Confused About What to Eat? You're Not Alone

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Every day, we’re bombarded with headlines like these—along with social media posts, documentaries, celebrity testimonials, podcast remarks, friends’ comments, and so on—that can easily send us tumbling down yet another path in search of a better body or optimal health.

So if you’re confused about what to eat, you’re definitely not alone.

One of the exercises I do with my clients is a review of all the diets, plans and programs they’ve experimented with over the years. They’re often shocked to see the long list of things they’ve tried, often beginning in their teens.

We talk about what they learned from their experiences. One of the biggest takeaways is how much time, energy and money they have spent with very little to show for it other than being more confused and frustrated than ever—and more distrusting of themselves and their body.

Then we talk about how, with Intuitive Eating, they can stop getting pulled in multiple directions by the nonstop flood of mixed messages.

When you return to the Intuitive Eater you came into this world as, you no longer feel confused, alarmed, tempted or swayed by the latest "eat this, not that" headlines because you trust and rely on your body’s internal cues instead of external rules and “experts” to guide you.

Rather than turning to outsiders (who couldn’t possibly know what your body wants and needs), you turn inward by listening to the messages your body is sending you.

Doing so gives you the awareness, insight and clarity you need to do what’s best for your utterly unique being. And, it gives you the confidence to discern when outside information is helpful and true for you—and when it’s not.

In short: you are the expert of your body. Rediscovering this inherent expertise is at the heart of Intuitive Eating.

It’s not a quick fix.

It’s an empowering pathway back to yourself—and to peace and ease with food and your body.

"At best, dueling headlines trigger confusion. At worst, they contribute to a growing food phobia. The negative impact of worry and stress over healthy eating may have a more profound effect on health than the actual food consumed." —Resch & Tribole, Intuitive Eating

Are You Out of Touch with Your Hunger?

Becoming an intuitive eater (someone who follows internal cues versus external rules) includes honoring your hunger. It's not uncommon, however, to be disconnected from your body’s hunger cues.

If you’ve been suppressing your hunger signals for a long time, it’s possible you’ve lost your physical sensitivity to them.

For example, if you have a history of dieting, you may have become accustomed to denying and tuning out your hunger. It gets silenced.

If you live a very chaotic, demanding and fast-paced life, you may ignore your hunger, especially if you feel it’s not a priority or there’s no time to eat.

Unrelenting stress and distractions can also dull your senses, making it hard to hear your hunger. So can sleep deprivation.

Perhaps you don’t realize what you're experiencing is actually a sign of hunger. We typically think hunger is felt in the stomach, however, any of the following sensations and symptoms can indicate hunger:

• Difficulty concentrating or articulating your thoughts (i.e., brain fog)
• Feeling light-headed, faint, dizzy, shaky or weak
• Irritability, crankiness or short temper
• Fatigue, low energy or sleepiness
• Dull, gnawing ache in your throat or esophagus
• Headache
• Nausea
• Stomach emptiness, pain, gurgling, rumbling or growling

Vulnerable to Overeating
When you’re not attuned to your hunger signals, you may not eat until you're ravenous, which leaves you vulnerable to impulsive eating, overeating and binge eating. When such primal hunger hits, all intentions of mindful, conscious eating fly out the window.

Cultivating a healthy relationship with food and your body includes responding to hunger when it comes gently knocking. Every time you do, you develop a higher level of trust and connection with your body.

If you have difficulty getting in touch with your hunger and honoring your body’s wisdom, I encourage you to seek support.

What Are Your Attunement Disruptors?

People are often surprised that I don’t tell my clients what to eat, when to eat, or how much to eat. I don't because I don’t have a clue what their body needs and wants at any given time. They are the expert of their body, not me!

My role is to help my clients connect with their body’s innate wisdom and trust it to guide them to the most nourishing, satisfying and supportive choices for their unique being. Part of this process includes exploring their attunement disruptors.

Attunement Disruptors
Attunement disruptors are obstacles that interfere with your ability to clearly hear—and appropriately respond to—the messages your body is sending you, including its sensations of hunger and fullness and feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. Here are a few common ones:

• Dieting: When you’re on a diet—whether it’s Weight Watchers, Whole30 or Paleo—you prioritize a set of external rules over your internal cues (e.g., denying your hunger because you’ve reached your calorie allotment for the day; avoiding a pleasurable food because it’s not allowed).
   
• Food Rules: As with diet programs, your personal food rules (e.g., no eating after 7 p.m., no snacking, no seconds, no carbs) dictate your food choices rather than your body’s needs and desires.
   
• Distracted Dining: Eating while multitasking (e.g., TV watching, emailing, texting, driving, cleaning) inhibits your ability to tune into your body’s feedback.
   
• Eating Habits: Ingrained habits, like skipping breakfast, inflexible meal times and a clean-your-plate mentality, can override your body’s needs.
   
• Performative Eating: You’re disconnected from your body when you change how you eat when eating with others. You might do this to meet social or cultural expectations, please other people, or project a certain image.   
   
• Inadequate Self-Care: Not prioritizing foundational daily self-care practices, such as restorative sleep, joyful movement, stress relief and screen-free time, makes it difficult to hear and respond to messages from your body.

Start Small
Addressing obstacles to body attunement can take time, especially if your inner wisdom is clouded by a dieting mentality, food rules, internalized weight stigma and other deeply embedded beliefs and behaviors. Start small and get support if needed.

Removing your disruptors will help you reconnect with your body and become more aware of and responsive to its messages, needs and desires. As a result, you will cultivate a more trusting, peaceful and relaxed relationship with food and your body.