eating, it is recommended to focus on the following rules:
- You need to eat at the table, protecting yourself from all distractions, that is, TV, the Internet and conversations on serious topics. All attention should be focused on food.
- Switching to intuitive eating means that you should sit down to the table only when you feel hungry, but when the first signs of satiety appear, you need to immediately get up from the table.
- Determine your taste preferences and before each meal, ask yourself the question of what you want to eat.
- Start moving more, and the result of intuitive eating will be even better. Choose a direction in sports that will bring pleasure.
Intuitive Eating Exercises
There are various tricks that will help facilitate the transition to a new menu. It is recommended to create a personal hunger scale. For this intuitive eating exercise, you need to draw or print a ruler, opposite which you should write different levels sensations, for example, "hunger", "full", "overeated" and so on. Opposite each gradation, describe your own sensations in the body. Throughout the day, it is important to constantly refer to this scale to determine the intensity of hunger.
Intuitive Eating Diary
Starting to eat based on your own feelings is not easy, because it is very difficult to get rid of thoughts about food. To give intuitive eating results, it is recommended to keep a diary, where you should write down the list of foods eaten and your own feelings while eating them. After some time, it will be possible to conduct an analysis to understand when the metabolism is active, when the food is digested for a long time and there is a feeling of heaviness, which provokes appetite even more, and so on. Keep recording the sensations, making adjustments.
Intuitive Nutrition for Weight Loss
It is worth saying that the presented technique does not help all people to lose weight, since not everyone is able to correctly follow the basic principles of intuitive eating. In addition, it should be noted that it is not suitable for people who are predisposed to set excess weight. For those who are interested in how to lose weight on intuitive eating, it is important to know that people who find good results achieve. Following the rules healthy eating Don't forget to treat yourself to something delicious.
Intuitive Eating Books
If you are interested in the presented method of losing weight, then it is recommended to read the following books:
- Svetlana Bronnikova " Intuitive eating. How to stop worrying about food and lose weight". The most popular book among people who want to find harmony in their relationship with food. According to reviews, the information presented in this work helps to understand yourself and your body and change your attitude to food.
- Evelyn Tribol: book " Intuitive eating. A revolutionary new approach to nutrition". The author of this work worked alongside the founder of this movement. The book helps to take a different look at your diet, learn to live intelligently and inspired.
- Dr. Mazourik Intuitive eating. How to ensure weight loss?". The author of the book own example talks about how he was able to change his eating habits and lose weight. On the pages in plain language the mechanisms of hunger and satiety are described, as well as other rules of intuitive eating. The author focuses on the problem of emotional overeating.
“If you can’t deny yourself something, for example, ice cream, then ice cream controls you. If you limit yourself to ice cream, then it has double control over you. Because now self-hatred and guilt in case you could not resist.If you completely deny ice cream, then it dominates you, because it managed to cut off a piece of your reality.
The same with other desires: alcohol, sex, cigarettes, money, adrenaline. Quitting smoking is difficult not because of chemical dependence, but because the quitter depends on cigarettes much more than the smoker. An oppositionist fighting for democracy will never become a free citizen - he is a slave of the struggle. The monk-ascetic will never conquer the "passion of the flesh" - he will remain a slave to negation. Acceptance and rejection are just metamorphoses of addiction.
Wisdom lies not in self-restraint, not in total asceticism, but in balance. You become free from your desires when you maintain inner comfort, regardless of whether you get what you want or not. The beauty of this freedom is that you are invulnerable. Are you happy or... happy."
Here's what I'm thinking. I've been treating the symptoms all this time. I've had fun all my adult life on my "roller coaster". And I constantly blame for my "failures" on some banquets. But last weekend dashed all my hopes. The fact is that my husband has been on a business trip for a week now. And there was no one to drag the guests home. Do you know what I did? I went to the store and bought all sorts of junk. I can’t even formulate how I explained it to myself there.
And my slender friends don't diet. And those who are on diets are just as unstable personalities as I am. The accordion woman is what I call it. So maybe it's time to leave the battlefield and start living?
Don't wait for the perfect moment. Take the moment and make it perfect!
Goal Accomplishment Criteria
I feel comfortable at my weight
Weekly experiment
A week to determine if the system described in the pictures works. And most importantly, is it right for me?
And ... I will twist the hoop for 10 minutes!
Keep a food diary for a week
Read Svetlana Bronnikova's book "Intuitive Eating"
Keep a food photo diary for a week
Exercise "My Food Manifesto"
Take a piece of A4 paper and write "MY FOOD MANIFESTO" or "MY BILL OF FOOD RIGHTS" on it in large size, whichever you prefer. Carefully review all the rules, expectations, and scenarios from the previous two exercises. Formulate counterclaims and write them down in your manifest. The first statement is common to all of us:
1) I have the right to eat.
Further can go as more general rules(“I have the right to eat as much as I want”) - in the event that you constantly limit yourself in food and count calories, and private (“I have the right to eat dessert BEFORE the main course”) - if loved ones in your childhood It was considered a terrible crime to eat dessert at the beginning.
Practice certain points in your manifesto regularly. For example, when you go out to a restaurant, order dessert first and then the main course if there is “space left,” or try eating something outside if your family rules forbade you from eating “on the go.”
Keep your manifest in plain sight and reread it often to remind yourself of the new food rights you have.
Exercise "analysis of the food diary"
Keeping a food diary was not necessary in order to immediately start eating less, but in order to understand what are the main reasons that make you eat in the absence of hunger. Carefully analyze your diary entries and write down the most common reasons why you eat and overeat. For example:
1. Eat when tired.
2. I eat at a party because I can't refuse food.
3. Eat out of boredom.
4. Eat in a state of irritation, anger, to drown out these emotions.
5. Eat when I'm sad.
This exercise will seem simple to you, but it is very important. It is the results that show you exactly what you need to work with. Do not fight food, do not try to overcome overeating - but learn to deal differently with boredom, irritation, anger. Learn to say "no" to other people. Learn to take care of yourself by allowing yourself to rest, rather than "throwing" high-energy food to keep running.
Saturation Signal Analysis Exercise
This exercise is necessary in order to begin the work of re-establishing contact with internal saturation signals. For several days, note the level of hunger before each meal, and after - the level of saturation (how full you feel) and the level of satisfaction (how satisfied you feel with this particular food, whether there is a desire to eat something else or something else ).
Exercise to determine the state of hunger.
Print out the Hunger Scale and hang it above your desk or in the place where you spend the most time during the day. Check back with it periodically to determine the state of your body right now. Make a decision to eat (a variety of food should be available to you to complete the task) when the state of the body suits it. Note the moments when there is no bodily hunger, but still there is a desire to “chew something”. If this desire cannot be overcome, it's okay.
Priority Food List Exercise
Each of us has certain foods that we tend to choose first when we get hungry. This list changes from month to month, from year to year, replenishes or becomes shorter, but it always exists. Remember what kind of food you are ready to eat always, everywhere, and it seems that you will never get tired of it? If you go to a restaurant with a " Buffet”, what exactly will you approach with a plate in the first place - meat, cheeses, desserts, vegetables? If you are on a trip and live in a hotel where breakfast is offered to your room - what exactly do you miss most at breakfast - a glass of hot milk, your special cereal, cottage cheese? It is quite natural for the body to have priority foods at any given time: this is not so much a matter of personal tastes as a matter of the body's actual needs for certain substances.
Make a list of foods that are your priority right now. Pay attention to the needs for yogurt of this particular manufacturer, in the bread of this particular bakery - these are not whims, this is really important.
For example:
1. Strawberry yogurt "Danone".
2. Roasted almonds.
3. Borodino bread.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Exercise "Food to go ... what's stopping me?"
Imagine that tomorrow you need to take food with you for the whole day, so that the necessary products are always at a distance outstretched hand from you, at any time of the day.
What are you missing to do this? Need to buy the necessary products in the store? Something to cook for the future? Buy a convenient container?
If you find that the obstacle is not a practical problem, but an emotional one - feeling ashamed and embarrassed about having to eat in public or in a not very convenient place, imagine that tomorrow you will go to work, to school and to activities with children social institutions on business not alone - with you will be a small child, no more than three years old, exactly like you in childhood. It is him that you will feed, it is for him that you take food with you.
Priority Products
This is the food you choose most often when you need to snack, the food that almost always turns out to be “comfortable” for you (note: we are talking about taste preferences, and not about the choice dictated by the next dietary considerations). Make a list of the food that you choose most often, and thoroughly stock up on the first five or six nominations on the list. Carry this food with you in a container for when you get hungry on the road. This list is not permanent, it changes from time to time. The more accurately you listen to the signals of your own body, the more often the list will change - you will proceed from the body's needs for certain substances, without even realizing it.
Creation of a nutrient medium
Start creating at home, at work, in other places where you have to spend a lot of time, stocks of a variety of food.
Empty one shelf in your closet or refrigerator and warn family members or colleagues that your "special" foods will be on it. Stick a large bright label on the shelf, such as "Natasha's food", "Dad's stocks." Agree with your family that they can also get their own personal shelves for the products they need - this is a good reason to teach the basics of intuitive eating to the whole family! Stock up on the "priority" foods from the list you made in the previous exercise first.
Hyperconscious Eating
Exercise "How I Make Food Decisions"
1) Analyze and make a list of exactly how you take nutritional solutions- on what in the first place depends what exactly you will eat. For example:
1. eat what is in the refrigerator;
2. I finish eating leftovers from yesterday or something that threatens to spoil;
3. I buy in a cafe or canteen what is cheaper;
4. I watch what others eat and choose the same.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2) Remember as much as possible a large number of situations and try to describe all the options. If you have a long experience of diets, then you have a lot of experience eating what you do not want. If you have food rules that force you to treat food as carefully as possible to the detriment of your own body, you also have a lot of such experience. This means that it may not be immediately possible to understand what your body needs right now. It's okay - it's just a skill, and it can be developed.
Look at your list. Is there an item "Eat what I want in this moment"? No?
3) Then carefully cross out each of the items on your list and add this item: "I eat what I want at the moment." From now on, you will eat like this and only like that.
Seeking Food Satisfaction Signals
So far, you and I have been practicing the key skill that is fundamental to mastering Intuitive Eating: the skill of starting to eat, feeling some, not very large, level of hunger. We also tried to assess the level of satiety that results from eating. Saturation is a physiological state, but the level of satisfaction from food is both physiological and psychological. Think about what you recently ate. If you ate according to the principle of the optimal combination, then the level of satisfaction from food you have a high level. This means that after eating you are in a state of physiological comfort and feel how good your body is from what you eat. But not only. It is comfortable for you to remember the color, the smell of what you have just eaten, you are happy to recall the image of this dish, the circumstances of this meal. A high level of food satisfaction is difficult to achieve if you came home extremely hungry - your glass was almost empty - and hurriedly, unable to endure hunger any longer, ate right at open door refrigerator, stomping with impatience. Don't reach high level satisfaction from food even if you read, watched a movie, watched email. A high level of nutritional satisfaction requires not only the “right” food - the very one that you want right now, but also a situation in which this food can be fully enjoyed. By eating with a high level of nutritional satisfaction, you quickly notice how the amount of food needed to fill you decreases. Most people who learn intuitive eating exclaim at this point, “I never thought I could fill up on such a small amount of food!” The search for nutritional satisfaction, the desire of our body to experience a certain state that signals good functioning, makes us continue and continue to eat when the level of physiological satiety has long been reached and passed. Let's experiment and see how satisfied you are with your regular food.
Please note that levels of satiety and nutritional satisfaction may vary. In some cases, you can fill up to a high level of saturation - "full to the top", the glass is almost full or completely full, but the level of food satisfaction - comfort, pleasure - will be low. This happens if you ate in a hurry, in uncomfortable circumstances for yourself, or not what you really wanted to eat. It can also be the other way around: the saturation level is not very high, you ate a little, your glass was left half empty, but the satisfaction eaten was on top.
Search for the optimal combination
How to determine what you want to eat right now? Try using the table below. Try to think not in terms of food, but in terms of qualities - hot, sweet, crumbly, oily - maybe buckwheat porridge with sugar and butter. Cool, sour, liquid - kefir or summer sour soup, or maybe cold tea with lemon?
Exercise "How do I choose what I eat?"
Take a sheet of paper and write down in a row all the reasons, factors and reasons that determine your choice of food at a certain moment. Let's say you begin to experience a slight feeling of hunger - it means that you will need to eat soon. Your actions?
Here are typical, frequently occurring answers:
1. I look at what is in the refrigerator, and choose from this what I want.
2. I finish eating what is left of yesterday's dinner.
3. I eat what my children agree to eat, so as not to cook for everyone separately.
4. Eat first of all what is at risk of spoiling.
5. I choose food that is healthy and will not damage my figure.
6. I go to the store and buy what is sold at a discount (alas, a common option in European countries where a number of products are relatively expensive, which leads thrifty Europeans to buy "five hamburgers for the price of three" and eat them instead of buying chicken or the steak you really want).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Is the list long? What place does the item “I eat what I want most at the moment” take in it?
Exercise My Food Baskets
Imagine two large wicker baskets that can hold all the food you can imagine. Signs hang on one basket: “It’s useful!”, “You won’t get better from this!”, “You can eat!”. On the other: “Dangerous!”, “Fat!”, “Harmful!”, “Get fat from this!”. Now try to distribute your usual diet among these baskets. Regular means the food you eat when you are not on a diet, the food you eat in your daily life where birthdays, parties, holidays happen.
Sketch out two lists, one per basket, so that you can look at both.
Usually the lists look something like the picture.
Try to get at least 10 items in each.
The more extensive and longer your dietary experience, the more limited will be the list from the first basket and the more extensive the list from the second. In critical cases, and, alas, there are not so few of them, bread, pasta, cheese, wine, meat, sweets, and even fruits fall into the second basket. How these people survive is mind boggling. Having these two baskets in our heads is the practical implementation of the principle enshrined in “ folk wisdom”: “If you want to eat, eat an apple. If you don't want an apple, you don't want to eat."
Finished? Now look again at these two lists and try to understand what gastronomic associations the content evokes in you.
first basket:
second basket.
How does it taste? What is it like to eat? Does it give you an appetite?
Write down your feelings, expressed as briefly and concisely as possible, next to each item in both lists. (For example: “Yum!”, “Fu!”, “Edible!”.)
What you wrote down at the bottom of the list are also “tags”, your internal stamps that you unconsciously “tie” to a certain food. I bet that many of you in the first list were tags like: “Insipid!”, “Boring!”, “What a disgusting!”, “Tired!”.
But in the second, there are probably definitions like: “Yummy!”, “Eating!”, “Drooling!”.
It is worth noting: it is likely that the products from the first basket will be marked with a tag: “Delicious!” or "My favorite!". If so, that's just great.
Q.E.D. Marking some products with a tag: “Harmful! Dangerous!”, we often automatically label it “Delicious!” - because you can't. An internal program is being formed that makes us pounce on this product whenever we are not on a diet - and the diet, as you know, always starts tomorrow, and we simply cannot break away and stop even when our breath is already in the goiter and the stomach threatens burst.
Now you have a list of prohibited foods that you have to make legal. You have to allow yourself to have them at home and eat them whenever you feel like it.
And you know what? It's very, very, very scary.
Exercise “Legalization?! Legalization!"
Choose one product from one manufacturer that you want to legalize and carry out the legalization as described in the text of the chapter. Enter the results and your own feelings before, during and after legalization in the table below. What product did you legalize? What was your state before eating - joyful, anxious, calm? What did you feel during and after eating - triumph, disappointment, the feeling that the desired product was not at all as tasty as you expected, or, conversely, pleasure?
Repeat this exercise until you have legalized all forbidden products. Fill out a separate table for each legalized product.
Do not be afraid that there are too many types of chocolate or ice cream that you will want to try - this will not happen. There is a well-known American saying about churches in the USA: "See one, see them all." Approximately the same situation with sweets. sweet taste one, there are not so many possibilities to vary it, and very soon you will find that most of the products you choose for legalization have approximately the same taste.
Don't expect yourself to instantly form a relaxed attitude towards a particular product. Remember how long you forbade yourself to eat it, how little and rarely you allowed yourself to taste it - so much so that you ate everything too quickly to understand anything. Give yourself time to figure out what this product really tastes like.
Exercise "Slim I"
While legalization is being carried out, let's try to investigate - what prevents our harmony, what prevents us from becoming slim? No, this is not chocolate or chips - very often these are fears associated with feeling slim.
Make a list of your qualities and attributes that are associated with feeling slim/slim for you. Slender You are probably very different from Tolstoy - in what way, in what way, in which direction?
For example :
Slim Me
coquettish
sexy
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Slim I wears clothes
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Slim I'm away
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
When I am alone, Slim Me
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Slim I deserve
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Exercise "I'm Shrinking"
Imagine yourself in any social situation- at work, at a party, on the street or in the theater - wherever you are among people. Imagine in detail what you are wearing, whether you are sitting or standing, who you are talking to.
When you have succeeded, imagine yourself starting to melt like ice cream or a candle. The volume of your body gradually decreases, and you reach your ideal size. This is the body of your dreams.
What has changed around you? How do you feel in your perfect body? How do others see you?
Do you feel more confident or more vulnerable? Has the style of your communication with other people changed compared to when you were overweight?
Focus on the positive sensations of your own ideally sized body? Do others admire you? Now try to see if there are any negative experiences with your new body... Is there anything unpleasant or frightening about this experience? Perhaps they envy you - how do you like it? Perhaps you are the object of other people's sexual desire - how do you feel?
A. Name one smell you are currently smelling.
b. Name two sounds that you are now hearing (the beat of your own heart also counts).
C. Describe three bodily sensations that your body is currently experiencing (the texture of the clothes that touches the skin, the temperature, the way your feet rest on the ground).
D. Name four colors that surround you right now.
E. Name five objects that are in front of you.
Exercise "RAISIN" (according to J. Kabat-Zinn)
Everyone knows the expression "eat like seeds." It is worth starting to eat something small - seeds, nuts, popcorn, as, carried away, you lose contact with the reality in which the process of eating takes place, I am carried away by my thoughts to the area that really interests or worries me, I enthusiastically read or watch a movie. I'm not here. Strange as it may sound, the situation with eating seeds is typical situation when I am not here and not now, but "there" and "then".
1. Place a single raisin, nut, seed, or popcorn seed in the palm of your hand. Consider it properly. Note the color of the surface, wrinkles or cracks on it.
2. Add another raisin. Compare them. How are they similar and how are they different?
3. Roll the raisin between the large and index fingers. What do you feel? Softness? Hardness? Roughness? Stickiness?
4. Put one raisin in your mouth, but do not start chewing. Roll it on your tongue. What are you feeling now? What is its texture in the mouth?
5. Now start chewing. Note texture changes, taste. Slowly chew and swallow the raisins, feel them rolling down into the esophagus.
6. Repeat this with the second raisin. How are your feelings different?
This exercise should be done very slowly, so choose a moment when you are really ready to devote some time to it. As a raisin, you can use a small candy, a slice of chocolate, any product that you tend to "eat like seeds." The exercise can be repeated several times during the day, but it is especially useful to do it before meals.
How different is your experience with raisins from how you usually eat?
Video Recording Exercise (by Carol Grannik)
Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Imagine in as much detail as possible your last binge experience, the moment when you continued to eat after being full. Remember what exactly you ate and under what circumstances it happened, and imagine that this is happening right now. Now imagine that you are watching a video recording of this event, from the very beginning to the moment when you were full, but continued to eat. Instead of watching you eat, imagine that this time you put down the appliance and set the food aside… What do you notice? Whether certain thoughts or emotions appear on the surface.
Exercise "Eating without distraction"
Most people are well aware that as soon as a third person is wedged between us and food - a TV with good movie, a computer with the latest news, a smartphone with dozens of new photos of friends on Instagram, or an old good book or the newspaper - we are almost guaranteed to overeat. The key to being able to hear satiety signals in time is eating without distraction. Despite the fact that everyone knows this, we often find ourselves unable to put down the phone or turn off the TV. Participants in intuitive eating groups told me about a kind of addiction to food “under the phone” or “under the book” - if you try to put aside a distracting object, something like “withdrawal” begins - the food becomes tasteless, there is a feeling of anxiety, anxiety, discomfort...
This happens because we long time practiced combining food with something else, a stable behavioral pattern was formed, not only at the level of actions, but also at the level of neurons and their connections in the brain. If you start doing something differently, the brain turns on an “alarming” signal - attention, something is going wrong, behavior correction is needed! So if you are just starting to learn how to eat without distraction, feeling uncomfortable is a normal feeling. What to do if it does not allow you to finish the meal? Start with small steps.
1. Take a fork or knife in your hand and separate exactly the fourth part of the portion lying there on a plate. If it is liquid food, pour it into another bowl.
2. Concentrate and carefully eat this quarter. Watch the feeling of discomfort very carefully, focus on it, but do not try to reduce it or suppress it with an effort of will.
3. The rest can be eaten the way you are used to - under a book or a movie.
4. Record in a diary or notebook how you felt.
5. Repeat this experience for 5-7 days, follow the diary as the symptoms of discomfort begin to subside.
6. Then begin to separate a third of the portion.
7. Repeat this experiment for 5-7 days, then separate the half.
8. After you can eat half of the portion on your plate without significant discomfort, you are ready to eat the whole portion without distraction.
Exercise "Respect your food"
This exercise will help you increase your food awareness and hear satiety signals earlier. Recall that in almost all cultures and religious directions there is a practice of obligatory prayer before meals. With this prayer, a person expresses gratitude to God for the food sent to him, for abundance, for satiety. Let's imagine how the food got to your table. Close your eyes and imagine the people who worked so that you could enjoy your food today—sowing seeds, removing weeds, raising livestock, kneading dough. Imagine their weariness, their concern, their hope.
Take a moment to mentally thank these strangers for the opportunity to eat this today. Open your eyes and take another look at what is on your plate. Now you can see this as a result, with
- October 14, 2015
PHOTO Getty Images
March 4
7.45 cappuccino, 2 sandwiches with smoked sausage;
19.00 banana;
20.40 turkey fillet in mushroom sauce, American salad.
Comments by Svetlana Bronnikova: The diary begins with a celebration at work. Yulia does not try to “tighten her belt” either before or after the feast, and in the end she enjoys festive table and doesn't overeat.
5th of March
8.00 yogurt, latte;
11.00 banana;
13.45 banana;
15.20 shrimp roll, pie, glaze. (the pie is so-so, the glass is too sweet);
21.10 American salad;
22.20 cake.
S. B.: The next day, she eats fast food, apparently in a hurry, on the go. It is remarkable that, instead of blaming herself for what she has eaten, the girl notes the tasteless pie and the too sweet glaze. This is an important effect of the lifting of bans: many foods and dishes "show their true colors." When they were forbidden and therefore highly desirable, we ate them with a mixture of delight and guilt that prevented us from tasting their true taste. And now Julia states: tasteless, too sweet. This is a sure sign that intuition will bypass this food next time.
March, 6
7.45 hot sandwiches with sausage and cheese;
12.00 ice cream (she burst into tears while watching the film, saw parallels with her own life);
14.10 cake, dumplings with fish;
19.00 cutlet, pickled cucumbers;
20.00 ice cream (full).
S. B.: Judging by how often ice cream appears in the food diary, it was once the leader in the list of prohibited foods, and Yulia is at the stage of its legalization. It is with them that she consoles herself after watching sad movie. “Legalization” in intuitive eating refers to the phase when previously forbidden foods are introduced into the diet without restriction, with an abundance that convinces us that we will never have to limit ourselves to this food again in our lives. At the beginning of legalization, the nightmare of a dieter comes true: all the time you want it, the forbidden one, and it seems that you can eat only ice cream (chips, gingerbread). This short period, after which the relevance of the product gradually decreases, and, finally, we retain only a weak interest in the once favorite forbidden dish. Does it happen that someone does not get bored favorite dish? No, this does not happen: general mental patterns work here, one of which is getting used to the stimulus.
March 7
5.30 yogurt and coffee;
11.35 2 sandwiches with pate, cappuccino;
14.50 macaroni and cheese, sausage, ice cream with coffee;
21.25 sausage, vegetable salad with mayonnaise.
S. B.: It was a long day, starting before 6 am, and a very austere menu for such a hard day. Judging by the level of satisfaction with food, which Yulia notes separately from the level of satiety, the chosen food quite fully reflects nutritional needs She just doesn't need more.
March 8
11.25 sandwich with pate, sandwich with raw smoked sausage, 1 egg;
14.10 husband offered a cake and I couldn't refuse, but it was too sweet;
19.00 chicken barbecue, rolls.
S. B.: Julia captures the nuances of various dishes more and more accurately. “Too sweet” is a typical state of the intuitive eater who is tempted by cake or pastry.
9th of March
9.05 yogurt, a piece of cake;
12.20 3 pancakes with cottage cheese;
17.00 squids in sour cream, coffee, marmalade;
20.40 rolls.
S. B.: It may seem that Julia chooses exclusively "unhealthy" food. Meanwhile, our judgments about the nutritional value of foods are often skewed by dietary beliefs. Julia chooses food at will, eats whatever she wants, eats freely. What does she choose? Morning starts with a piece homemade cake- carbohydrates in the morning will provide a surge of strength and energy. For lunch, three pancakes with cottage cheese - an excellent protein-carbohydrate lunch. Afternoon snack: squid in sour cream, that is, fat (natural fats are extremely useful, butter And heavy cream- excellent healthy food) and wonderful protein. And finally, rolls in the evening - again rice and fish. Complete and delicious.
March 16
8.25 sandwich with eggplant and cheese, cappuccino;
12.45 cottage cheese, coffee, half a cake.
S. B.: This day needs a separate comment. Yulia replaces smoked meat on her favorite morning sandwiches with vegetables and eggplant. This is not an accident, but a pattern: the body “asks” for food, which we usually refuse, because it is “useful” and is disgusted. But as soon as we allow ourselves to eat everything, and soon it turns out that we want exactly what is useful ...
Next in the diary is another entry: “didn’t eat enough, for dessert, bread with sea buckthorn jam.” Julia began to hear not only signals of hunger, but also signals of satiety - it is logical that at first we hear the signal “I’m not enough, give me more,” but then we begin to hear the signal “don’t feed me more, I’m full.”
The last entry is evidence of great changes that have taken place during this time. Half a cake! Who is able not to finish the cake, which is already on the plate? The ability to eat half or a quarter of a desired meal because it tastes different than expected because you are full is a sign that intuitive eating skills are developing, that the body has begun to communicate with its owner and that this is friendly and open communication. No more war: "I'm hungry - no, you can't eat, we ate so well - now go work out in the gym"!
War leads to disharmony with oneself, to the feeling that food has incredible power. From this internal conflict eliminates intuitive eating. It does not guarantee weight loss, it guarantees staying at the optimal physiological weight that allows our body to shine, be the most healthy, successfully resist infections and provide us with all the invaluable services that it is capable of.
IN Lately the issue of excess weight among people is being raised more and more acutely - mass obesity, like a kind of analogue of the bubonic plague, captures entire families, interfering with a full life and, most importantly, worsening health. But there is a way out - this is intuitive eating. It will help you eat right, while not denying yourself anything. Let's figure out how to get there.
How to Switch to Intuitive Eating
Intuitive nutrition by Svetlana Bronnikova
Intuitive eating originated in the United States and then spread throughout the world. She came to Russia not so long ago, but she has already found her fans both among ordinary people and among nutritionists and psychologists. In Russia, Svetlana Bronnikova is one of the representatives of the intuitive eating methodology, who recently published a book on this principle of nutrition, the number of readers of which is increasing every day.
Svetlana Bronnikova is an experienced psychotherapist and clinical psychologist who studies the relationship between human inner experiences and their influence on appearance. Svetlana for a long time lived in the Netherlands, heading one of the largest clinics for the treatment of overweight people. Most she devoted her life to studying the connections between lifestyle, thoughts and health.
Svetlana is firmly convinced that without being an emotionally balanced person, it is impossible to maintain balance in her appearance.
Harmony inside leads to harmony outside, internal dependence on food, as a source of joy and pleasure, leads to dire consequences for the whole organism.
Intuitive nutrition according to Svetlana Bronnikova What is Intuitive Eating Technique?
First of all, it is worth noting that Svetlana is firmly convinced that a fierce struggle with overweight leads to a struggle with your body and health. It is the struggle that can be called exhausting training in sports clubs, depressing with their scarcity diets on some cucumbers and lean rice, constant scourging of oneself in front of a mirror and absolute dissatisfaction with one's body.
As Svetlana's psychotherapeutic experience shows - external manifestations so-called "weight loss" will not bring any results while the source of the problem is sitting inside. It may consist in a shaky emotional state, provoking frequent stress, breakdowns or depression, as well as problems with digestive system. However, any problems can be solved by learning to respect yourself and live in harmony with your body. It is about the ways of gaining control over your eating habits and desires that Svetlana Bronnikova talks about.
So what is intuitive eating? First of all, it is worth saying that this is not a diet and not a new method of deceiving your body. In general, intuitive eating is something that is "recommended" by nature and that was forgotten by people a long time ago.
Intuitive eating is a method of rational food consumption, so to speak, at the “call” of the body itself.
Often we eat without paying attention to whether we are really hungry. Intuitive eating teaches us to listen to the desires of our body and give it directly what it wants.
Fundamentals of Intuitive Eating
- No diets and violence against your own body. Diets either do not help at all, or help, but on short term. In both cases, you get a whole set - stress, a feeling of eternal hunger, excess weight returning a hundredfold.
- Treat your hunger with sensitivity and understanding and satisfy it at the earliest opportunity. Intuitive eating involves an adequate attitude to hunger and food. Do not try to eat every half an hour, but do not delay eating too long, because in both cases you will give your body not the amount of energy in which it actually is.
- Stop blaming yourself for your love of food. Shame, disappointment, and low spirits are the "symptoms" that accompany every person who watches their diet and indulges in a small weakness, such as, for example, one muffin bun.
- Stop blaming and beating yourself up. Eat what you like! And this is not at all a fishing rod for lies - intuitive eating teaches you to listen to yourself. Would you like a piece of cake? So eat it! Do not pounce on it, feel its taste, its aroma. Enjoy it, and if the body really wanted it, then after one bite (or maybe earlier) you will feel that you are full.
- Learn to listen to what your body is telling you. Try to pay attention to how you feel while eating. Scientists have proven that the feeling of fullness comes only 20 minutes after a meal, which makes it clear where all this “heaviness” after eating and uncontrolled gluttony comes from.
- To live and feel great, we need a lot less food than we are accustomed to consume. Therefore, strive for a dialogue with your body and try not to “throw” into it everything that is on the plate just because it will be awkward for you to leave the food.
- Learn to relax. If food is your only "hobby" in which you put your whole soul, then this will inevitably lead to breakdowns, a wrong lifestyle and dissatisfaction with yourself. Find an activity that you enjoy. After all, it has long been known that a favorite thing makes a person happy. And if you're happy, you don't need to eat up internal contradictions.
- Love your body. Loving yourself means trying to give yourself the best. Give your body good food rich in vitamins, do not exhaust yourself with training, but do the sport that you like. Or don't exercise at all if you feel sick just looking at sportswear.
- Be active - that's all. Climb stairs instead of taking the elevator, dance to your favorite music, laugh more and, of course, be friends with food, not fight!
How to Switch to Intuitive Eating
Of course, it takes time to start eating intuitively. In one day, you will not learn how to adequately relate to food and your feeling of hunger. Be patient, try to develop the habit of subtly feeling the signals of your body and in no case forbid yourself something.
Tip: first, just learn how to eat right, eliminating harmful foods. Then adjust your correct diet, trusting your intuition.
Intuitive eating is just healthy attitude to food, a healthy attitude towards oneself and one's life, provided by nature itself. It suits absolutely everyone, the only question is whether you want to follow its principles.
How can you lose weight without a diet - women are surprised, because the main condition for weight loss is calorie restriction. Now invented new methodology intuitive weight loss – nutrition based on the principle that the body knows what to eat. The system is simple and practically has no restrictions.
What is Intuitive Eating
It often happens that a person, exhausting himself with physical activity and diets, does not come to the desired harmony. The body protests against such an attitude and, as a result, forces one to reckon with its requests. Alternative way to get rid of excess fat- This is an intuitive diet, in which the use of any restrictions is categorically denied. The weight loss system is based on principles that allow you to eat pastries, sweets, chocolate and effectively reduce in size.
The technique was originally developed by American professor Stephen Hawkes, who himself lost weight to no avail using a variety of diets. After many years failed attempts he began to listen to his body and, based on the conclusions, made up a diet on his own. The intuitive approach turned out to be positive. He helped the professor lose 22 kg and keep the weight off for a long time. Stephen Hawkes argues that the problem of excess weight should be approached as follows:
- recognize the signals that your own body sends;
- learn to control appetite;
- pause while eating;
- intuitively recognize when hunger strikes and when overeating occurs.
Principles of Intuitive Eating
Continued to develop effective method weight loss American Tame Weiler. She opened Green Mountain, where she offered women to lose weight without food restrictions. The main technique was aimed at studying the correct sensation of one's own body and was built on the theses of Hawkes. Here are the 10 Intuitive Eating Principles:
- Rejection of diets. Any dietary restriction is harmful.
- Respect for hunger. It is necessary to give the body the right amount of nutrients.
- Call to power control. You should forget about the rules that teach when you can or cannot eat.
- Peace with food. You need to allow yourself to eat.
- Respect for the feeling of fullness. We must learn to recognize when satiety comes.
- satisfaction factor. It is required to understand that food is not a pleasure, but a necessity, therefore it is necessary to enjoy not the process of eating, but every piece.
- Respect for the senses without eating. You need to understand that loneliness, boredom or anxiety are feelings that cannot be soothed by food.
- Respect for your own body. You should learn to love yourself, regardless of the numbers on the scales.
- Training is like movement. You need to be active not to burn calories, but to get an energy boost.
- Respect for your health. It is required to learn how to choose products that take care of both taste buds and the health of the body as a whole.
The essence of intuitive eating
The modern approach to nutrition returns a person to nature, because it has given the most universal tool for evaluating something - intuition. To understand whether food is needed at the moment, one should only listen to the body and feel the presence or absence of hunger. Modern man long forgotten what proper nutrition- intuitive. People start eating for company or when there is a lot within walking distance delicious meals or snack foods.
The essence of the food system is that there are no rules. Everything is allowed to eat, but only if two requirements are met: you need to feel hungry and intuitively understand that the body really wants to take the chosen product. At this stage, many adults experience difficulties. However, they are easy to overcome if you watch the children - they eat as much as they need. The desire of parents to shove too much into a child often turns into major scandal.
Can you lose weight with intuitive eating?
There was a long debate among nutritionists about such a system, but in the end they came to the conclusion that this is an effective analogue of a healthy diet, calculated from the point of view of psychology. How Much Can You Lose With Intuitive Eating? According to the reviews of those who are losing weight, this system helps to easily lose 5-7 kilograms in a month. I would like to note that the intuitive way to get rid of extra kilos will not be effective for people suffering from bulimia, since this psychological problem requiring the intervention of a qualified psychotherapist.
How to learn intuitive eating
It is difficult for a person who is used to dieting on a schedule to learn to listen to his body. At first, everyone has difficulty identifying own feeling hunger and satiety. Over time, the understanding comes that you need to eat only when there is a rumbling in the stomach or sucking in the stomach, and not for company with someone. Intuitive nutrition for weight loss is vital for the following category of people:
- diet victims whose lives have become a tactic of restriction and disruption;
- emotional people, which seize experiences;
- accustomed to the division of products, counting calories, eating strictly according to the schedule and according to the ratio of BJU.
How to Switch to Intuitive Eating
You can learn to intuitively evaluate eating behavior if you stop dividing food into healthy and harmful, bad and good, and also stop meeting accepted standards in weight. You should get rid of the fear of becoming ugly or fat. Switching to intuitive eating is a change in attitude to food, not weight loss. Even if on initial stage If you put on a few extra pounds, that's normal. Especially for those people who previously limited themselves to goodies. When the ban is gone, then the craving for them will disappear, because, as you know, only the forbidden fruit is sweet.
How to eat intuitively
The body is genetically programmed to require from the owner only those products that are currently lacking for normal functioning. When compiling an intuitive eating menu, you should pay attention to body signals and avoid compulsive overeating. Abandoning dietary thinking, you need to allow the body to eat everything. From his point of view, a serving of boiled broccoli for dinner is no better than a plate of fried potatoes. Being eaten in accordance with the desire of the body, it will not lead to weight gain, but only replenish the energy balance.
Intuitive Eating Diary
It's not easy to start eating intuitively. Desired result will not come soon if the mind constantly throws thoughts about food. A diary will help facilitate the process, in which you need to methodically write down the foods you eat and how they felt. Pair weeks will pass and notes will help to analyze at what time of the day the metabolism is active, when food is digested slowly, what foods provoke heavy drinking.
In the diary, on the first page, there should be your own personal hunger scale, in front of each item of which notes should be made. For example, opposite the level of "overeating" write your feelings from this process - painful bloating or something else. The paragraph "full" would indicate fullness, while the paragraph "very hungry" could indicate annoyance. The first days, constantly check the scale and determine the intensity of hunger. This will help you not to overeat and distinguish emotional emptiness from a real desire to eat. You will notice that saturation comes much faster than before.
Intuitive Eating for Kids
The child makes the choice of products much easier, because he knows how much he needs to eat, intuitively relying on body signals. Small children, even with a big appetite, at one moment fill up and don’t want to anymore, and they don’t like parental attempts to force-feed them. Intuitive baby feeding is about minimizing control over the amount of food a child eats. Even a baby is able to ask for food - he cries until he gets food. Let the child from an early age retain the ability to hear intuitive sensations and understand the difference between satiety, appetite and hunger.
Video: Intuitive nutrition by Svetlana Bronnikova
