It’s a theory centered around the idea of creating a healthy body image, calling a truce with food, and giving diets, and all the rules that accompany them, a big kick in the toosh. Research shows that Intuitive Eating helps pave the way to a healthier relationship with food and improved peace of mind in regard to eating.

It’s tempting to restrict or skip meals in an effort to counteract what you ate the day before, but restriction of food will only fuel disordered eating, keeping you stuck.

Great for summer, easy to prep, and tasty. The salty, sweet, and nutty are a great combination of flavors, and you can add some protein to make this more into a meal.

Quick, tasty, and an easy way to get a good plug of building blocks- protein, fat, carbs, plus some perks in the way of fiber and potassium.

I no longer calculate how much I ate, or stuff myself thinking, “If I’m going to be bad, I might as well be really bad.” Nor do I make a silent agreement with myself to hit the gym hard the next day and only eat salads.

One of the many things I love about recovery is my body’s innate wisdom and how clearly it communicates to me. Once I began challenging the eating disorder voice and starting to listen to my body, I slowly learned how to decipher what it was asking for and respond accordingly. I kept finding myself saying, “nothing bad happened… my weight didn’t blow up….,” and overtime, it started to feel more natural to eat, and the eating disorder voice got quieter.

Bingeing is a completely normal response to restriction- both mental and physical. So, when you feel out of control and want to eat everything in sight, it’s often a sign that certain foods are being restricted, and this is your mind and body’s way of communicating this to you.

Recovery from an eating disorder or disordered eating takes time, support, and a willingness to be uncomfortable and face your fears.

The journey will not go as planned. It’s one that will ebb and flow and likely bring up emotions and parts of yourself that you didn’t even know were there- this is often the stuff that your eating disorder was trying to manage.

Restrictive practices, such as those laid out in the clean eating lifestyle, can lead to disordered eating patterns, such as orthorexia, which is the obsession of eating clean or healthy. And while still not an official diagnosis, orthorexia can be all consuming, posing major negative impacts on a person’s mental and physical health and social life, and lead someone down the path of anorexia or binge eating disorder.

I am all about quick and easy and while these take 20-30 minutes to mix and ball up, I love having them on hand when I need something to grab and go. They’re delicious but also offer you a great balance of fat, protein, carbohydrates, and fiber.

During these painful seasons, it’s tempting to distract from and try to push down the grief and heartache, but I’ve learned over the years that the only way out of the pain is through it. Which is why the greatest gifts we can give ourselves are those of grieving and tender self-care.