The 10th and final part of my intuitive eating series is on the 10th principle Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition.  “Make food choices that honor your health and taste buds while making you feel good. Remember that you don’t have to eat perfectly to be healthy. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or become unhealthy, from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating. It’s what you eat consistently over time that matters. Progress, not perfection, is what counts.” (From Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch)  Growing up with cf, I never really learned ..read more

Part 9 of my intuitive eating series is on Principle 9- Movement Feel The Difference.  “Forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie-burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm.” (From Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch)   Since I started running regularly more than 10 years ago, I had never done exe ..read more

Part 8 of my intuitive eating series is Principle 8: Respect Your Body “Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally futile (and uncomfortable) to have a similar expectation about body size. But mostly, respect your body so you can feel better about who you are. It’s hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical of your body size or shape. All bodies deserve dignity.”  (From Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch)  After starting Trik ..read more

The 7th part of my intuitive eating series is on emotional eating: cope with your emotions with kindness.  “First, recognize that food restriction, both physically and mentally, can, in and of itself, trigger loss of control, which can feel like emotional eating. Find kind ways to comfort, nurture, distract, and resolve your issues. Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, and anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won’t fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb ..read more

“In order to honor your fullness, you need to trust that you will give yourself the foods that you desire.  Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you’re comfortably full. Pause in the middle of eating and ask yourself how the food tastes, and what your current hunger level is.”  (From Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch)  The 6th principle in my intuitive eating series is Feel Your Fullness.  This one pairs nicely with Honor Your Hunger, without doing so it’s impossible to feel wh ..read more

Part 5 of my Intuitive Eating series is about discovering the satisfaction factor.  “The Japanese have the wisdom to keep pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living. In our compulsion to comply with diet culture, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence—the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself, you will find that it takes just the ..read more

Part 4 of my intuitive eating series is about challenging the food police! “Scream a loud no to thoughts in your head that declare you’re “good” for eating minimal calories or “bad” because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The food police monitor the unreasonable rules that diet culture has created. The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loudspeaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the food police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating.” (From Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch)  ..read more

Today’s intuitive eating principle is number 3, Make Peace with Food.  “Call a truce; stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can’t or shouldn’t have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, bingeing. When you finally “give in” to your forbidden foods, eating will be experienced with such intensity it usually results in Last Supper overeating and overwhelming guilt.” (From Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch)  This was probably the sca ..read more

Today’s post is on the second principle of intuitive eating: Honor Your Hunger.  “Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for rebuilding trust in yourself and in food.” (From Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch) Hunger is a new concept for me since starting Trikafta. When I was at my sickest, my appetite was ..read more

Since sharing my CFF blog on my journey to finding acceptance with my Trikafta weight gain, I’ve had quite a few people reach out to me with questions about Intuitive Eating.  (TW: If you are going through an eating disorder, this post may be triggering as it goes into dieting behaviors.) For the next 10 days I am going to go through each of the 10 principles and share how I’ve implemented them in my life! I hope my story inspires you to learn more about it, or at the very least answers some of your questions.  Principle 1: Reject the Diet Mentality Throw out the diet books and mag ..read more