With all the different food plans out there such as the Paleo diet, the Vegan diet, even the Fast diet, it's confusing as to which is the right one to follow. I know I've found myself stumped several times that I give up altogether. The good news is that you don't need to follow ANY diet in particular.
In fact, dietitians Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole have proven that all you need to use to lose weight is your intuition. So what does that even mean? Read on to find out!
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In their latest book, the third edition of Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works, they had patients looking to lose weight by eating intuitively. In other words, by listening to what your body wants and learning what foods make you feel best. This can be tricky as most people might immediately opt to gorge on junk food.
"It's a subtle shift in thinking: It's not that you can't have burgers and fries. It's just that if you're really paying attention to how your food makes you feel, you won't want to eat junk all the time," explained nutritionist Michelle Gallant. This is great news for dieters who are constantly suppressing their cravings because they are forbidden certain foods that causes them to binge eat.
Nutritionist Linda bacon, explained that when dieters suppress certain cravings, they no longer understand what their body is asking for. "So they can't even recognize hunger, because for so long they've thought that hunger is something you're supposed to suppress–or ignore," she said.
Intuitive dieting only requires that we abide by a few rules. First, breathe deeply a few times before eating, then eat slowly and listen to your body when its full. The second step is to avoid emotional eating and only munch on food when you are physically hungry. Eliminate the terms "good" and "bad" food from your vocabulary and eat what you want but use good judgment. For example, if you eat a burger for lunch, balance out dinner with a hearty salad.
A study Bacon conducted on subjects on a restrictive diet and those eating intuitively found that although both groups lost weight, the latter kept it off the longest.
It excites me that this could be revolutionary for the dieting world. So many people feel the need to cut out certain foods that they just end up eating them in greater quantities later on. Knowing that they aren't restricted while dieting is a great way to have your cake and eat it too without feel guilty. After all when we eat, we should feel pleasure in addition to nourishing the body.
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