YOUR BODY KNOWS...
I had a conversation with a new client this week about following your body in terms of eating.
WHAT! I can hear you saying, that would mean giving into cakes and chocolate and dumping the broccoli!
Well this is what I think, there are only a few absolutes in terms of healthy eating and everything else is what works for you and your body. These absolutes are...
- Eat your veggies, as many different colours as possible, have some cooked and some raw
- Fill your plate or bowl with half to three-quarters veggies
- Always have something green on your plate; kale, salad greens, broccoli...
- Have healthy fat everyday, avocados, nuts, seeds, whole dairy...
- Have some good sources of protein every day, this could be wild oily fish, grass fed meat, beans, legumes
- Cook as much yourself as you can and avoid processed foods and sugar as much as you can, fresh and simple is best.
The rest is up to you, when you eat, how much you eat; there are no rules, there may be cultural preferences, family 'rules', recommended diets, habits or 'agreements' we made with ourselves years ago but what suits your body now is completely up to you to discover. For example sometimes...
- I eat salad for breakfast because I fancy it
- I don't eat until lunchtime if I'm not hungry
- I will have a big side salad with a cooked breakfast
- I have my smallest meal in the evening
- I miss a meal because I don't feel like eating
...and giving myself permission to follow my body led me to start eating meat and fish again after almost 30 years of being a vegetarian, it felt like a body revolution!
So perhaps give 'intuitive eating' a go one day a week, be led by what your body wants/needs and explore a new way, and see what your body comes up with! ...and let me know how it feels...