Planning vs intuitive eating

[Queen Bean]

i appreciate the concepts of listening to your body, following intuition when eating, eating when you're hungry...etc etc...

the problem is, when i follow this approach...i don't tend to eat much, so end up losing weight fast...

i feel it is better for me to plan my meals the night before...but feel this isn't the optimal way to eat raw...ie too intellectual, not instinctive.

i've been trying to succeed at raw for twenty years (started at 17...am now 37)... i can't give up cooked completely for social reasons at this point, but have the capacity to stick to raw a lot of the time, and have many 100% days...but it's still not working for me fully...

any advice?

[klomasius]

What about a mixture of both?

I mostly eat intuitively, but I love my raw gourmet too. They are just usually on separate days (with a little intuitive eating on the gourmet day too).

There's no reason why the two should be mutually exclusive, you could eat what your body wants to eat then top it up with more calorie dense smoothies or handfulls of nuts or an avocado, or a calorie dense raw dish.

I do find however that my intuitive eating covers all my nutrient and calorie needs these days, I just eat gourmet cos I love it.

Hope you find the answer you're looking for. :D

[Queen Bean]

thanks klomasius...

my digestion seems to be quite weak, that's why i can't eat much...

and i have a lot of classes late at night...so often eat late...ie around ten...cooked food if i haven't eaten enough raw...or if raw nuts and a lara bar (sometimes salad)...and then the next day i can't eat much...i feel like i can't eat more than a piece of fruit for breakfast and a juice for lunch...

i envy your wonderful approach to raw food...

i do take enzymes, probiotics, chlorella sporadically...

[jesslcochran]

I tend to do a bit of both. When I make a raw dish I make more than I need. I put the left overs in the fridge. Then I'll eat them if I crave them or something like them or if I want to eat something but don't want to make anything. etc.

I prefer intuitive eating but I'm not very good at that because when I'm hungry I rarely know what I want. lol

*hugs*
Jess

[Gaius]

I pretty sure that this lifestyle is more about intuition than anything. I mean, one of the disadvantages of the SAD diet is that you spent so much time thinking about what to eat and it really is pointless to do so. People should be treating food as fuel, playing it by ear.

One of the things I like about this diet is that I don't have to think about where to go and get some takeout or something. I feel free to just go to the corner store and grab some produce. I don't spend time preparing food at all, and I spend more time reading or doing something productive instead of obsessing about what would be more delicious to eat.

[Queen Bean]

thanks jesslcochran

gaius...i so wish i could be like you. but when i eat intuitively, i tend to follow the path of least resistance... i'm lazy... and then after a few days i look and feel unbalanced... aaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh... i don't eat enough calories...or end up eating a lot of nuts to compensate...

[Cerellia]

I don't think, I could fully rely on my intution, if i did, I would eat pineapples and mangos all day :D
And don't even know whether I should believe in the theory of "eating instinct" (I can't help associating it with a European raw foodist sect who justifys their consumption of raw meat with this theory). I mean, in nature, we would very rarely have the choice between different meals. One eats what is there and as much as there is.

[apb1172]

thanks jesslcochran

gaius...i so wish i could be like you. but when i eat intuitively, i tend to follow the path of least resistance... i'm lazy... and then after a few days i look and feel unbalanced... aaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh... i don't eat enough calories...or end up eating a lot of nuts to compensate...

If that is the case QB, then are you REALLY eating intuitivley? Intuitive eating to me sounds like you are listening to your body's signals and giving it what it tells you it needs. You sound like you are more just not planning and letting the chips fall where they may. Intuitive eating shouldn't leave you looking and feeling unbalanced.

Perhaps more planning is what you need until you can really hear what your body is telling you.

I would also suggest giving up the idea that there is an optimal way to eat raw and embrace that there is an optimal way for YOU to eat raw. Clearly right now, intuitive eating is not optimal for you. Take a step back, give yourself a break and think of other ways to approach eating raw that will give you more benefits than the way you are eating now is giving you.

[Queen Bean]

Cerellia...yeah...sorry about the instinctavore connotation... Blech! When I decide what I eat each day, I suppose there is some use of intuition and some intellect. And intuition in terms of how much of something I eat when I eat it.

apb1172...good advice... i've tried 'listening to my body', asking my body what it wants before a meal, eating when hungry until full (i'd sometimes get skinny and not eat enough because i never felt really hungry, or stuffing myself because i didn't feel full or satisfied)...blah blah...basically i've tried everything. i'm scared of not getting balanced nutrition, that's why i feel that i must plan. maybe, because i'm still keeping some cooked food in my diet, i can't fully tune in. i feel i need to eat some cooked for social reasons, but do have the capacity to eat only one or two cooked meals a week and stay raw for the rest of the time... but if i'm not faring well on raw food, i eat more cooked. i can be very disciplined when i'm convinced of something...if not...i have no rules...

now i think of it, there does seem some degree of planning in most raw foodists diets, even if it's something like 'i must have a green smoothie each day' or 'i prefer to only eat fruit in the morning' or 'i need to eat a large salad with sprouts each day'...

[Raw Angel Mom]

What about starting weight lifting? You will automatically be more hungry, and will gain weight.

It is good that you don't have much appetite because it has been found by research that it activate the gene of rejuvenation.

I wouldn't be religious about this. If you want to plan do so, if you don't then don't worry about this. I do planning but, it is still something that i feel like anyway.

I don't make much raw gourmet anymore because i am busy and i enjoy my smoothie and a quick salad at night (Not necessary a green salad, it could be sweet potato salad, avocados etc...). I love having lunch with just whole food such fresh strawberries, or red pepper, or tomato or whatever i can buy fresh.

Hope you find your answers!

[Raw Joy]

If I don't plan at all, I end up without something to eat, or hungry when I don't expect to be, and then eat whatever is around, or don't eat at all. So I loosely plan, but if I want something different when the time comes to eat, I change.

So I fix a salad or a smoothie, or make sure I have the ingredients for what I planned. Then when it comes times to eat, if I don't feel like my salad, I take a minute to see what sounds good, and then go with apples and almond butter. If I planned on apples and nut butter, but that doesn't sound good, I may go with watermelon.

I do try to keep fruit and veggies around, even at work, so I'll have a choice, And if all else fails, I still have what I planned handy so I can always eat it rather than SAD.