Intuitive Eating

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Thanks for reading Vera Nadine!

What we put into our mouth greatly defines who we are, at least energetically and often physically as well.

I have had many theories about eating and food intake in the past.

None of them were inspired by fad diets.

All of them were based upon solid research of one kind or another.

And each of them failed to become a permanent fixture in my life for one reason or another.

I wouldn’t be trite enough to say that I have been struggling with weight issues my entire life because that is just not true. But for a girl raised on Hungry Man frozen dinners, Cocoa Krispies, Kool Aid and Coca Cola, weight can become an issue pretty quickly.

I was a skinny child and a skinnier teenager. As a matter of fact my thinness was often the butt of jokes both at home and at school.

When I reached adulthood however a shift occurred. What exactly it was and when it happened I cannot say.

I gained weight, not rapidly, but in an on again, off again kind of way. I never actively dieted, but have been researching and taking classes on nutrition for the past 7 years or so.

But knowing a thing and implementing it are, sadly, not the same pickle.

Knowing how cavemen ate and eating like one are worlds apart.

But now, after much consultation with my Goddess, my friends and at least one inspiring health consultant, I have grasped that which I needed to see all along.

I am a psychic medium.

I use my intuition in ways that many other people never will.

That intuition is given the right to take over when I drive, when I sleep, when I am out walking, when I spend money and when I make business decisions.

Why not defer to it in eating as well?

Seems simple….took years to dawn on me.

Oh well. All things happen for a reason.

So today I am becoming an intuitive eater.

The impetus to follow this new line of thinking came in a meditation on the Goddess Isis (thank you Damian) and with these four words from her lips, “Eat with the Moon.”

After several days of contemplation, it hit me: The Moon is Intuition.

So how do you eat with your intuition?

Well, to be honest, I don’t know how anyone else eats with their intuition but for myself (Admittedly knowing that not everyone is a psychic medium, but that we all DO have our own intuition.) it is about turning off impulse and listening to the inner dialog.

I stock my kitchen with mostly good things. I still keep some sweeties around just for the sake of being kind to myself, but when using intuition in the grocery store, the sweeties that end up back at home now resemble things like granola bars and apple sauce instead of Hostess cupcakes and Breyer’s Ice Cream.

Then, with the kitchen stocked, I simply ask intuition: “What would be the best thing for me to cook for dinner?”

Keeping in mind that my newfound soul-mate is a Raw Foodie, I usually do get an answer that requires cooking. But oddly enough, and this is an added benefit of intuitive eating to be sure, intuitively concocted foods leave less dirty dishes. Hooray!

Using intuition for my food choices is as simple as memorizing what lives in my fridge and cabinets (or just opening all of the cabinet and refrigerator doors) and saying to myself: “What would be good for me to eat right now?”

Often I am even lucky enough to get a: “Have THIS, or you could have THAT.” So I get two healthy choices to pick from.

The hardest part so far has been learning to trust the answer. And also learning to like the answer.

No matter how many times I ask the question, I have yet to get the answer: “A nice greasy Greek Pizza.”

But, as I have noticed when out at restaurants, Intuition is kind. It is not in any way indulgent, but it is kind.

“Have a slice of cheesecake after your salad and steamed shrimp.” it will say to me. Except it will also say, “No, not that whole slice. Cut it into thirds and give two of them away to the other people at the table.”

So Intuition will let me have a taste. It is not a restrictive, psychological terrorist. But it is wise.

Have I lost any weight?

Well no, not yet. But the changes in thought patterns and internal energy, though subtle, are definite.

I thought that I would feel hunger a lot more often than I have been. I still do get cravings for frosted doughnuts and sugary cereals. But more about that at a later date.

Suffice it to say that you should think about your food. Let the Ego be silent and hear what your true self has to say.

That is my own lesson and I am working to implement it as we speak.

I’m off for some milk-free tea with agave nectar as a sweetener…I’ll keep you posted on my results.

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Posted: September 11th, 2007 under Health, Nature.
Comments: 6 | View the Archives

6 Responses to “Intuitive Eating”

Comment from kl - Prana Flow NZ :
September 11th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
So very true Vera - I’d highly recommend eating intuitively. In fact, it’s the only way to eat, or live for that matter.

Of course, most of us are so wrapped up in the ego it’s difficult to discern the voice of the intuition, but just by asking and listening and then responding, we can make it stronger and stronger.

I can chart my depth of connection with Source along my eating habits… when I’m paying attention to my intuition and following it, I naturally make healthier choices.

When I’m blocking the flow of Source and feeling out of sorts, I make lazy decisions.

I don’t know if intuitive eating will ever be a craze like the Aitkens diet - hard to make a buck out of teaching people to eat what they feel like… and even harder for people to get their heads around listening to their intuition and not their ego.

But this post is a huge step in that right direction.
Comment from Paula Kawal | PaulaKawal.com :
September 12th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Vera,

You’re on the right track. I started doing this same thing in mid July with both eating and exercise and have lost 20lbs.

One thing I noticed is that not only did what I eat change but how much I ate changed drastically. I had no idea how much I over consumed verses how much my body actually needed :)

Funny thing is, I started this at a time when I really loved how I looked even though I was as heavy as I’ve been when I was pregnant. What prompted the change was my feet started to hurt. I took that message from my body to heart and the change that occurred has been profound!

Keep us posted on your progress!

Much love,

pk
Comment from Nathalie :
September 14th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Hi Vera,

I’ve been overweight all my life, as most of my family members, since we all love good, rich food, and lots of it.
When I reached puberty I’ve started to use diets to loose weight, but though I lost some weight, I did gain it soon again when I stopped.
After a while I started counting the calories and it was then I started to realize the hidden sugars, fat and calories most of my favorite food had – and so I started to pick healthier replacements, but I never really had the strength to continue.

Earlier this year I started counting again, but differently now – I too started buying a range of things and though I do make a week planning for dinner, if I feel I don’t want to eat it, I will prepare something else; use my creativity and listen to what my body says it would like to eat; cold, warm, spicy, sweet…

I’ve noticed that over these past months my meat-intake has reduced to the minimum, I just don’t crave for it, instead I’m preparing a lot of dishes with lentils and with tofu and soy products, and like PK the amount I’m eating has also gone down a lot - and I’m feeling healthier than ever; as an extra I’ve lost almost 8 kg already.

Last week my manager took me to the McD. and bought me a burger and fries, and though I didn’t at all feel like eating it, I didn’t want to offend her, so I ate it…and in the evening ended up sick with stomach ache. So my body has adapted to the healthier eating pattern, and had I listened to my body and asked for something else to eat, then I wouldn’t have been sick…so yes, what I’m trying to say with my a-bit-longer-then-intended-comment, I do think that intuitive eating is the way to go…it works for me anyway :)
Comment from Vera Nadine :
September 14th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Thanks all for your kind words and encouragement.

Yes the intuitive eating is definitely the way to go for me.

Focusing on one thing (ie. meat, dairy, starches etc…) is not really a workable approach for me in the long term.

But trying to rely more and more on the intuition is serving me well.

Do I NEED the steak or would peanuts do instead?

I can say one thing, I didn’t eat meat for five days and then my honey and I went to Chinatown.

He ordered veggie stuff and I felt the urge to get chicken with veg.

That chicken affected me in ways that I never would have noticed or thought possible before…emotions especially.

I know for certain now that food has effects on the empathic mind.

The energy that coursed through me after that meal (which I would not have been mindful of in the past) were just awful.

Am I going to be a vegetarian now? I don’t know.

But I know that the “urge” I felt was not one that I checked out with my intuition.

I will remind myself in the future to take a moment to distinguish between the two things.

All changes are a process.

Blessings All,

Vera Nadine
Comment from Nathalie :
September 14th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Funny you mention chicken by the way - I didn’t eat that for half a year now I think (I’m not a vegetarian), because every time I see it I feel a sickness – like heavy sadness - coming over me. I’ve not had bad experiences with eating chicken in the past, nor have I disliked it before, so I have no clue as to why I now react to it like this - I do know I don’t want to eat it.

BTW, what I’m also doing now, is a thing I’ve read in a book; every time I’m ‘hungry’ (though I sometimes feel the term ‘hunger’ isn’t applicable to people in rich countries) I have to think first: what part of me is hungry? My stomach? Or my head? Do I want to eat because my body needs to food, or because I need comfort? And it’s scary to see how many times I felt hungry out of feeling sorry for myself. I’ve often wondered why we start eating when we are frustrated.
Comment from Matthew M :
September 14th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Hmmm… There just might be something with chicken then. I too for the longest time when I was growing up, right up to about three years ago, could not prepare chicken for myself. Even today I avoid chicken if it has the bone in it. The reason for this strange behavior is that every time I cut chicken, I feel like I’m cutting my own flesh. It’s odd really, but is much more produced when trying to cut chicken on the bone. It feels like I’m cutting my own thumb off. I guess it is one way to keep from eating chicken often, but it makes me wonder, why chicken and not beef or fish?

I do know that they do some horrible things to “prepare” chicken for human consumption. It probably has to do with how they are killed. Fear imprinted meat is not a good thing, and as far as to my knowledge, only animals experience fear. (Yes, humans are animals too.) Vera always tells a story about the mystic chicken, how humans have some weird chicken connection. Where, if there is something really interesting going on and a chicken walks by, everyone is drawn to the chicken. Kind of weird.

On one last note, I’m going into a geeky slash dot mode here, maybe chickens are from another planet and are here to take over? I, for one, welcome our new, tasty chicken overlords!