Intuitive Eating Versus Mindful Eating - Which is Better?

The health and fitness industry is filled with buzzwords. One of the current hot buzzwords is “intuitive eating.”

I honestly think that this is pretty much the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Think about it. How the heck do you “intuitively” eat?

Related - Death to Cheat Meals, Clean Eating and Pleasure Deprivation

The definition of intuition is this: “a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning.” Well, my instinct is to eat chocolate all day while lounging on my beat-up couch and watching Orange County Housewives.

That is how my instincts work.

I subconsciously reach for chips while I am eating Mexican. Does that mean it's “intuitive eating” because I am not even thinking about it? I honestly think that a better catchphrase is “mindful eating.”

Some of us think about food 24/7 and when I think about it in terms of eating for my goals, then it becomes more focused.

Here are some tips to become a mindful eater.

Tips for Better Mindful Eating

Tip #1. Think about your goals

What do you want to accomplish over the next year that is going to make you feel good, get you to your goals of either lifting more or looking better?

Be specific, make it time-sensitive and write it down, for God's sake. Writing it down makes it that much more real.

Tip #2. Make choices that won't make you cry

I hate that people eat stuff they don’t want to in the name of “dieting.” I have a shorter shelf life than most and I am just not doing it.

What I do though, is try to make my favorites healthier. Cake. Cake is my downfall. So, I have it EVERY DAY.

I do this by making a healthier option. Hence, I eat protein cake.

Tip #3. Don’t let it get weird

If you have to tell everyone that you are a mindful eater, its annoying.

Keep it to yourself. Don’t be that person that makes others feel bad for getting the extra cheese and meat lasagne with a side of a loaf of bread.

Stay in your lane. Do you, boo. Don’t regale others unless they are genuinely interested.

Tip #4. Eat better to feel better

Duh. No earth-shattering information here.

I have found that I love mangos with chili and lime on top. I would not have tried it if I wasn’t trying to eat more whole foods. Plus, I like to eat more.

The more you see on my plate, the bigger my smile is. Volume makes me happy.

Tip #5. Don't be afraid to try new things

Whether its a new way of eating, or just making better choices, you don’t know until you try it. Something “healthy” may look gross, but it may not be.

I love trying new restaurants that have different, healthy options so I can try new things.

Tip #6. Do as I say, not as I do

Mindful eating means to be mindful. The premise is to get away from tracking and know what is good for your body and what makes you feel like crap or gain weight.

I have yet to do this after seven years. You may say “wow, you don’t trust yourself.” You would be absolutely correct.

I am a chronic sabotager of myself (hence the little bout of morbid obesity), and tracking helps me stay on the straight and narrow. You need to do what makes you feel right inside.

I do take a break from it when I find I am looking at it all the time, or that I am making it weird for others.

Final Thoughts

This mindful eating thing is meant to make you not obsess about food, know what feels good for your body and for you to meet your goals. I find this a much better definition than “intuitive eating” because most of the time, our head lies to us.

If we are mindful, we are concentrating on HOW we are eating and it can be a good benchmark for us to know our body a little better.

Happy eating!