Intuitive Eating: Why It's Not Step 1 for Most of Us

Though each of my clients comes for support with unique needs and goals, there is generally one ultimate, over-arching goal for all of us: to develop our ability to listen to our body and discover which foods, meal timing, lifestyle patterns (and supplements as needed) actually work best for our unique wellness needs, and how to develop the personalized habits over time that best support us.

In the beginning stages of change especially, many factors interfere with your natural, intuitive ability to hear your own body’s wisdom, making the expert support and guidance of Nutritional Therapy a game changer.

These challenging factors include: 

  • Addictions to certain foods

  • Confusion about nutritional ‘shoulds’

  • Being surrounded constantly by highly processed, addictive, low nutrient foods

  • Relationship with food, and with yourself!

  • Blood sugar dysregulation and/or insulin resistance (insulin resistance comes first, then develops into blood sugar dysregulation also)

  • Appetite dysregulation (including leptin resistance)

  • Stress (from internal and external sources) increasing urge for ‘comfort foods’

  • Old thought patterns

  • Gut microbiome that is out of balance and causing sugar cravings

  • Digestive interferences (‘leaky gut,’ fatty liver, low stomach acid, etc.)

  • Food sensitivities (many of which may be healed over time)

  • Nutritional deficiencies and inflammation both causing low physical and brain energy

  • Even for thirst… as we age our thirst signal when we’re dehydrated gets weaker!

  • Poor sleep due to nutritional and blood sugar issues

Um… do you think that might be enough to make ‘intuitive eating’ challenging to succeed with? Yes!

However, there IS one excellent intuitive eating rule of thumb you can start with at any time…. If you have a craving for a natural, whole, unprocessed (though cooking is fine!) real food, then do follow that instinct. BUT, if it’s a craving for anything “man made” (and yes, this includes home-baked goods!) then it’s likely an unhealthy craving that is not a true body wisdom intuition.

The great news is that intuitive eating CAN become a beautiful guide in your future again. And it’s an inner guide you will ultimately need to help you discover which food pattern (of many healthy possibilities) is truly right for YOU. (And to continue tuning into your body whenever your ‘optimal’ pattern changes, which it will!)

But first you need to clear the ‘static’ caused by the slow, cumulative damage that’s been happening over the past however many decades from eating intuition-damaging, processed junk foods.

And I’m here for you if you would like support for that process! (And no, I don’t tell my clients they can never have their favorite foods again. Nutritional Therapy is a process of healing, not prison! ;-)

 

Sugar Spike Tips: Simple Tricks for Damage Control (for when you do indulge)

Start improving your health with this first free guide, and more tips to come!

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Want to explore whether we’re meant to work with each other?
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In this complimentary consult you will:

  • Learn more about your own metabolic health signs
  • Get clear on your top priority goal and WHY it’s important to you
  • Uncover hidden patterns that are sabotaging you
  • Get some recommended next steps
  • And by the end of our call you'll know whether my support with Nutritional Therapy, functional testing and Metabolic Health Coaching makes sense for you

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Client Comments

"My body feels so much better! I was really struggling after going through menopause and making poor health choices during the deepest parts of the Covid pandemic. Aside from the specific advice and guidance she provided for MY body, based on labs and questionnaires, the accountability of working with a coach who sent me off with “action items” that I understood was key. Megan’s approach is to truly educate her clients, in order to give them insight into how our changing bodies are working and what they need to work better. Additionally, I found her style of coaching to be gentle and full of compassion."

-- D.K., WA

 

“My eating was out of control, I was constantly giving into cravings, even eating in the middle of the night. I was very unhappy with what that was doing to my body…. My energy level was chronically low and I was feeling stress, even in everyday things…. [Now] I am down 10 pounds, which is very encouraging and I feel like I have a better relationship with food. Understanding the link between carb intake, insulin levels, and hormone levels has made me much more aware of what is going into my mouth. My focus has changed from satisfying cravings and hunger to nourishing my body….”

— S.N., WA

 

“I am really glad that I took a chance on Megan’s program. She got into the complexities of my older female body that had long periods of sleep deprivation and high cortisol. I’ve tried lots of elimination diets without feeling any of the great testimonials. Instead of chasing that fix, I now can work on long term changes that will benefit me right away.”

— K.H., WA

 

“Before I started working with Megan, I was super stressed and easily overwhelmed… I felt like I was incredibly lacking, and every day felt more like a struggle than a joy....

I thought the process of change was going to be hard, but instead of feeling like I had one more item on my "to-do" list, things just started to feel easier. Things that would stress me out before were now just gently rolling off my back….

The change was so subtle, … it was crazy how things felt so different after such imperceptible changes. The process itself was actually stress-reducing and simple, so it seemed weird to me that I'd accomplished so much without feeling like I'd done any hard work!”

— L.H., Bellingham, WA