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Principle 6 of Intuitive Eating truly falls under the question: What do you really want to eat? Not what diet culture tells you, but what do you truly desire to eat when you are hungry. Of course, this can vary throughout the day! Satisfaction from food comes from what you enjoy, as well as a pleasant environment. There can be many things that contribute to your satisfaction with food, so let’s get into it! Our food satisfaction comes from the texture, smell, temperature, and sights of our food. Of our senses, we have foods that we have preferences or dislikes… Read more: Principle #6: Discover the Satisfaction Factor

For this intuitive eating principle, which was written by Corinne Denman with additions by Kelly, we are going to discuss what feeling your fullness means. Specifically, we want to listen and get in tune with our body signals letting us know when we are no longer hungry (the signs that show you are comfortable and full).1 You can do so by pausing for a moment while eating and questioning yourself what your current fullness level is.1 There are a variety of ways that make it difficult to experience fullness. Barriers can make it difficult to “hear” and sense your body’s… Read more: Feel your Fullness: Principle #5 of Intuitive Eating

Let’s talk about challenging the Food Police which is principle Four of Intuitive Eating. The food police are the unrealistic rules an individual may have towards certain foods… something that dieting has created.1 Your mind is influenced by negative thoughts, hopeless phrases, and guilt regarding food. Chasing away the food police is an imperative step in intuitive eating. It is not easy to chase away the food police. It can be due to a variety of factors. You will soon recognize and learn how you might silence these thoughts. Individuals may have been surrounded by food guilt growing up. This… Read more: “You’re really going to eat that?”

Welcome back for part 2 series on PCOS.  As I mentioned in my previous post, weight loss is very commonly prescribed to those who have PCOS and this diagnosis carries so much shame and frustration. I wanted to highlight some non-diet interventions to help manage PCOS and then discuss supplements. Eating consistently.  Insulin resistance is a major challenge in PCOS. I discussed it in part 1 insulin and the analogy of insulin being a key to unlocking the cell door and carrying glucose from the bloodstream and unlocking the cell door to be used for energy. You may feel hungry all… Read more: Part 2: Eating for PCOS and Supplements

We have a guest writer Corinne Denman who is shadowing Kelly as a dietetics student and she will be writing a series on Intuitive Eating Principles. Making peace with food is principle three of Intuitive Eating. Not restricting foods is part of making peace with food. You include the foods you love without rules or feeling bad about eating certain foods, and you do not label certain foods as “good” versus a food being beneficial for your health. When you tell yourself you cannot have a particular food or food group, it leads to intense feelings of deprivation that can… Read more: Make Peace with Food: Principle 3 of Intuitive Eating

The second principle of intuitive eating is about honoring your hunger and there is more than just physical and emotional hunger. One of the most important concepts of intuitive eating is eating adequately and in order to do so, tuning in to your hunger cues and not ignoring hunger is a big part of the process of learning to trust your body. In order to be able to work through the other principles of intuitive eating, such as making peace with food, respecting fullness, eating enough and consistently throughout the day is vital. Below I will identify the four types… Read more: Eat when you are not hungry.What!?

September is Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) Awareness Month. I wanted to highlight PCOS since it is the most common endocrine disorder and there is a ton of misinformation and stigma that exists around this disorder. I have so much information to share that this will be part one of the series on PCOS.  What is Polycystic Ovary Syndrome known as PCOS?  PCOS  affects 1 out of 10 women, with 10-15% globally estimated to have PCOS. 1 It is not a new medical condition but is slowly starting to get more recognition. Scientists first recognized PCOS in 1935.  There have been… Read more: Part 1: PCOS and myths

Raising a Competence Eater  Children are born intuitive eaters meaning they have the innate ability  to listen to their hunger and fullness. Think of when a baby turns their face away when the bottle or breast is offered, they are telling you, the caregiver, that they are not hungry. Our bodies respond to internal cues and will send signals telling us what we need. When the right structure/environment is set up, children can continue to be intuitive eaters. Instead of having to unlearn diet rules and food restrictions later in life, children can be relaxed in what they eat and… Read more: Ugh, my child is picking at their vegetables or meat again!

BMI (Body Mass Index) is an outdated, archaic system being used in the medical system that categorizes people into categories based on weight and is an imperfect tool. BMI doesn’t tell you what your skills, health, abilities are. Ilona Maher, a Bronze Olympic Rugby athlete is a perfect example of this. Ilona recently was body shamed in a TikTok comment for having a BMI of 30. Her response was perfect. I love how the Olympics has a great representation of diverse body types that shows athletes performing all types of athletic sports. Sarah Robles is another Olympic athlete that trumps the… Read more: The bad and ugly with BMI (aka Bad Measuring Index)

I recently did a workshop on intuitive eating and while marketing the workshop, I realized that intuitive eating is not well known so I wanted to highlight IE in this blog post today. Intuitive Eating (IE) is a framework made up of 10 principles created by two registered dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. They offer a road map to move away from dieting and finally feel peace in your relationship with food. The focus is on getting away from rigid diets and external food rules and focusing on internal cues for eating. IE is a non-diet approach that is… Read more: Intuitive Eating – Starting with #1 – Rejecting the Diet Mentality