Disclosure: I’m a sponsored Align Influencer, but all opinions are my own. Please see below for additional disclosure
Hi hi, my angels!!!
Heading off to the east coast today to teach yoga at The GOOD Fest & host my workshops at Pure Yoga in NYC! CRAZY excited for both and can’t wait to meet so many of you.
We still have a few spots at the LIVE PODCAST RECORDING I am hosting with Rachel Mansfield on Monday, the 24th — head HERE to buy your tix and come hang with us!!! It’s going to be a live Q&A and SO MUCH FUN.
So now… on to today’s post topic! Five Tips for LISTENING TO OUR BODS, Eating Intuitively & All Around Feeling Awesome.
Intuitive eating is an interesting thing. It can be very hard to transition into eating intuitively if you’ve been caught up in a diet mentality for so long, with someone else telling you which foods are “good” or “bad” or “off limits” — letting go off all of those limitations and just learning to fuel yourself from the inside out is where it’s AT.
But yes, I admit, it’s challenging.
It took me a bout 3 years to fully tap into eating intuitively, and because of my food allergies and intolerances I still have issues with it sometimes… because occasionally what I crave / what my body wants isn’t necessarily something that’s going to make me feel good or okay at all.
So I have finally struck a balance that works for me, and wanted to share with YOU what that balance looks like for me!
Tips for Eating Intuitively //
1. Use a high quality PROBIOTIC! You guys know I am a huge fan of Align Probiotic. In fact, I did a 28-day Probiotic Challenge with my mama that I wrapped up in February (remember our posts about it from Bora Bora?!) and we both felt incredible dedicating ourselves to taking a daily probiotic. We also had a few awesome giveaway winners during that time who have started incorporating Align into their lives and also love it.
After the 28 days, I have stuck with my daily probiotic and I am still really enjoying it. I find that setting myself up by taking a daily probiotic really helps with listening to my body and making kind choices with myself, because it helps keep my digestion flowing properly and keeps less bad bacteria in my stomach.
The benefits of taking a daily probiotic are off the charts. A probiotic is a live microorganism dietary supplement that helps you maintain your digestive balance by fortifying your system with healthy bacteria. The bacteria it puts into your system is essential for many vital body functions and the health of your tummy/digestion.
Align is awesome because it is gluten-free, and is the only probiotic that contains a unique, pure-strained probiotic B. Bifantis 35624 which naturally helps promote a healthy digestive system with continued daily use.* Use THIS COUPON to get a discount on Align Probiotics if you decide to try them out — they are truly my fave.
2. Eat Foods That You ENJOY! So, this one is huge. A lot of us hear that something is great for us like being in ketosis, eating a high fat diet, focusing on lean protein with veggies, etc. and we go ALL IN with that for a few days, or a few weeks, or however long we can stay on the wagon. But the problem is, if we don’t love those foods… what about the foods we love? We end up caving in, craving those, and eating them.
For me, my kryptonite is dark chocolate. I also love every type of nut butter, I love dark chocolate peanut butter cups, and I love a good bowl of oatmeal with nut butter and protein powder in it after a killer workout. When I get on a super specific healthy eating kick and cut out carbs (which I do multiple times a year for specific stomach problem reasons) I MISS that oatmeal terribly! And of course I miss my dark choc when I cut that out.
I’ve found that for me, when nothing is off limits, everything ends up balancing itself out. I make those healthy, balanced choices because I want to feel good and I thrive off of feeling good. But I make sure that my meals each day & each week are meals that I LOOOOVE so that I don’t end up being unsatisfied and eating again later to have something I do in fact like a lot better.
So right now I am on the train where I am listening to my body, eating my oatmeal and dark choc, and of course I still crave salmon, kale, chicken, Bulletproof coffee, all the good stuff.
I think that eating what we love is the key to feeling good ALL the time!
3. Move, move, move! It’s no secret that exercise helps us listen to our bodies. It’s the cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle in every way. When I don’t exercise for several days on end, everything starts to fall apart for me. I get so irritable, I feel so much less myself, and my emotions tend to affect me so much deeper. When I exercise I am also reminded to fuel my body in a balanced, healthy, nutrient-dense way.
I.e. even though I love that oatmeal and dark chocolate, if I ate it for every meal I wouldn’t possibly feel my best. So I balance it out with other foods that give me energy and make me feel awesome! Because I want to feel my best when I run, do yoga, do HIIT, all that good stuff. Check out this Instagram post I recently did about finding my balance with HIIT training again and learning to reincorporate it into my life in a balanced way. <3
4. Keep a Food Journal! If you think you can do this without obsessing too hard over every little detail, I think it’s an awesome thing to do to keep a food journal. When I keep a food journal, I make note of how each meal makes me feel. I record it and then later I can look back and see if I was feeling bogged down, swollen, tired, puffy, etc. one morning I can usually trace it back to a meal the day before. My body is very sensitive to so many different foods, so this has really helped me hone in on what my body runs best off of so I can focus on those foods and incorporate them into my life while eliminating (or cutting back on) the ones that don’t make me feel as good.
5. Be HONEST With Yourself. Are you hopping on the ketosis / paleo / gluten-free / vegan train just because someone else you know is doing it and they look / feel great? It’s AMAZING to get inspired by others in our lives and on the Internet, but ultimately at the end of the day we have to blend that inspiration with listening to our own bodies in order to make the choices that will feel the best for us as individuals.
There we go, my angels! My top tips for listening to our bods, eating intuitively, and feeling as GOOD as humanly possible in the process! Thoughts? Did I miss anything big? Don’t forget to check out Align Probiotics! I think you’ll fall in love!!!