A core idea of traditional intuitive eating, is that your body only tells you what it wants, in the moment that it wants it.

While dieters live in a world where everything is planned — the “plan” always goes awry because plans don’t take into consideration your body OR mind’s changing needs.

It’s impossible to know if your body will be “craving” meat or pasta three days in advance.

It’s impossible to know if your boyfriend is going to surprise you with breakfast in bed this weekend.

It’s impossible to know if you’re just plain old gonna be in the mood for something different than you think.

Not to mention, your body’s needs change constantly based on a million factors — like what you already ate that day or week, where you’re at in your cycle, the weather, everything affects your body.

That being said, we do live in a world where some planning is required…

We have to buy groceries in advance,
We have to make plans for social dinners and other meals,
We have to make time to cook,
We’re not always in control of what we’re served.

We can’t follow the instantaneous queues of our bodies at every moment of every day.

Women often ask me how to handle these situations, and I have to remind them, intuitive eating is an amazing tool to bring your body back into the conversation around food, but it’s not meant to rule with an iron fist.

Let’s combine the wisdom of mind and body (I call this true intuition). After all, we have both for a reason.

If I have dinner plans at a restaurant, and I’m not that hungry, maybe I’ll have a cup of soup instead of Steak Frites;

If my boyfriend makes me meat and potatoes for dinner, I still get to decide how much of each I want to eat.