Before I tell you why babies are the best intuitive eaters, check out 22 of my favorite self-love affirmations!!
Recently, I have been seeing a trend in my clients. They are super self aware, they want to put the cleanest and most nutritious foods in their bodies, they THINK about their choices, and they like to be in control.
While some of these qualities are AWESOME, health is actually way more simple than that. When we are obsessed with health, our inner control freak actually gets in the way of our wellness. Instead of feeling like our best selves, some other feelings may come up - stress, anxiety, guilt, fear.
This may sound counter intuitive, but let’s look at a few examples…
Let’s say you’ve decided that a healthy habit is including veggies in every meal of your day. That sounds good to me! But what happens when you’re in the mood for pancakes? Do you let yourself eat the pancakes, or opt for a veggie scramble because you “should”.
How about you decide that you’re going to be an “intuitive eater” and ask yourself what you’re in the mood for before every meal. Awesome! But what happens when you are thinking about food SO MUCH and doubting yourself...am I craving a smoothie? Wait...am I sure? Am I in the mood for tacos??
What about if you commit to working out 4-5 days a week? Love that! But then you get sick...do you push yourself to keep up with your goals? Or do you let yourself nap and chill for a few days?
These are honestly really hard questions to answer! Being conscious of your health and wellness is a blessing and a curse for these reasons. That’s why orthorexia (the obsession with eating foods that one believes to be healthy) is so popular among health and wellness gurus.
While I don’t have one specific solution to this problem, I do have an analogy that I really like to use.
Imagine being a baby.
Babies are the most intuitive beings and really exemplify how simple health is and how smart the human body is:
They sleep when they’re tired.
They cry when they’re hungry.
They stop eating and drinking when they’re full.
They are curious and crave learning.
Now, obviously there are a lot of perks to maturity - we can read, speak, eat a variety of foods, write, cook, go to parties, and go to the bathroom without a diaper :)
BUT our minds sometimes become too...smart. We don’t want to LET our bodies lead us because that would mean letting go and releasing control. #scary
Even though it may seem scary, one essential step to being HAPPY and free and healthy is to release those rules and expectations for ourselves. I think it’s super important to have goals, motivation to be healthy, and an education on nutrition and wellness...obviously these are things that I talk about all the time! However, we run into issues when we put TOO much focus on healthy habits and create rigid rules that are bound to be broken.
I think a great place to start when releasing a bit of our inner control freak is to ask what our priorities are...what’s the motivation for being healthy anyway?
If your goal to be healthy is just for the sake of being healthy, then I would love to help you dive a little deeper :) Some of MY personal reasons for wanting to be healthy are so that:
I have energy to hang out with my friends!
My brain is clear in class!
I sleep really well at night!
I have the strength to give really really big hugs!
My immune system protects me and I don’t have to miss out on the fun!
My liver can properly metabolize the alcohol I choose to drink :)
I can travel and see the world!
I can continue my work and inspire all of YOU!!
What’s your motivation? When you find that, you’ll feel better about releasing control and TRUSTING your body.
The point of this baby analogy is not to tell you to eat fast food every day and lay on the couch because you want to...I promise you that that’s not what your body really wants or needs to feel it’s best. Rather, simplify it; remind yourself of how simple and beautiful human life and wellness is...think of the baby, and cut yourself some slack the next time you’re just really cravings some pancakes!
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