Intuitive Eating sounds great and all but what if I really do need to lose weight? Many people feel this way, and you are not alone. There are answers! In today’s video, I will help you rectify your need to lose weight and to still be an intuitive eater.
I am Laura Cragun and I’m an Intuitive Eating and Mental Health Coach I help Latter-day Christian women ditch diets, find body acceptance, and discover food freedom so they can have more purpose beyond their bodies.
And if you like my content and would like to support my channel, I’d really appreciate it if you would like this video and subscribe.
So I’ve had a lot of people ask me this – “what if I do need to lose weight?” They have good intentions in asking this! They have been told by doctors, have seen studies, and unfortunately have been told by society that they need to lose this extra because it could be a problem and detrimental to their health.
So let me tell you an actual example. I had someone tell me they have a hard time accepting intuitive eating because intuitive eating teaches that losing weight may or may not happen. And that part of it is true!
You will have to accept that fact as part of it. A powerful coaching question that I ask is “what if you don’t lose the weight? Would you still do intuitive eating?” And every single time that someone still chooses to do intuitive eating? They trust the process and they do it so that they can feel good.
But to go further with this question, if you feel like you still need to lose weight, is that people may say that they need to lose weight because they have no energy, and they always feel better in the past when they have lost weight before.
But have you considered this? That maybe you felt better because you finally accepted yourself? When we stop having that internal battle with ourselves, we will have more mental energy and physical energy. If you lose weight with conventional diet, so that you can finally feel better for a time, go against your genetic blueprint and eat and exercise in a way that is not fitting to you.
It will not last!
But God gave you a body that is fully equipped to feel good in its own shape and size. Now it is up to you to respect and accept this. I have a powerful video coming out soon that will explain more in detail of how to respect your body, even when you don’t love it.
But going back to the question, What if I feel like I need to lose weight? Let’s peel back more of the WHY you feel like you need to lose weight.
We are conditioned in our culture that losing weight will help with conditions such as pre-diabetes, inflammation, fatigue, et cetera. And the fact of the matter is losing weight may or may not. I can’t predict that. And neither can you and neither can many of these studies that have been faulty.
In the past, people have lost weight and have felt better. Of course, there is a ton of evidence for this out there saying that losing weight may help, but intuitive eating has shown to have the best and most evidence for sustainable good health. There have been over 175 studies that prove this all on intuitive eating and how it helps us. , it has come a long way in the 30 years since this modality has first come out.
I won’t go through all the details, but if you want to learn more and want to read the actual case, I would suggest the book “Anti Die”t and “Health at Every Size”. I was amazed by the results and evidence shown in these books about how intuitive is the best way for our health.
Traditional diets out there have so many repercussions mentally and physically. For example, in keto, you eliminate a whole macronutrient. Intermittent fasting, using the clock to tell you when you’re hungry. Clean eating diets, where you put morality on certain foods and et cetera. The list goes on and on.
And as a testimonial of a past client of mine, I have coached people who have been considered severely overweight, and I use quotes because I really hate that term. But I’m only using it for this context here. But it helped them! They had more energy first and foremost. And as a bonus, they did lose some weight and their pants didn’t fit so tight. They never weighed themselves, of course, because that’s the first step when you start intuitive eating (to throw away your scale). But the most important thing here is that she felt better and she had more energy, and that is the greatest commodity of all.
Now, when we’re talking about weight, let’s talk about something called “set point weight”. That is a term that we use a lot in intuitive eating. We don’t weigh ourselves, but there is a term called set point weight that helps us understand that we all have a biological control method within our bodies. That is an actively done process in our bodies that keeps us at a certain healthy weight
It’s really a predetermined set wait for each individual. It’s where our body likes to naturally be without diet or restriction. It is our happy and healthy weight, and it looks different for every person, and it varies between five to 15 pounds, the set point weight, but we don’t weigh ourselves. It just depends on the seasons and times that you’re in that you range from that number.
We achieve this set point weight more and more when we practice intuitive eating. I found that for myself, I have been the same size, give or take through these stressors and seasons of my life over these past couple of years since I’ve been in recovery from my eating disorders.
Sometimes I still have Dejavu and thoughts come to me. Things trigger me that feel like I should maybe be a different size or weight. I work through those thoughts! I know I’m human and I move forward as part of being a normal human being in this thin obsessed world.
I have also had a neighbor who is naturally an intuitive eater all her life, and she has been the same size, give or take for the past 10 years. She has accomplished so much good in our ward and in our neighborhood, and people love her. That is the WHY behind everything I teach here. We want to do this all to find more purpose beyond our bodies and have the energy to do so.
So let’s get you there. There’s so much more to life.
I’m going to make this easier for you to help you start this journey with intuitive eating and to come to peace with yourself with my own FREE Guide, called the Beginner’s Guide to Intuitive Eating. It’s sent straight to your email with five simple steps on how to start.
You can find it at latterdayintuitive.com/beginnersguide.
So if you’re looking for a simple way just to start this, this is your answer, my friend. So click below And I will have that guide sent straight over to you.
So if you like this video, watch my previous video, “Intuitive Eating When You Are So Stressed” to learn my simple strategies on how to manage your stress and really change your life around and intuitively.
But thank you for watching today and I hope to see you next. Bye!
xo,
Laura