The Difference Between Eating Intuitively and Eating Mindfully
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I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me saying they struggle to eat intuitively. Every time they try, they end up overindulging. I know many body positive advocates heavily promote intuitive eating and suggest that anything that ISN’T eating intuitive means we are eating restrictive diets. But, I happen to disagree and in this episode of Embrace Your Real, I want to share why I don’t believe intuitive eating is for everyone and why I believe in eating mindfully so much more.
If you’re relating to what I say in this episode and you’re ready to try macro counting, I highly suggest joining my 4-week Honor Your Body challenge. You can sign-up, here.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real, let's get in, let's go.
Hello and welcome back to another bonus episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast. I've had this topic come up a lot in my direct message recently over the last few weeks. Various situations but all kind of under the same umbrella, and the topic is people struggling to eat intuitively. Like every time they try to eat intuitively they end up overindulging. And I know that many body positive advocates heavily promote intuitive eating and suggest that anything that isn't eating intuitively means that we're eating restrictive diets, but I happen to very much disagree with that stance. And so in this episode of Embrace Your Real, I want to share why I don't believe intuitive eating is for everyone, and why I believe in eating mindfully so much more.
But before I dive into today's bonus episode, I had to share this super sweet review, comes from Amy Alice. She says, "Favorite podcast. If anyone knows me, they know I do not listen to podcasts ever. This is my favorite one and the only one I have downloaded. I love Julie's IG and feel so connected to everything she shares. I'm so thankful I found her." Wow, first of all, I feel so honored that I'm the only podcast that you listen to. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Whether you guys are regular podcast listeners and have a line of people that you listen to weekly, or if maybe I am your only podcast, I just want to say, I appreciate you. Thank you so much for leaving this review. It really does help out the growth of the podcast.
If you have an Apple device, please go to your Apple, iPhone, your iPad, your MacBook, type in podcast, when you search apps, you will see that beautiful purple icon, click on that. Make sure you type in Embrace Your Real. First, make sure you subscribe, and second, make sure that you leave a rating and review. It takes the less than 15 seconds, but it truly helps the growth of this podcast. And if you do, please screenshot it and send it to me in a DM. And I will personally respond with a voice message back. Okay? Let's first chat about eating intuitively. So, eating intuitively is when you allow yourself to 100% depend on your intuition and hunger signals to determine what and how much you should eat.
Now, eating mindfully means having an awareness of what you are eating, how much you're eating, and why you are eating it. Mindful eating means you take into consideration how different foods make you feel, what your body needs, and what foods are fueling you for success, and what foods are making you the happiest and most satisfied. For example, eating mindfully is allowing yourself to eat the ice cream you're craving, but being aware with how much ice cream your body actually needs, and being aware of how much you can eat while still feeling good. One problem with intuitive eating is that it assumes that we accurately tell how hungry or full we are. But the truth is that many of us can't.
Many of us have been restricting our food intake or have had an unhealthy relationship with food for far too long. When this happens, we totally messed up our hormones, including our hunger hormones. Which means that our hunger hormones can't be trusted. They might tell us that we're crazy hungry when in actuality, our body doesn't need more food. I find eating mindfully allows us to work towards resetting our hunger hormones because we're giving our body what it actually needs. Another problem that I have found with intuitive eating is that it encourages us to eat however much we want.
While, yes, I do believe in eating what we want, when we want it, I also believe that we need to do it mindfully. We need to keep moderation in mind. I believe we can eat potato chips. We can eat ice cream and cookies and still reach our goals. But can we eat an entire bag of chips, an entire pint of ice cream, and an entire box of cookies, and so reach our goals? It's likely going to make it pretty hard on ourselves if we do that daily. This is right. I am a huge advocate for macro counting. It teaches us how to eat mindfully. To eat what we want but in the amounts that are best for our bodies. It allows us not to deprive ourselves with the food that we love while still nourishing our body with what it needs.
It shows us what our bodies actually need, because many of us, truth be told, have no idea how much our body actually needs or what it actually needs to feel properly fueled. It would be amazing if we could all eat intuitively. But the truth is, right now many of us can't. We have had too many years of an unhealthy relationship with food that we have lost sight of what our body actually needs. We need time to reset before we can fully trust our intuition, our hunger signals. And I truly stand behind macro counting helping us get there. If you guys are relating with this at all, and you're ready to try macro counting, I want to encourage you to join my four week honor your body challenge. Inside this challenge, we personally calculate your macros for you, and we give you the tools that you need to get started with macro counting.
I give you my favorite macro friendly recipes. There's over 30 recipes in there. We have protein batches. We have breakfast, we have entrees, desserts and sides, and we give you everything that you need to start eating mindfully and start actually nourishing your body with what it needs. And on top of that, you'll also get four weeks worth of workouts inside my Move With Julie app, and all of the accountability and support that you need so that you can stay on track and see the results that you want. The challenge begins Monday, October 4th. So be sure to get in before that. We are capping this challenge. So if you head over to honoryourbodychallenge.com, and you should see the spot to be able to purchase your spot inside the challenge.
If you do see that spot, that means that there is still a spot available for you. Because we are limiting this challenge, I want to make sure that you get in ahead of time. So, again, be sure to go to honoryourbodychallenge.com or click those show notes as we will link it up there. But, listen, I understand that macro counting can feel intimidating. I understand that it might be something completely foreign to you or you feel like it might be something restrictive. But I am telling you speaking from experience, I have been able to have such a healthier relationship with food simply because I have taken the time to educate myself around food.
I have felt more empowered around food, because prior to going into macro counting and learning how to properly fill my body, I had so many question marks on everything. And because my unhealthy relationship with food was the foundation, I questioned myself on everything. I didn't know what it felt like to feel my body properly. And now that I do, I can slowly go into more eating mindfully. Right? So, for me, that's making sure that I'm tracking my protein intake, and some days tracking my overall calories to give myself that lenient room between fats and carbs. But knowing that my body based on where I'm at and what my current goals are, needs this much amount of food, and that's what makes me feel my best, and that's what helps me get the results that I'm aiming for.
So, again, go to honoryourbodychallenge.com. I would be honored to guide you along this journey. I'm telling you it is a total game changer, and I cannot wait to do this challenge alongside of you, honoryourbodychallenge.com. Thank you so much for tuning in today's bonus episode. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this. I hope you hear my heart behind this, and that you just understand where I'm coming at when it comes to the difference in my opinion for mass population with eating intuitively versus eating mindfully, and how much more effective eating mindfully can truly be when you take the time to learn the tools of how to properly nourish your body. Thank you again for tuning in, and I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, juliealedbetter. Yes. It's with an A in the middle, for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.