Lawd, I received so many amazing responses when I asked you for your 3 gratitudes! Thank YOU. I have been reading them all week, and admittedly, I’ve gotten a little teary-eyed at times. I am slowly making my way through and responding to all of them, so thank you for being patient!

This week on Snapchat, I am sharing a ton of my own #moderation365 meals, snacks, preemptive cheats, etc. (add me at username xjillfitx). I was hesitant at first because we all know that the way I eat doesn’t matter for you (because you are you).

But.

I still think there is a ton of confusion around HOW to eat moderately.

After a brief survey on Twitter, I found that a lot of people still think, “everything in moderation” is both cliché (so it has lost its impact) and also that it also denotes permission to eat a bunch of crap.

Listen, if you want to eat a ton of junk food in the amounts that you want, go for it, I aint gonna be mad. In fact, I think so long as indulgences are conscious choices and can be had without the guilt and remorse later, then to each their own. When you make a food choice via conscious decision-making and then own it, it changes the game.

But the higher-level problem I see is that people even need to feel permission (from a diet book, expert, plan, me, Dr. Oz, whoever) outside of themselves. I have discussed the idea of looking “out there” for the next, biggest secret—and that the secret is … there is no secret, it’s all inside of you—the intelligence to understand your body, to listen to it, to find what will work for you long-term and the trust that you need to feel safe and in control.

However, the idea that you just “listen to your body” or “eat intuitively” is admittedly infuriating. Even though it’s something I actually practice, I still cringe when I hear that advice given and then left at that.

Okay, but HOWWWWWW???

How do you listen to your body? How do you eat intuitively?

Of course it’s a practice, but as is my way, I want to give you one small tool that helped me make a pivotal mindset shift around my food:

And I’m about to teach you how.

Learning to not live and die by a clock is one super important, and often overlooked part of making the switch from all-or-nothing yo-yo dieter to what I call a more “automated eater”—someone who eats #moderation365 and doesn’t stress about food.

This was a huge first step for me in my journey.

I remember the old Meal Plan Days at JillFit. We’d prescribe a meal plan and literally write out “7am: eat this,” and “10am: then eat this,” and “1pm: now this,” etc., so most of our clients were eating every 3 hours on the dot, 5-7 times a day.

Though I don’t believe in regret, I am certainly happy to have moved away from that. Why? Because telling someone what time to eat a meal actually takes them further away from understanding their body’s own signals.

In many ways, we were making women (me included!) more neurotic, dependent and less able to think for themselves. I won’t say stupider, but in a way, yes, because telling someone to eat at very specific times without consideration of their levels of hunger, cravings, satisfaction or fullness is extremely shortsighted and straight-up poor coaching. It takes the ownership off them and puts it on some random plan that they need to be 100% reliant on.

Sure, you might have a specific lunchtime at your job that you can’t get away from. But what about your snacks, breakfast, dinner? Do you not have some wiggle room where mindfulness can be practiced?

To begin, another word for “listen to your body” is mindfulness. So really, this is a mindfulness practice.

Instead of eating at the time you have on your plan (or ingrained in your mind), I want you to just check in with yourself, and ask some questions:

Why am I asking you to wait 30 minutes?

Not because I want you to feel deprived and white-knuckle your way though or starve yourself. It’s because I want you to learn to feel the sensation of hunger, and then trust that you don’t have to be scared of it.

Most people don’t feel the nuances of hunger. They boomerang back and forth from starving to stuffed, no in-between.

But this mindfulness practice will have you feeling hunger without having to fight it. As soon as you begin feeling it, you begin getting your eating strategy together: What will be a healthy, moderate choice? What will have you feeling satisfied, not stuffed?

This is actually just thinking, right? And surprise, surprise, when we are only eating according to a clock, we are in effect, teaching ourselves to not think. #NoThanks

Many people don’t like to wait until they’re hungry to eat because they’re scared of what might happen if they get too hungry. I get that, but that’s also the mindset of a neurotic, anxious person obsessed with being in control every second. I know because I was one!

So instead, we are going to practice the opposite of control, which is trust, and see what happens.

Could you trust yourself enough to feel hunger and then make a healthy, moderate choice? No matter what time it is? Even if it’s 30 minutes before your designated eating time, or an hour later?

Because if you are always operating from a place of awareness and mindfulness of your hunger, fullness, satisfaction, cravings, etc., then you won’t ever need to eat according to a clock – your

body will tell you.

True, this is a practice, but just get started! What’s the worst that can happen? Nothing is ever irreversible. You can always adjust; you are never “too far gone.” The old Meal Plan will always be there if you need it ;) So why not try a new way, where you get to be in the driver’s seat?

Learn to ask the question: “Am I hungry right now?” And if not, “Could I wait 30 minutes? An hour? And then see how I feel and make a healthy choice then?”

THIS IS A HUGE FIRST STEP IN TRUSTING YOURSELF AROUND FOOD!

More on hunger and how to manage it in this blog post.

Follow on Snapchat and say hello, and tell me what you think and how you’re doing!

Xo,

Jill