Are You Ready for Gentle Nutrition?

This is a question that comes up a lot..."am I ready for gentle nutrition?" Gentle nutrition, if you don't know, is a term used in the book Intuitive Eating and is the last of the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating...and it's the last principle for a reason! It's the ability to eat healthfully and in a nourishing way, not because you feel like you have to but because that's what feels good. This is, like I said, the last principle for a reason. You can't fully eat to nourish your body while still having a healthy mind about food unless you've worked through the other 9 principles and have fully and completely made peace with food. So, with that in mind, let's talk about whether or not you're ready for gentle nutrition?

I don't know about you, but I pretty much knew what it meant to eat  healthfully by the time I was in high school. I knew that I should eat more vegetables and fruits and avoid eating a ton of sugary and processed foods. I knew that I should include a balance of all the food groups in my diet (though I didn't exactly know what it meant to be balanced). And I knew that I was supposed to exercise and move my body regularly.

We're immersed in this culture where health is so in our face all the time. From fear-mongering documentaries about how our meat is processed to learning in middle school health class that sugar is "bad". You know how to eat healthy, I know you do because you live in the same world I do. But, what we're all lacking in our education is that healthy isn't black and white, as some portray it. There's a lot of room for gray. And that's ok!

So, when are you ready to start accepting that gray is good? When are you ready for gentle nutrition?

First off, you have to accept that being healthy is so much more than what you put in your body.

Aka what you eat. Despite how many people have told you "you are what you eat," that just isn't very true! This phrase makes me think that eating a donut is going to make me nothing more than a donut. It's a funny phrase to say, but it can be harmful to our minds, causing us to believe that eating one unhealthy item is going to directly cause us to be "unhealthy".

"Healthy" is composed of having not only a healthy body, but a healthy mind as well...not always thinking about food, not feeling guilty for indulging, knowing that perfect eating isn't possible and that there's room for all foods in a healthy diet. It means dealing with your emotions without using food and not using food as your only coping mechanism. It's having grace with yourself and remembering that each and every time you eat it's a time to learn more about what your body does best with.

Accept that your imperfection is totally normal.

There's no such thing as "perfect" eating. End of story. Yes, that girl you follow on Instagram with her beautiful smoothie bowl and daily dose of homemade bone broth may have you thinking that people can eat "perfectly". But it's all a facade. As much as I love a beautifully laid out meal, the reality is that if someone is seeming to eat "perfectly" they probably have some issues around food that aren't healthy. Healthy eating means eating in a balanced way, balanced meaning all types of foods and not having any reserve around foods that you enjoy but may not be as nutritious as others. Again, there are no good foods or bad foods and eating certain foods doesn't make you moral or immoral. You can work towards gentle nutrition when you are able to fully let go the idea that "perfect eating" is possible.

You stand firm in what feels good to you.

Being ready for gentle nutrition means you're able to stand firm and not sway from what you know is right for you, even when everyone around you may be talking about the latest diet they're on or their "results" from the cleanse they've been doing. You're able to be at peace with what healthy feels like to you, because it looks different for everyone. You know that a life of dieting is not sustainable and not healthy, so you choose balance. You choose foods that make you feel good, knowing that sometimes that looks like a slice of carrot cake and other times it's a loaded salad with all the goods! All of your decisions about how you eat are driven by one factor...your own intuition.

I'm still learning what that looks like for me, and probably will be for a while. But I do remember the moment when it clicked for me and I realized that dieting and being overly cautious with how I ate wasn't appealing to me anymore. That's when the switch happened for me and I was able to fully embrace a gentle approach to nutrition. And this approach can be added to how you exercise too! Rest assured in the fact that your body will take care of you, that you can trust it, and that when you do you'll finally be able to fully embrace a life of gentle health and wellness. Sounds good, right?

A common misconception with intuitive eating is that health can't be included. But the opposite is true! When you're able to let go of food rules and fully make peace with food, you're able to listen to your body with how to eat in a healthy way! We're mislead into thinking that we can't trust our bodies around food and eating, but when you allow yourself freedom, you'll find that a gentle approach to nutrition is what you crave! I promise!

So, here's the question...are you ready for gentle nutrition? 

If you are, great! If you're still noticing some fear with food and imbalance with eating, then let me help you work through that by scheduling a free discovery call! You can schedule your free call HERE!