HOW INTUITIVE EATING CAN HELP YOU QUIT DIET CULTURE
The concept of mindfulness has ful ly saturated mains tream culture at this point. Though it’s more likely to conjure up an image of someone sitting cross-legged with closed eyes than sitting at a table looking wide-eyed at mealtime, it’ll serve you just as well on your dinner plate as it will on your yoga mat.
While this may feel … intuitive ... it’s easier said than done in a culture with consistent and often confusing messaging around what constitutes healthy eating. Even the tried-and-true method of calorie counting has raised doubts in recent years due to inaccuracies in calorie calculations for the nutrition labels and research on how calorie restriction can backfire by changing your hormone levels and even slowing down your metabolism. Kristen Smith, a registered dietitian and the spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, says it’s also linked to disordered eating habits. Intuitive eating may just be the antidote. Singer Demi Lovato, who has been open about her struggles with an eating disorder and body-image issues, credits a more mindful approach to eating with helping her overcome harmful eating patterns. How does it lead to better health outcomes? Having a regular exercise routine and eating well have long been known as the two pillars of physical health. When it comes to the latter, intuitive eating helps you create healthy and sustainable eating habits. The upshot is that when you eat better, you’ll feel better. Being attuned to that connection is the foundation of mindful eating. Most of us know that we should eat whole foods, including lots of fruits and vegetables, but feeling the outcome of increased consumption of these foods will help you stick with and build the habit.
What is intuitive eating? Eating mindfully, also known as intuitive eating, is trending in the health and wellness world. But it couldn’t be more different from fad diets or other trends like fasting and cleanses, which have restrictive lists of rules and foods to eat or avoid. Intuitive eating starts by simply tuning in to your body’s needs and cues, but it goes further than that. As a Harvard Medical School article put it, “In essence, mindful eating means being fully attentive to your food — as you buy, prepare, serve, and consume it.” And that includes focusing on how different foods and eating habits make you feel, both physically and mentally.
5 EASY IDEAS FOR A MORE SUSTAINABLE (AND AFFORDABLE) LIFESTYLE
If you want your lifestyle to feel a little more sustainable for your wallet and the environment, there are lots of ways to cut back without doing much extra work! It might even save you time in the long run. Here are a few ideas to get you started! 1:Haveanofficialgrocerylist forfamilymembers toaddto. Every time you run out of a food item in the house, have your familywrite it down on the official grocery list. This will cut down on food costs (i.e. overbuying groceries that you already have), avoid multiple trips, and make for faster grocery shopping overall, whether you’re running into the store yourself or planning a delivery. 2: Save peels, stems, and ends to make vegetable stock. Want to flavor bomb your quinoa, rice, or pasta? Boil it in your own nutritious vegetable stock that you can produce for mere cents per liter. All you need to do is freeze your carrot and onion peels, garlic stems, beet tops, celery ends, and more to throw into water and gently simmer (not boil) for an hour or two. 3: Save water for your plants! Do you have house plants? While you’re waiting for the shower to warm up, use a bucket to catch all that spare
cold water and use it to water your plants. You’ll help your local water facilities spend fewer resources filtering water. And, ultimately, showering might be the useful reminder you need to water your plants every day! 4: Keep reusable straws around your car and home. Do you dislike the strawless cup covers that restaurants are adding nowadays? Keep your own reusable straws around! Whether they’re stainless steel or thicker plastic, enjoy some easy sipping while preventing straws from polluting the environment. 5: Go for Meatless Mondays! Cows and other animals use a massive amount of resources in the United States, as well as release an unsustainable amount of carbon dioxide. To help decrease demand, you don’t need to be vegetarian for life, just once a week! Feel free to increase the number of days if it suits you.
We hope this inspires you to make your family’s lifestyle a little more sustainable! Have a wonderful April, friends.
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