Intuitive Eating

Sorry for my absence the last two days. I've had a bunch of stuff come up all at once. That's always how it goes, right?

The other day I discussed my snacking habits and now I want to discuss what intuitive eating means to me. In a perfect world, I would say that intuitive eating means eating when I feel hungry. The world is not perfect though and sometimes it is necessary to eat when I don't feel hungry. Some people disagree with this idea. But here's my case in point.

On Monday I was finally able to return to the gym after my surgery. I was very excited to do so and headed there right after work. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and then took a BodyPump class. It felt so good. Except that I was starving about 10 minutes into BodyPump. Why? Because I did not eat anything before I went to the gym at 4:30 and had not eaten since 11:30 when I had lunch. I hadn't felt hungry before going, but I should have anticipated that I would be hungry and eaten a few bites of something substantial to keep me energized.  I dion't need a snack if I'm not going to the gym, but I do need a snack if I am going to the gym.

In a situation like this, intuitive eating means anticipating future hunger and eating prior to actually feeling hunger because that is better for the body. My body struggled through BodyPump with zero fuel and it would have worked more efficiently during the class had it been fueled properly.

In the opposite situation, hunger can be ok. If I feel hungry and it's not time to eat yet, it is ok to feel hungry until the meal. I am not talking about an extended length of time, but rather 30 minutes to an hour. For example, if it is 11:00 in the morning and I am hungry, but I cannot take lunch at work until 11:30, it is ok to wait to eat until 11:30. 30 minutes of hunger will not kill me. I actually used to eat a snack if I felt hungry in this situation. I'd grab a yogurt or a piece of fruit. But I just ended up eating more than I probably needed in that way since I would still eat my lunch 30 minutes later. For me, it just is not necessary to eat as soon as I feel hunger. I can wait a bit and that is ok.

Those are my two key points to intuitive eating besides, you know, actually eating when I am hungry. What does intuitive eating mean to you and your body? How have you adapted the concept so that it fits you? Do the adaptations means that it is no longer intuitive eating?