I haven’t dedicated a post to Intuitive Eating (IE) lately because I’ve been trying to just live it and over thinking it definitely makes it harder sometimes.
The other day I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I had binged. Don’t get me wrong – mindless eating and overeating happens, but binging not so much. I’m very happy about that.
Since I have made great progress, but am not totally there yet I decided to review the 10 Principles of IE to see where I am:
1. Reject the Diet Mentality – Done and done 🙂 This one was easy as I didn’t want to go on another diet for anything!
2. Honor Your Hunger – Check. I eat when I’m hungry. Rocket science? Not so much. Eating when I’m NOT hungry – that’s another story…
3. Make Peace with Food – I’m an animal loving, sunflower wearing, PETA fearing California hippie so I was all for giving peace a chance. Now if the drug cartels south of the border would just follow my lead…
4. Challenge the Food Police – I have a long history of challenging authority so this one was easy. My mom’s favorite story about me is when I was three years old I told the babysitter, “My mom is in charge, but when she’s not here I am.” And don’t you forget it.
5. Respect your Fullness – Ding ding ding! We have a winner loser.
6. Discover your Satisfaction Factor – Another bump in the road.
7. Honor your Feelings Without Food – Damn, three principles I haven’t mastered?
8. Respect Your Body – This one is getting better and that’s all I can do.
9. Exercise – I don’t know if you noticed the title of my blog and all, but I run.
10. Honor Your Health – I eat enough produce to feed a family of four. I think I’m okay on this one. Might need to up the organic stuff and watch the handfuls of graham crackers though.
Right now I live the first four principles of Intuitive Eating okay. But I am not fully an intuitive eater yet as I have not mastered numbers five, six and seven. These are the numbers that I think are standing in the way of me and my natural weight.
So, for the next few weeks I’m going to try and be more mindful of stopping when I am getting full, being present with my food and not eating when I’m angry, lonely or tired (HALT).
Lunch was a new find from MOM’s – Sweet Potato soup. I was hoping it was like the amazing butternut squash soup I had at a hotel in CA, but nope. It was kind of bland.
I paired it with some broccoli for a green and gold lunch 🙂 
“Green, Gold Let’s hear it! I say catch the spirit!”
What? Did I take that too far? (Please ignore the poorly centered picture)
I also ate a bag of veggie crisps because lunch was lame without ‘em. 
Why the heck does almond milk and soy milk curdle in coffee?
Better question: Why, despite the fact that I know it curdles, do I continue to put it in my coffee???
Monica is gross. Welcome to her blog. 
I know this is a very old post, and you may not read the comments, but I just wanted to say that your IE journey really inspired me when I discovered your blog a few months ago. I was restrictive and barely eating 1000 calories, plus working out. I started by tracking my calories to figure out how much I was eating, and then gradually coming out of a calorie deficeit (I was underweight). I then decided to keep tracking once I was at a healthy BMI, for a few weeks, and then transition to IE. I’ve just actually started the book and it resounds with me like I cannot describe. I’m trying to be more loose about tracking my food/not track at all (although this can make me head back to restrictive ‘less is better’ behaviours).
IE is SO HARD right now but I came back to these posts of yours to remind me why I started trying to get better in the first place. So THANK YOU. 🙂
And that’s why I use cows milk in my coffee : ) Seriously, if my coffee did that I would not be pleased!
Amazing advices, Monica!
Great post, girl 🙂
Have a great week!
Brazilian XOXO´s,
Gabriela
I have the same issues. I started writing a post for my blog today and I was going to write about my nightly snacking. For example, last night I ate a ton of cereal just because. I started out slightly hungry, but then I just kept eating. Out of habit or out of boredom or both. I should’ve just gone to bed! So difficult.
Hi Monica, i’m a long time reader, but only first time commenter..I live close to Columbia and was wondering whether you knew about this amazing health food store called David’s..it’s close to the mall so I’m pretty sure you’ve discovered it already, but since you never mentioned it on your blog, I thought I’d send the link just in case 🙂
http://www.davidsnaturalmarket.com/retailer/store_templates/shell_id_1.asp?storeID=CF1D83C59A914DEEB1F49F78C9BE5747
Also, there are a few places in the area that are worth checking out like Great Sage (vegetarian restaurant), Liquid Earth (raw/vegan smoothie/juice place) and Pizzazz (vegan and non-vegan tuscan grille). Hope you or some of your local readers find this helpful, enjoy 🙂
I actually don’t have that problem with the almond milk curdling in my coffee. One time I put the almond milk in iced coffee and it curdled. Weird huh?
You must get soy creamer from Trader Joes. It’s awesome!
This is so good how far you have come and even though it’s not perfect yet, you’re really close and getting there. Just the fact that you haven’t binged in a long time is a huge success in my book. Congrats Monica!
Those are some really great principles. I’ve heard a lot about the Intuitive Eating book and would love to learn more! Especially after this post. I’d say that I struggle with those same three as you, for sure. Sometimes it’s so hard to tell if my appetite is for physical reasons or *emotional* reasons, especially because my emotional appetite can actually make me physically feel hungry. Does that make sense…?
Great meeting you over the weekend, by the way! This is random but, I’m SO jealous of your red hair. It’s gorge!!
“Monica is gross, welcome to her blog” hahahahahah! I seriously just choked laughing, your blog always makes me smile 🙂
Yay! I am so proud of you. Those principles seem so great. I have always been kind of confused about the differences between mindless eating and a binge. I know this sounds like a dumb question, but can you clarify?!
I think a lot of us are right there with you! I know I am:)
you have to heat the milk slightly and it won’t curdle. Give that a try!
i love that youre willing to put all this out there and how youre relating to it. awesome job coming as far as you have with the IE and i’m confident that you’ll be able to hit some of those other principles 🙂
To avoid the gross curdling I drink my coffee BLACK 🙂
The aspects of intuitive eating that you’re struggling with are the ones that give me the most trouble too…ugh. Regarding #7 – I KNOW that eating a cookie is not actually going to relieve my stress levels, but for some reason I still find myself doing it anyway!!! Frustrating!
i use silk light vanilla soy milk in my coffee and it doesn’t curdle. i know and agree with you almond milk curdles when i make my tazo chai tea latte
“…I’m going to try and be more mindful of stopping when I am getting full, being present with my food and not eating when I’m hungry, angry, lonely or tired (HALT).”
Not eating when you’re hungry?? Isn’t that honoring your hunger though?
I always find myself eating in the afternoons when I’m tired – I end up overeating and ruining my dinner.
To prevent curdling, heat up the almond milk/soy milk first then pour it in hot coffee – but I don’t know what to say about iced.
Sorry that was a mistake – I updated it. The point of HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, tired) is to only eat when you’re hungry. I was unclear 🙂
I think I’m no good with number 7 because I have no sense of self reward that’s not food
5. is my tough one too! Harder than it sounds for sure.
that coffee looks gross…..I’ve had almond milk in tea and never had that problem!
Seriously ’bout the almond milk. Same story on my desk this AM. Totally only drank half of it and I really needed that coffee.
i’m glad you’re being honest about this! it’s such a hard thing to do…especially when intuitively eating in the past was binging…at least, that’s the case for me!