Nutrition is not intuitive. 

At least not anymore. Not with all the nutrition noise in popular media. You can't open Facebook without receiving some (well-intentioned) message about how you should eat...and subsequently how you should look.

It frustrates me to no end. 

Here's what I know to be true about eating healthfully: your body knows what it needs. It even knows how much of it it needs! Your body has such wisdom that if you tap into it you will never need to know a damn thing about macros, food combining, balanced meals or phytonutrients. You'll just eat. 

Doesn't that sound NICE?!

We were born into this world with deep intuition and an innate ability to feed ourselves. But then something happened to cloud the clarity and muddle the message. Our families influenced our food beliefs. Our culture showed us that how we are is not thin enough, pretty enough, good enough and if only we avoided these foods that cause belly fat, we'd be thinner, prettier and good-er. But then we try that, right? And it doesn't work. So we try being vegan. And that doesn't flatten our stomach. So we try Paleo, and our thigh gaps still do not open. We probably ate too much tofu followed by too much bacon followed by something else that was 100% clearly our fault. Our failure. Rinse and repeat.

Here's the thing: food, even healthy food is not that hard. Believe it or not, eating vegetables and drinking water feels good. And you like to feel good. So feeding yourself healthy food is actually the path of least resistance. It's easy. The hard part is unplugging from society's expectation of what healthy looks like on a plate and in the mirror.

Health comes in all shapes and sizes. And yes, this is coming from a 5'11" woman who has weighed the same 145 pounds since college. You'd be fooling yourself if you thought I didn't need this reminder. Even skinny girls get the message that they're not thin enough, pretty enough, good enough. Not one beautiful soul is spared. I have never been "overweight" and I still spent most of my life fighting the monster in the mirror. 

Here are 5 steps I took to build my nutrition intuition AND step into my own healthy beauty:

1. Eat at least 3 times a day.
I got so good at being hungry that for many years in the beginning of my recovery I had no idea when to eat and when to stop eating. Those hungry/satiated triggers were never quite on or off sending me crazily confusing messages. One way to overcome this is to eat at regularly scheduled times, at least 3 meals a day. 

2. Eat real food.
I have a sad story to tell you: The ingredients in your food that makes them taste so good and last long enough on the shelf that aliens will be able to dine on them after human life as we know it ceases to exist...these are not food. These are chemicals meant to fool us into wanting and buying more. They're replacing whole food ingredients that, by their nature, do not last forever. These items are easily identified on food packages: you likely can't pronounce them and definitely won't be able to find them in nature.

Real food comes from the earth. Real foods are whole foods - vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, meat, eggs, nuts, seeds... And while it takes time to make them into a meal, you're body easily recognizes them as food and has no trouble discerning what to do with them. This is the key ingredient to building nutrition intuition. You can't unlock your body's secrets when you fuel it with Mac 'n Cheese, Lean Cuisines and Poptarts. 

3. Every day practice self-care.
Drink water. Get sleep. Move your body. Express your emotions. Connect with your community. Live intentionally. Smile. You need all of this to learn and listen to your inner wisdom. 

Don't expect perfection overnight. In my experience this takes months if not years to master. Every day is practice and you have all you need to succeed right inside your beating heart. But it this feel too big to tackle on your own, let me help, ok? 

​I’ll be the first to admit that I enjoy foods that are “bad” for me. I put “bad” in quotation marks, because even foods that don’t provide nutritional sustenance can be good for your soul. Joy is nourishing too!


Here are 5 simple suggestions to help you enjoy your guilty pleasures without the guilt:

1. Keep special-occasion foods for special occasions. This is a suggestion comes from Michael Pollan in his book, Food Rules. Think back to the foods you ate at holidays, birthdays and celebrations as a kid. Save those foods for those occasions.
   
   
2. Share them. If you want to eat chocolate cake, share a piece with a friend or two. Enjoy fried food? Order it with a green salad and split the meal with someone. Sharing is caring - for yourself, your buddy and your bodies.
   
   
3. If you have a sweet tooth, consider buying just one cookie to satisfy you instead of baking one dozen. That works unless you’re an avid baker! If that’s you, consider freezing most of what you make so you can eat just one now but have some for later. Or, package up 75% of what you bake to give as unexpected gifts to your co-workers, friends, neighbors, strangers...you'll become very popular. 
   
   
4. Aim high for quality. Set high standards for yourself and buy the best piece of dark chocolate torte from a bakery that uses high quality ingredients instead of eating fluffy sheet cake with grainy frosting or whatever candy is in the break room at the office. If you’re into fried food, look for a restaurant (like the Anchor in NE Mpls) that makes their own breading and deep-fat fries in lard instead of corn oil. There’s a trick in here that also supports Tip #1: these things are expensive, so you’ll likely think twice before purchasing.
   
   
5. Shamelessly enjoy them and don’t look back. Part of being a conscious eater is to mobilize your fork with intention. That puts thoughtfulness into everything you consume. If you think things over before you dig in, you spend your eating time unabashedly savoring each bite. Then with a guilt-free grin on your face, you wash your hands and move on with your day, no looking back.

What would you add to this list? Share in the comments below! 

I started reading Amy Poehler's Yes Please last night (I'm gonna bust through that book in a hot minute, let me tell you what). It's witty, brilliant and sneakily insightful - just what I expected it to be. What I didn't expect is to run into such a beautiful way of approaching body image...at least not in my first sit-down with the book. 
​

My currency is my ability to connect with people, set them at ease. I can draw the life story out of the shyest person. I was the kid on the playground who everyone brought their problems to. I have a big squishy heart and I'm not afraid to open it. 

When I think about this being my guiding purpose on this planet, it no longer matters if my socks match my pants or if I have a bad hair day. A flat stomach has nothing to do with a warm heart. And striving for something other than spending my currency gets in the way of my time to shine. Wanting to be perceived as beautiful or sexy is a distraction. 

​So, what's your currency? Did you choose it? Why? ​