In honor of the 100th episode of the Feed Your Soul with Kim Podcast, we asked our community (all of you) to submit your questions. Let’s see what you all want to know.
1) What are your thoughts on intermittent fasting?
This question is very timely with the rise of intermittent fasting.
These are two different approaches to eating.
First, intuitive eating is all about tuning in to your body’s natural signals and cultivating a healthy relationship with food.
Intuitive eating encourages you to listen to your hunger and fullness cues, honor your cravings, and find pleasure in eating.
It’s a mindful and flexible approach that emphasizes self-compassion and body acceptance.
On the other hand, intermittent fasting involves cycling between periods of eating and fasting. This method has gained popularity for its reported potential benefits. However, it’s important to examine intermittent fasting through an intuitive eating lens to understand its compatibility with this mindset.
From an intuitive eating perspective, it’s crucial to consider the underlying motivations behind utilizing intermittent fasting.
Are you doing it to listen to your body’s needs?
To feel more connected to your hunger and fullness signals?
Or are you using it as a tool for restriction or weight control?
The problem with intermittent fasting is it requires you eat during a certain time block, say 8 hours during the day and then not eat for 16 hours.
Some individuals may naturally gravitate to a time-restricted eating pattern, based on their hunger/fullness.
Intuitive eating promotes individualization and flexibility.
You are encouraged to trust your body’s wisdom rather than adhering strictly to external rules or prescribed eating patterns.
I ask my clients to consider the questions:
Does this feel like a diet?
Are you restricting food?
Do you eat when you are hungry?
An action step is to take a deep breath and listen to your body’s wisdom for what you need next.
What feels intuitively right for you?
It takes trust and embracing your own needs and values not based on a societal norm of restriction.
2) How can I have a day-to-day approach to my relationship with food focused on living life versus weight loss?
Imagine that you can wake up every day feeling empowered AND embrace food. To have the ability to make food choices from the needs of your body, rather than relying on what a diet guru tells you to do. Have a sense of peace in your relationship with food.
First, let’s look at breaking away from constant dieting and embrace a new perspective. I know this takes work, but there is a need to end the pursuit of weight loss and instead, focus on nourishing your body, listening to your body’s cues and look for food satisfaction.
This is a mindset shift that begins to lead you to food freedom.
Intuitive eating encourages you to trust your body’s innate wisdom.
Instead of rigid meal plans or calorie counting, listen to your hunger and fullness signals.
Take a moment to pause and ask yourself,
Am I hungry?
What foods would truly satisfy my cravings?
How can I honor my body’s signals and cue to eat?
Second, let’s look at food pleasure. Food is meant to be enjoyed, savored, and celebrated. Give yourself permission to experience and enjoy the flavors, textures, and aromas of food.
A simple question to ask is, “Am I enjoying this food?”
Incorporating intuitive eating into your life takes a mindful approach. This can seem like a daunting task since others often discuss their latest diet.
Here are some ideas to incorporate intuitive eating:
Surround yourself with a supportive community that champions intuitive eating.
Seek out resources, books, or podcasts that inspire and educate you about intuitive eating.
Get a supportive counselor, coach or registered dietitian who specializes in intuitive eating, guiding you on your journey towards food freedom.
It is critical to remember that this is not an overnight fix.
You do have the power to eat intuitively and enjoy your relationship with food.
3) “How can I reframe my ideas about food and nourishment to make overall well-being a priority rather than weight loss?”
It can be tough to look at food as nourishment when we are often taught to limit food and calories. It is a bold step to look at food as nourishment and part of our overall wellness (without restricting).
Start by appreciating the nourishment provided, the energy it instills, and the pleasure it brings to taste buds. It’s time to shift our focus from numbers on a scale to determine what health and wellness might look to each of us.
How do we start this movement from weight loss to food as nourishment?
Ask yourself…
How can I honor my body, nurture it with nourishing foods that support my well-being?
How can I savor each bite, finding joy in the flavors and textures that bring me happiness?
How can I support myself fully mind/body/spirit?
It’s through these inquiries that we pave the way for a new, empowering perspective.
Start by challenging the status quo of diet culture. The diet industry makes a lot of money off us being brainwashed that we must be a certain weight to be accepted, healthy, and worthy.
Let’s get into action by examining your relationship to dieting, diets, and weight loss.
How did you get to the spot?
This self-reflection can lead you to question more of your mindset around food AND what you have been taught.
When we were little, we knew what to eat, how much, and when. We lost track of this inner knowledge a long time ago. Dieting takes us out of this inner knowing.
I know it can feel scary to think of being on your own with food. Seek out support. You do not have to do this alone.
4) What is intuitive eating and how can it help me develop a healthier relationship with food?
Intuitive eating is not another diet fad or quick fix. It’s a totally different way of looking at food, weight, bodies, emotions, and mindset around food.
Truthfully, it is about listening to your body’s internal cues, utilizing your body’s hunger and fullness signals, and making food choices from a place of what you really need.
First, intuitive eating is not restrictive, and it relies on your ability to determine your body needs at any point in time.
It can be scary to trust your body’s signals, pleasure, and satisfaction.
We tune inside of ourselves to listen to physical hunger and emotional hunger. We, also, tune into what foods will satisfy us.
The goal is to heal your relationship with food, by ending shame/guilt and the cycle of restriction and binging.
Second, intuitive eating is not just about the food; it is about your whole being: mind, body, and spirit. It’s a transformative journey that ripples into every aspect of your life.
Third, the path to intuitive eating is to:
Start listening to your body.
Follow your body’s signals.
Release external rules.
Look for a supportive group that embraces intuitive eating.
Remember, we are looking for a relationship with food that is nourishing, peaceful, and totally free from guilt.
It is important to consult with a qualified healthcare professional or registered dietitian who can guide you in making informed decisions about your eating habits. They can help you navigate the potential benefits and considerations of intermittent fasting and how it aligns with your overall well-being goals.
It’s time to unlock a new way of being with food. Embrace a more sustainable approach to eating that empowers you to end emotional eating and rediscover peace with food.
This is your moment to make a difference in your own life. Move out of the never-ending cycle of dieting, losing weight, gaining weight, and feeling bad about yourself.
The dieting mindset is ever present in our society.
It is socially expected, even in families, to diet when we have gained weight, when we overeat, or we do not like how our bodies look.
The way out of this diet cycle is to get back in touch with your body (you knew how to eat when you were born).
We were trained by the enormous diet machine (hello $276 billion dollar diet industry) to continue to hate ourselves and how we look.
I help my clients recognize the power of diets in their lives.
We look at their history of dieting.
It is a powerful tool to explore the question- do diets really work?
One assignment I have for my clients is to write down:
How many diets you have been on?
How successful were you?
How old were you when you started?
Who encouraged you?
Why did you start?
The answers to these questions can give you some powerful information about your experience in diet culture.
After you look at your history of dieting, the next important clue is to look at what part emotions play in your overeating.
Truthfully, much of overeating can be correlated with emotions.
Food has become a way of soothing yourself and feeling better.
The problem is food is not meant to be your ongoing tool to feel better or to self-sooth.
In general, when you overeat and emotionally eat, you start dieting. Dieting has been the only option we have been told about.
Moving from diet to diet to take care of our emotions. You might feel good at first when you are losing weight, but that does not last, AND it is not the way to manage feelings.
What you need is to learn what emotions are trying to tell you. How can you do that?
Name the feelings.
Embrace what the feelings are telling you.
Utilize proven techniques to deal with your emotions.
My clients become able to recognize their feelings and name them. They see how powerful this is and it then helps them to then decide what to do (rather than overeating). The way to move through sadness can be very different than if we are angry. Learning and using your personal ways to move through feelings is critical and moves food out of the position of taking care of feelings.
One exercise you can do is to look at what feelings are leading you to overeat.
A second exercise is to make a list of what can help you when those feelings show up (and they always do).
Another critical area to look at along with diet mindset and emotional eating is what are your thoughts telling you.
Recognizing the thoughts that lead you to overeat is critical.
People allow their thoughts to go unchecked.
Learn what your thoughts are that get you off track and lead you to overeat.
Getting a handle and understanding my thoughts has been a gamechanger for me, in terms of overeating. I used to have a thought about eating and I would ruminate on food. In the end I thought I had no other choice than to overeat. The thought in my head said, “You know you are going to eat it, just do it and get it over with.”
I work with my clients to lessen their negative thoughts. Here are some questions to consider:
What thoughts lead you to overeat?
What do you do to lessen those thoughts?
What can you do to pivot off those thoughts?
I know about overeating, shame, weight issues, and feeling out of control with food.
When will you take an approach that has long term success? If you don’t start now, then when? How many times have you put yourself on the back burner?
Now is the time.
Imagine what it would be like to wake up and not wonder what you will eat for the day.
Eating food when you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied.
Ending your day and not sitting on the couch and binge.
Join us for the Solution…
I want to invite you to Emotional Eating Solutions, an 8-week self-paced program that takes you through the 6 core components that help you embrace Intuitive Eating.
If you have tried diet after diet and still feel out of control with food, this is the place for you.
You are going to join at the best time, because we are starting a LIVE round of the program. This means you can go through the course at your pace AND get 8 weeks of support and coaching from me live.
Sign up now and get started with the added BONUS of the LIVE round. This is an incredible time to join the program because you will get support with food through the holidays! We start the LIVE round in October.
Taking care of our wellness is critical in achieving our goals and ensuring our well-being. As we embrace National Wellness Month, we are reminded of the importance of self-care and finding balance in our daily lives.
National Wellness Month offers a chance for individuals and organizations to focus on wellness goals and explore ways to enhance health and happiness. This is a time to create routines, make healthier choices, and practice self-care.
There are many ways to move into wellness. Here are three essential ideas to help you on your wellness journey.
First, start to prioritize Self-Care.
Self-care is crucial in enhancing our overall well-being, but it can be challenging to make time for it in our busy lives. Taking care of yourself helps to reduce stress, improve moods, and increase energy levels. Self-care can take many forms, and it is up to you to decide what works for you.
Start with asking yourself:
“What is my form of self-care?”
Your needs for self-care are different than other’s needs. Make self-care a priority by setting aside time each day (preferably) or week for activities that nourish your body and mind.
This week my daughter started back to school, and my schedule is now changing, and I am relooking at where self-care will fit into my day. I have begun a more regimented morning routine. I am focusing on some quiet time and fun time with my daily Wordle.
Second, see where you are with your nutrition.
The food we eat plays a vital role in our overall health and wellness. In intuitive eating we call it Gentle Nutrition.
What you eat influences how you feel and the energy you have during the day.
When I focus on intuitive eating, I am more centered in my body and what it needs. I make decisions about my food that is right for me and my body.
We have been taught over the years not to pay attention to what our bodies tell us to eat, but to look to an external force (diet) to tell us what our right food is. Limitations of types of food set us up to binge and overeat. Check inside and see what your right foods are.
By focusing on gentle nutrition, we can power our bodies and minds to achieve wellness.
Third, make movement a habit.
Exercise is crucial in enhancing our physical AND mental health. It can improve our cardiovascular health, reduce stress, and boost energy levels. I like to call it movement, since there is a cultural idea that exercise should be hard.
It can be challenging to move your body regularly, so start small. Consider taking a walk in the morning or evening or incorporating yoga or stretching into your daily routine.
I have found it is critical to find an activity that I enjoy. When I like the movement, I will do it more often and more regularly. I had read that weight training was good for the body and increases our body capacity as we age.
That sounded good to me.
Over the last year I have engaged in regular weightlifting, and I find I enjoy it, so I do it more often.
Movement is a not to be missed part of your wellness but find what your form of movement is.
In conclusion, National Wellness Month offers us a chance to focus on our wellness goals. It is a reminder that we must come first in our day.
Prioritizing self-care, focusing on nutrition, and making movement a habit are essential ideas to promote a wellness path.
Remember to take small steps each day and find what works for you. Achieving wellness is not an end point, but a journey towards wellness.
I encourage you to have this month be a reminder to embrace wellness in all its many forms.
You have probably heard that play is important. Truthfully playfulness IS self-care.
Engaging in play and fun activities are necessary for your overall mental and physical wellbeing. Not only will it help to reduce stress levels, but it can also improve the quality of life.
First, you need to determine what is playful AND self-care.
Determining what constitutes fun and self-care is a personal exploration, but here are three ideas to help guide you:
1.Experiment: Try different activities and observe how they make you feel. Do you feel rejuvenated after a yoga session or does painting bring out your inner joy?
What do others do that you have wondered about? Maybe there is some deep desire to try it out. Go ahead and experiment with this new form of play.
Remember, what works for others might not work for you, but then again, it might!
2.Self-reflection: Spend time thinking about what truly makes you happy. Self-care isn’t always about relaxation; sometimes, it can be about pursuing a passion or hobby that you love.
I encourage people to think back on what they used to like to do when they were younger. I LOVED being at the beach and swimming when I was younger. This is still my go-to fun/self-care activity.
3.Balance: Try to strike a balance between activities that are calming and those that are energizing. For instance, reading a book might relax you, while a dance class might invigorate you. The key to effective self-care is maintaining this balance.
Make your list a variety of calming and energizing experiences. This can match your self-care needs at different times.
Remember, there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to fun and self-care. It’s a personal journey that depends entirely on what makes you feel fulfilled, relaxed, and recharged at that time. Go ahead, explore, and discover what makes you feel enlivened!
Second, how do you make time for playful activities when life is so busy?
The answer is simple: start small and be consistent. Here are some tips to help you get started:
1.Make a list of what you like to do for fun. It might feel hard to determine what you like to do for fun, because it has been hard to even determine what you would like to do.
When our lives are out of balance with a long to-do list, thinking about play and self-care are low on the list (if they are even on the list).
I have a list of 100 items that are on my bucket list to do or try. I add to the list when there is something fun that comes to my attention.
2.Make a schedule and stick to it – set aside time each week for fun activities. It doesn’t matter how much time it is, even if it’s only 15 minutes. The important thing is that you make time for yourself.
I promise you have at least 15 minutes to engage in some fun activities.
3.Create mini-challenges throughout the day – challenge yourself to do something fun for a few minutes each day. This could be playing a game, listening to music, watching a movie, doing some yoga, or anything else that you enjoy!
When you begin to just add in play, it can become more natural to be in the mindset of increasing play.
4.Find support – reach out to friends and family members who are also trying to make time for play and self-care activities. You can join online communities or find a local group dedicated to play and fun activities (there are many meetups that focus on play).
This way, you can make sure that you have someone who is holding you accountable.
Lastly, why is it so critical to engage in more play for self-care?
Engaging in play and fun activities isn’t just an escape from your busy schedule, it also stimulates your mind in unique and innovative ways. Whether you’re painting, playing a board game, or gardening, these activities can spur creativity, and make a positive impact on your brain and enhance problem-solving skills.
This creative rejuvenation can prove beneficial in many areas of your life, including work and personal relationships. Not only do these activities provide immediate enjoyment, but they also contribute to your overall brain functioning and emotional support.
Take the time for yourself today and make sure that you’re taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. It’s important for our overall health that we make time for play and fun activities!
Remember: it’s okay to put yourself first — no matter how busy life gets. You deserve a break and the chance to play and have some fun. Take that step today and give yourself permission to enjoy life!
It will make all the difference in your overall wellbeing.
I’m calling this season SummerSoul, because I want to be more soulful this summer. A SummerSoul means you are refocusing on yourself and your needs and what makes you fully happy.
Summertime is often thought of as a carefree and relaxed season, but for many of us, it can be anything but those things. The warmer weather, school break, and family vacations and expectations can make it challenging to balance everything.
It’s easy to get caught up in the summer frenzy and forget about taking care of yourself and setting boundaries.
SummerSoul meants we are prioritizing self-care and boundaries during the summer months, which is crucial for maintaining your mental and physical well-being.
Let’s talk about HOW you can prioritize self-care and set healthy boundaries during the SummerSoul.
First, schedule “Me Time” regularly this SummerSoul
One of the best things you can do for yourself is to schedule regular “me time.” It can be a walk by yourself, a relaxing bubble bath, or a night out with friends. SummerSoul means you are carving out time for yourself.
It can be easy to let your self-care fall by the wayside. You may feel guilty for taking time away from your obligations. However, caring for yourself should never be viewed as a selfish act. It’s essential to prioritize your mental and emotional health. Find a time that works for you AND schedule it on your calendar, just like you would with any other important obligation.
I have been using my Summer Bucket List to help me focus on what I want to prioritize this summer. I have been on my Stand-Up Paddle Board, going on a Ferry ride AND getting to the beach. *Get your Summer Bucket List here.
Second, establish boundaries with others.
Boundaries are crucial for maintaining your physical and emotional well-being. It’s easy to take on too much and neglect your boundaries. You may find yourself saying yes to everything, whether it’s a work obligation or a social event. While it’s great to be involved and active, saying yes to everything can lead to burnout and resentment.
Try to establish clear boundaries. Be honest with yourself and those around you about what you can and cannot handle. SummerSoul means you are saying yes to what you want and no to everything else.
I have been focusing on saying no when something does not fit for me. It is difficult, but I have been more satisfied with how I spend my time.
Third, plan ahead for YOUR SummerSoul.
Planning ahead can be a game-changer when it comes to balancing everything over the summer. Whether it’s meal planning, organizing your work schedule, or planning family activities, having a plan in place can alleviate stress and make things run more smoothly.
During the summer months, it’s crucial to plan ahead for childcare, work obligations, and family vacations. Take some time to set goals and create a plan that works for you and your family.
I have been putting in all of mine and my family’s activities on the calendar to make sure we get all the SummerSoul in that we can. I know what gets scheduled gets done!
Fourth, delegate responsibilities to others.
Recognize that you can’t do everything yourself. It’s okay to ask for help and delegate responsibilities like:
Asking your partner or kids to take on more household chores.
Requesting your boss to delegate work tasks to others.
Seeing if another parent can take over a volunteer task.
Freeing up some time and energy can make a world of difference. Delegation doesn’t mean you’re weak or incapable; it means you’re a responsible and proactive individual who recognizes the importance of balance.
I asked my daughter to do more around the house, since she is out of school. This frees me up to do more for myself.
Fifth, stay present in the moment.
Finally, it’s crucial to stay present and enjoy the little moments during SummerSoul. While it’s essential to take care of yourself and set boundaries, it’s also important to enjoy the time with your family and friends.
Focus on being present and engaged in the moment, whether it’s watching your child’s baseball game or enjoying a family vacation. It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of daily life, but taking a step back and appreciating the small moments is key to a happy and fulfilling summer.
Truly experiencing a SummerSoul can be challenging. However, prioritizing self-care and setting healthy boundaries are crucial for maintaining your physical and emotional well-being. Scheduling “me time,” establishing boundaries, planning ahead, delegating responsibilities, and staying present are all essential to achieve balance and reduce stress.
Remember, taking care of yourself is not selfish, but necessary for a happy and fulfilling life. By prioritizing self-care and setting boundaries, you can enjoy all that the SummerSoul season has to offer.
We talk even more about SummerSoul on the Feed Your Soul with Kim Podcast. Have a listen to this episode here.
