Healthy living is usually associated with healthy food choices. In truth, there are various aspects involved in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition is one of them.

It is important for us to have the awareness and understanding to make the right choices of how, when, and what to eat.

Intuitive eating, is an approach to eating with awareness in contrast to dieting. Most diets are associated with restriction, as in limiting calorie intake or eliminating specific food groups. During World War II, healthy soldiers were put on a restrictive diet as an experiment. They lost weight temporarily; however, they developed extreme cravings for food, even after they stopped the diet. Their brains went into starvation mode, and the change was permanent. Those soldiers were left struggling with their metabolism for the rest of their lives.

As anyone who has tried dieting knows, it is not a long-term solution. Usually, after the diet is over, the individual regains all the weight lost plus some extra poundage. Additionally, diets usually do not solve related health conditions.

A general lesson learned from the history of dieting is that food should not and cannot be micromanaged in terms of restricting calories without serious repercussions.

The concept of intuitive eating it to pay attention to how one feels after eating a specific food. How do I feel after eating a starch that gives an initial boost, does it keep me going long? Short term effects are seen faster. To see long-term consequences to the food one eats, one needs a higher level of awareness.

Food should provide physical and emotional nourishment! If a food doesn’t supply both, then we need to fill in the gaps. If we aren’t missing anything, then we don’t even want to nosh throughout the day.

Someone can force themselves to drink a green smoothie daily for health reasons; however, if he does not enjoy it, he is not getting his emotional nourishment and later may crave sugary foods. Whereas someone else can eat an ice cream once a month and thereby feel emotionally satisfied for a long time.

Intuitive eating takes time. It takes time to learn what satisfies us. We are allowed to eat as much as we please and whatever we desire; however, we will learn what it does to us and then we will make decisions accordingly.

Although it seems that eating intuitively is counter to eating nutritiously, as one develops awareness as to what makes them feel good physically and emotionally, healthy eating habits develop. When food is not micromanaged through restriction and is approached with the proper awareness of what it does to us, we willingly live a healthy and nourishing lifestyle.

The information for this article is taken with permission from the EzraNCS course on physical health. To learn more about the EzraNCS clinic/future courses or to book an appointment click here for Israel office and here for the Monsey office.

Healthy living is usually associated with healthy food choices. In truth, there are various aspects involved in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition is one of them.

It is important for us to have the awareness and understanding to make the right choices of how, when, and what to eat.

Intuitive eating, is an approach to eating with awareness in contrast to dieting. Most diets are associated with restriction, as in limiting calorie intake or eliminating specific food groups. During World War II, healthy soldiers were put on a restrictive diet as an experiment. They lost weight temporarily; however, they developed extreme cravings for food, even after they stopped the diet. Their brains went into starvation mode, and the change was permanent. Those soldiers were left struggling with their metabolism for the rest of their lives.

As anyone who has tried dieting knows, it is not a long-term solution. Usually, after the diet is over, the individual regains all the weight lost plus some extra poundage. Additionally, diets usually do not solve related health conditions.

A general lesson learned from the history of dieting is that food should not and cannot be micromanaged in terms of restricting calories without serious repercussions.

The concept of intuitive eating it to pay attention to how one feels after eating a specific food. How do I feel after eating a starch that gives an initial boost, does it keep me going long? Short term effects are seen faster. To see long-term consequences to the food one eats, one needs a higher level of awareness.

Food should provide physical and emotional nourishment! If a food doesn’t supply both, then we need to fill in the gaps. If we aren’t missing anything, then we don’t even want to nosh throughout the day.

Someone can force themselves to drink a green smoothie daily for health reasons; however, if he does not enjoy it, he is not getting his emotional nourishment and later may crave sugary foods. Whereas someone else can eat an ice cream once a month and thereby feel emotionally satisfied for a long time.

Intuitive eating takes time. It takes time to learn what satisfies us. We are allowed to eat as much as we please and whatever we desire; however, we will learn what it does to us and then we will make decisions accordingly.

Although it seems that eating intuitively is counter to eating nutritiously, as one develops awareness as to what makes them feel good physically and emotionally, healthy eating habits develop. When food is not micromanaged through restriction and is approached with the proper awareness of what it does to us, we willingly live a healthy and nourishing lifestyle.

The information for this article is taken with permission from the EzraNCS course on physical health. To learn more about the EzraNCS clinic/future courses or to book an appointment click here for Israel office and here for the Monsey office.