The Most Common Intuitive Eating Questions, Answered!

It’s 100% normal to be skeptical at first. But that’s a good thing. Because being skeptical and questioning everything you’ve heard about food, your body and your health is EXACTLY what you need to do in order to start listening to and trusting YOUR body.

By the end of this post, you should have the confidence and clarity you need to take the next steps on your intuitive eating journey!

What exactly is intuitive eating?

Intuitive eating is a framework to help you get back in touch with your body’s natural wisdom, rebuild the trust between your mind and body, heal your relationship with food and discover what it means to YOU to be well-nourished. It’s about listening to YOUR body to guide your food and movement choices. It’s about following internal signals like hunger, fullness and satisfaction and rejecting external cues like diets, food rules and societal trends.

I provide a lot more detail, including the 10 principles of intuitve eating this blog post.

What should I expect with intuitive eating?

Through practicing intuitive eating (AND working on your mindset around food and your body) , you can expect to be able to:

• listen to and trust your body
• feel more confident in your food choices
• enjoy the foods you love without guilt
• exercise as a way to celebrate your body rather than punish it
• use nutrition as a a path to make you feel good rather than a tool to beat yourself up
• never have to count, track or measure your food ever again
• nourish your body in a balanced way without having to worry about it all the time
• have the time and energy for things you care about outside of food and exercise

What is wrong with intuitive eating?

Intuitive eating mostly focuses on the body and your physical behaviors. It’s not a comprehensive, holistic approach because, for the most part, it neglects your mind and soul. This is why intuitive eating isn’t enough on its own for most people. Most intuitive eating coaches focus solely on trying to change your behaviors but they fail to look beneath at your identity and beliefs that are DRIVING those behaviors. You can try to perfectly adhere to your hunger and fullness all day long but if you don’t work on your beliefs, then it’s not going to get you anywhere.

What you think, believe, say, and keep affirming about food and your body is the very thing that’s keeping you from feeling at ease in your body and confident in your food choices. This is why with my programs I map out the step by step process of transforming your beliefs FIRST and as a result of your new beliefs, you develop new, intuitive behaviors and as a result of your new behaviors, food freedom becomes an inevitable by product of who you are.

How do I know if I’m ready for intuitive eating?

You’re never going to be 100% ready for something you’ve never done before. There will never be the perfect time for it but that is the point. It means that every moment, including right now, is the right moment. If you want it, you just gotta do it. How long are you willing to wait to be ready? Forever? Ready isn’t a destination to get to but a choice you can make in this moment right now. I know it’s hard to feel ready to take the next step. But if you’re still reading this, you’ve already done the first thing by acknowledging it. That is huge. While you’re in this moment of strength and you’ve already taken a huge first step, why not continue being strong and take next step?

If you want discover exactly HOW to eat in a balanced way without having to worry about it all the time, I can help.

The Subtle Art of Food Freedom is your COMPLETE step by step system to feel totally free and confident in your food choices and body so you can eat what you want when you want, without any of the guilt, stress or obsession!

It’s an 8 week program including live trainings, exclusive group coaching calls, transformational workbooks, LOTS of special bonuses & more!⁠ Limited spots are opening up soon so make sure to get on the wait list right away!

Click here skip to get on the wait list!

What if I’m scared I’ll lose control and gain weight if I let myself eat what I want and listen to my body?

This isn’t a matter of worrying about gaining weight but a matter of what you are choosing to make that mean. But I totally get why you’re scared. It’s completely normal. I was too. Everyone is always telling us that losing weight is what will make us happy and confident and love ourselves. But is everyone who has the “perfect body” super happy and healthy? NOPE! If you continue holding onto this way of thinking, you may be stuck stressing about food and your body for your whole life. So what DOES every happy person have? Well they know that every feeling that you want when you get the perfect body is available to you right now. And guess what? You get to CHOOSE to feel that way right now.

ALL of my clients (and me) have had this same fear which is why I include a special bonus in my online program on exactly how to maintain a healthy weight AND eat what you want.

If I listen to my body, won’t I just eat junk and get super unhealthy? How do I honor what sounds good to me, not impose rules on myself and yet avoid the foods that make me feel like crap?

Eating intuitively doesn’t mean taking care of your body goes out the window. You can do BOTH. We live in this world where we’re constantly told, you can have THIS or you can have THAT, but not BOTH. But why can’t you eat what you want AND take into account how it makes you feel? Why can’t you eat foods that are tasty AND nourishing? 

This is not a matter of if you’ll eat healthy or not. It’s a matter of where you’re focusing your attention. Are you focused on depriving yourself because you feel guilty and ashamed or are you focused on truly feeling good and making the best decisions for you body? When you focus on the latter, you can eat what you want AND take into account what will make you feel physically good. 

What if I fail at intuitive eating? I’m scared this will turn out like all the other times, so why bother?

It’s completely normal to think “I know this worked for them but it will never work for me”. What if not trying is the only way you can be sure you’ll stay stuck right where you are? What if feeling the fear and doing it anyway is the only way to really know if this can work for you? What if “failing” is actually a really good thing because it means you are learning the exact lessons you need in order to move forward?

So what if you fail? Wouldn’t that then mean you are finding the exact lessons, tools and experience you need in order to move forward, create change in your life and finally FEEL GOOD about your food choices and body?  Making mistakes is the only way forward. If you work with me, your success will also become inevitable if you are willing to do the work. And resolving these issues won’t just affect your relationship to food and your body but also everything else in your life. This will be a completely different way of approaching food and your body than your used to and THAT’S why it will create lasting transformation.

What do you do when coworkers bring sweets to work? I know that if I have one that I’ll want more! How do you allow yourself the treat without overdoing it? That is my biggest struggle! It’s like once I start eating, I can’t stop!

We’re constantly told that we need to stay on track and control ourselves around food. We just need more “willpower”, right? This leads us to believe that we are completely useless without micromanaging food and our bodies.

But it’s the very act of micromanaging and controlling food and our bodies are what makes us feel out of control.

It makes us feel like if there’s a box of cookies in the break room at work, we’re going to eat the entire thing. The reason that you may do this is simply because you believe you will. Our brains LOVE to find and create proof of our beliefs. Our brains are also built to filter, delete and distort anything that doesn’t align with our beliefs which is why it feels so true that you won’t be able to stop eating…because your brain keeps creating evidence to support that.

Let me ask you a question: Does everyone who listens to their body overdo it all the time? The obvious answer is no. I am living proof of it, so are my clients, and many other people out there who listen to their bodies and practice intuitive eating.

It’s normal at the beginning of intuitive eating to feel a little “crazier” around certain foods because you’ve restricted yourself with those foods in the past. Your body is like “OMG I better stock up now before I’m not allowed to have this again”. However, over time, once your body trusts that you won’t deprive it anymore, the seduction of those foods goes away and they naturally become a balanced part of your eating.

Can you lose weight doing intuitive eating?

Some people might lose weight by listening to and honoring their bodies, while others may gain weight they’d lost from deprivation and restriction. Others might not see any change in weight. Intuitive eating is not a diet or weight loss program; it’s a transformational framework to help you make peace with food and your body.

Is it absolutely true that you need to lose weight in order to be happy, confident and love yourself? Can you think of anyone who is happy, confident and loves themselves and doesn’t have their ideal body?

How many people do you know that DO have the “perfect” or “ideal” body but hate themselves and are miserable?

Changing who you are on the outside will not change who you are on the inside. If you woke up tomorrow magically X pounds lighter, would you all of a sudden be a different person on the inside? No, because changing your body does not change your underlying beliefs about yourself.

Happiness, self-love and confidence are all HABITS; you don’t just all of a sudden become happy because of something outside of you like the size of you body.

So instead of focusing on losing weight, why don’t you focus on the things you believe weight loss will bring you. For example, if you think weight loss will make you happier, what can you start doing right now (that has nothing to do with your weight) to make you happier? Everything you want comes from within. All of the thoughts, feeling and experiences you think you’ll have when you lose weight are available to you right now.

What if other people are judging me for eating what I want?

Someone call the food police!! Anyone have that one family member or friend who’s always like “OMG you’re going to eat all of that?”. And you just want to be like “KEEP YOUR EYES ON YOUR OWN PLATE”? Yeah, that’s basically the food police in a nutshell.

These messages hinder us from being able to tune into and honor our bodies individual needs. Here’s 5 Ways to Deal With the Food Police so you can become more resilient to the food police‘s judgements and trust your own intuition.

How do I stay on track with intuitive eating?

The best way to stay on track with intuitive eating is to focus on your intentions. Are you making decisions from a place of guilt, shame and hating yourself or are you making decisions from a place of truly wanting to care for yourself and honor your body?

When you have the intention of truly caring for yourself, staying on track with intuitive eating becomes an inevitable by-product because that’s the kind of person you are.

You’re the kind of person who eats the foods that make you feel good, give you energy, satisfy you, and give you pleasure. Focus on how you can continue to show up for yourself as that person because when you do, sticking to intuitive eating will become naturally.

What if I don’t have the money to invest in a program or coach to help me with intuitive eating right now?

I totally understand where you’re coming from. But that’s actually a good thing because the transformation begins IMMEDIATELY after you make the investment. Because you have skin in the game. Because you’re telling yourself “I am worthy, I deserve this”. As women, we’re scared to bet on ourselves. But hiring a coach or joining an online program is a really small investment in the scheme of things and it’s this one small investment that can create life long transformation so you don’t have to struggle with this stuff ever again. Isn’t that worth it to you?

It would be a shame to let a small investment get in the way of you getting the support you deserve.  I wish more women (including you!) could see the magic that happens when you prioritize and invest yourself and tell fear to F off. I don’t want you to let even more time pass you by where you’re struggling, beating yourself up and exhausted trying to figure out this whole normal eating thing.

Unless you invest in yourself and learn how, it will never get easier. And I want to see you enjoying your life and having the time and energy for the things that make you truly happy. Think about it. What will be possible for you once you’re no longer thinking about food and your body all the time? I would encourage you to think about what that’s worth to you.

I already have a zillion tasks on my to do list, how will I have time for Intuitive Eating?

I totally understand. I hear that from so many of my clients. They felt the same way. Like “this would be great but I have too much on my plate and life keeps getting in the way”. I hear you. And that’s exactly why I am here. We’re not going to try to change everything overnight (that IS overwhelming). We’ll take baby steps together .

I’ll break everything down for you into simple, manageable steps, so you don’t have to search in a million different directions trying to figure out what you “should” be doing. It might feel like this is adding more to your plate. But can you imagine what you will have time and energy for once your brain is no longer filled with food and body chatter? I know you can do this and I will be there to support you every single step of the way.

How long does intuitive eating take?

It’s not a matter of how long intuitive eating takes. What really matters is how fast you can start feeling better. I’ve had  some clients who start seeing major improvements after just the first week and others who take longer. This isn’t a matter of how long it needs to be or how long it’s going to take. This is about getting you into action and starting your journey as fast as possible by giving you the right steps and you being willing to do the work.

Don’t worry if you don’t know HOW to get started…that’s why I’m here.

If you want discover exactly HOW to eat in a balanced way without having to worry about it all the time, I can help.

The Subtle Art of Food Freedom is your COMPLETE step by step system to feel totally free and confident in your food choices and body so you can eat what you want when you want, without any of the guilt, stress or obsession!

It’s an 8 week program including live trainings, exclusive group coaching calls, transformational workbooks, LOTS of special bonuses & more!⁠ Limited spots are opening up soon so make sure to get on the wait list right away!

This program has the potential to be the turning point of your new life.⁠⁠ THE QUESTION IS, ARE YOU WILLING TO SHOW UP?⁠⁠

Click here to get on the wait list!