Are you ready to unlearn everything you've been told about dieting? Tune in as we take a deep dive into the world of intuitive eating. We explore the challenge of aligning our ingrained dieting mindsets with the practice of eating according to physical hunger and satisfaction signals.
We address the question: Does intuitive eating ever become second nature, and how can we become patient with our progress?
We also highlight the importance of enjoying the journey to becoming peaceful eaters and the value of relying on the Holy Spirit to help us.
We'll also let you in on the benefits of eating for satisfaction and how to make good use of the zero to five scale. We discuss the importance of understanding and respecting the signals of physical hunger and satisfaction, and how this can lead to reduced greed and increased gratitude. You'll also learn about the divine design of our bodies, the crucial role it plays in this journey, and how to rebuild trust in our hunger and satisfaction signals. We'll share insights on how to honor God through intuitive eating, navigate the inevitable stumbles, and cultivate an appreciation for the body's wisdom. This episode is a must-listen if you're ready to redefine your relationship with food and your body.
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
Are you ready to unlearn everything you've been told about dieting? Tune in as we take a deep dive into the world of intuitive eating. We explore the challenge of aligning our ingrained dieting mindsets with the practice of eating according to physical hunger and satisfaction signals.
We address the question: Does intuitive eating ever become second nature, and how can we become patient with our progress?
We also highlight the importance of enjoying the journey to becoming peaceful eaters and the value of relying on the Holy Spirit to help us.
We'll also let you in on the benefits of eating for satisfaction and how to make good use of the zero to five scale. We discuss the importance of understanding and respecting the signals of physical hunger and satisfaction, and how this can lead to reduced greed and increased gratitude. You'll also learn about the divine design of our bodies, the crucial role it plays in this journey, and how to rebuild trust in our hunger and satisfaction signals. We'll share insights on how to honor God through intuitive eating, navigate the inevitable stumbles, and cultivate an appreciation for the body's wisdom. This episode is a must-listen if you're ready to redefine your relationship with food and your body.
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
Hi and welcome to our podcast Revelation Within on the Go. I'm Heidi Bilesma-Epperson, one of your hosts and the owner and lead coach of the RevelationWithincom ministry, and I'm Christina.
Speaker 2:Monly, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within, and we are so excited to welcome you to this podcast. Our latest episode of Revelation Within on the Go.
Speaker 1:Welcome, welcome. Well, today we thought we would tackle a topic that both Christina and I hear on the minds of many of our participants, our one-on-one clients. Does eating according to my hunger signals and satisfaction signals, or what we often call zero to five, ever become second nature? Is it going to get any easier? Why is it taking so long? Good question, heidi, good question. Well, and to be honest with you, I want to kind of expose this question a little bit, because it feels a little bit like this is a question that is rooted in our history, our dieting history. Sometimes, if I think of zero to five eating, or intuitive eating, or conscious eating, mindful eating, spirit-led eating, all the things we call this, you know, waiting for hunger and having a just right size portion, stopping when I'm no longer hungry, if I think of that as a food plan or a weight loss program, I'm going to be impatient. I'm going to be looking at my size, my shape, my numbers, and that is going to drive me crazy. What do you think, christina?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm thinking back to my own experience about doing exactly what you know, what you just said kind of turning thin within, now revelation within, intuitive eating, spirit-led eating, turning that into a diet. That's what you and I both did, our experience, and so I'm thinking back to what that was like. It wasn't freeing and it wasn't sustainable. It wasn't fun either. It wasn't fun, in fact. I remember feeling really, really discouraged because I love the materials, I love the Bible studies, I love the you know the thing within book and the workbooks and all of that. I knew that it was the right thing for me and I poured myself into the materials, but without being able to renew my mind. I basically just said, okay, tell me what to do, what are the rules, and I will do it. And we have a lot of people that come to us in that very same boat. We understand you and I. We get it, we understand.
Speaker 1:And I think, when a person begins this approach or returns to this approach of waiting for hunger and stopping it satisfied, that zero to five eating, I think we have to recognize if we do have some of the previous dieting mentality like how long is this going to take is one of those kind of ways that we can invite God to show us how to separate ourselves from that thinking, because I mean, when you think about it, what is the rush? Yes, I mean, I'm going to be eating this way for the rest of my life. I want to feel comfortable with it. Yes, I mean I don't know how long many of us didn't eat intuitively, or didn't eat consciously or in a spirit led way. We just ate whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted or according to a diet. It makes sense that it would take a while for us to be relaxed and at peace with just. I'm not going to eat until I'm hungry and I'm going to have just enough food to satisfy me and it's all good and I'm relaxed about it. I mean, it's going to take a while to be at home with that, don't you think?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely Well, and I was thinking about what you said, Heidi, about rushing, and I mean, really, how many years was I in a rush to lose weight? I was in a rush for many, many, many, many years, decades, where it's like, okay, I'm in a rush, oh, that didn't work, okay, I'm in a rush again, I'm in a panic, I'm in a rush. So there's nothing peaceful about that, there's nothing in that that I want to continue. It didn't feel good. Like you said, I was in a rush, and so when I look into the rest of my 50s, I'm in my mid 50s. So I look into the rest of my 50s and then my 60s and 70s, and who knows how long God will keep me around. But when I look at that, I think, wow, I don't want to rush anymore, I want to enjoy this journey and I want to lean into the Lord for what he has called me to.
Speaker 1:I'm so done with all my old quote unquote plans and I think it really trips us up when we put weight loss at the forefront and we're, of course, trying to get some distance from the word thin, because that's not our goal, and we understand that some people still want to do some shape shifting, of course, but I think that's where we get in a rush and you and I both heard people say well, this isn't working. That's definitely a vestige of our dieting years. I think it usually comes up when people are jumping on the scale more frequently and our focus is on the weight. God is about so much more and for him, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years. So you know, it's just a micro minute or whatever. I don't even think that's the right word, but it's not taking as long as we may think. We are about something so much greater than our physical flesh. I mean, really, when you think about it, this endeavor is worth all the time in the world. Yeah, that's so good. Why is it true, christina?
Speaker 2:You know what I was thinking about this the other day. I was thinking okay, lord, my thoughts, my goals, my desires are really different than yours. Let's talk about that. What are I mean? I was just trying to get real with myself about what I asked God for. Lord, make my life easier. That's what I want. I want peace, I want my life to be easier. Can you fix this and solve that and figure this out and smooth this out and make my way path? You know my path straight. I'm not going to be a great person. I'm not going to be a great person. I'm not going to be a great person. I'm not going to be a great person. But what are God's thoughts? He wants to grow me Yikes. He wants to challenge me into deeper dependence on him. Yeah, yeah, he's looking at my heart and he sees the places that I struggle and he sees where those strongholds still are, where I am fighting, and he sees the things that I struggle to surrender, where my fears are owning me at times. He sees all of that. He sees the wounds that are not healed, and that's what he's all about.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, it's about his kingdom and using me to minister to others, and I'm over here saying make my life easier, and fix my sciatica and I'm over here saying I'm going to go and bring you my son and I'm going to bring him to me and you're going to bring me my son, and it's such a great opportunity. I see your point and of course we want those things and it's okay to bring them to him. Yes, eternity he really is. So when I look at what are the things I long for, yeah, I want to have the mind of Christ for the things I want and eternal things. So when I think about what things that I might long for Our eternal things evil or anything like that but what things are going to last for eternity, that is what God wants to use my journey to come to a place of peace with food and eating and even my body, to teach me to build in me, and that takes time.
Speaker 2:And it's not like a one and done. It's not like you go up the hill and then you're like you're there, there's ups and downs and sideways and downs, and then there's ups and ups and then sideways and then downs again. It's not like this perfect upward going journey. Because God is challenging and teaching us and because he loves us so much, you know he's not going to keep it shallow with us. You know he needs to go deep with him. God has so much more in mind for us than we do for ourselves, and actually the other day I was looking for something in a stack of old journals and things that I have that I really need to clean out, and I found some of my prayers from like years ago.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I thought, oh my gosh, they are so focused on me and fixing stuff you know, and they seemed. I mean I'm not saying I don't pray for those things, because I do absolutely, but I think that my focus has changed over the years. It's kind of nice to see a little bit of growth. You know I am praying for something a little deeper than help me to get that first parking spot at the grocery store.
Speaker 1:Okay. So one of the things that we want to consider is we're looking at am I ever going to be at peace with this approach? Is it going to ever be natural for me Is how long have you practiced every other way of eating? Yes, Most of us. It has been decades of practicing either dieting or not caring, and this is so different from either of those two approaches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really is. Well, and I thought, you know, since we've mentioned zero to five, maybe we should say what that is. Maybe that would be helpful for you. Sure go for it For listening as just as a tool, not as any kind of a rule or regulation or anything like that. We use a zero to 10 scale. It's really helpful for some. Some don't even use it, and that's totally fine, of course. But a zero is physically hungry. Your stomach is empty and you're feeling kind of that gnawing, empty, hollow sensation up high where your stomach is. And then you know, you kind of go on in the numbers. A five is a place of just enough, satisfied. You don't feel the food pushing against your stomach walls at all. You're kind of at this peaceful place of nothing. You don't need any more food, that's just right. And then you go along in the numbers as you eat more. And a 10 is like overeating at Thanksgiving. You're on the floor. So the goal is to find that wonderful life-giving rhythm of waiting for hunger true physical hunger and then having a just right amount and then waiting again for physical hunger. Yeah, In case there was someone brand new to us that didn't know what we were talking about with zero to five.
Speaker 1:It can be super helpful, then, to kind of understand why eating between the parameters of physical hunger and physical satisfaction are beneficial to me, not just so that I get to a place of being a peaceful eater, but there's other things that God does. He's about things that are deep, you know. So eating zero to five, as we've described it, teaches me how to be less greedy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, do you feel like you're? You were greedy, christina, when you came to this approach of eating.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and I still am at times, there's no question. Yeah, I just I want more, I want an upgrade, I want to feel better, I want to do whatever I want to do yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, what's funny is sometimes like, depending upon what it is it's. In my case, it's usually something sweet if there's a plate of it and Michael, my husband, reaches for one and I have my fork and I have this temptation to stick with his hand. I know there's green rising up in there. Yeah, that might be green. It might be Now any version of that, you know, might not be slapping his hand. Don't touch that. That's what I want.
Speaker 2:Yes, or putting whatever it is that I want, and I've got it in a box with rubber bands around it and Sarantap and my name on it. Yeah, that might be a little bit extreme, a little bit greedy there for sure. Yes.
Speaker 1:So we're at one extreme, and obviously we're describing an extreme, but then, over time, I think that we begin to see the blessing that comes in letting go of that particular tasty morsel that we want. You know, it might be the fried chicken that has extra coating, crispiness on it, or whatever it might be, and it's like grades of greens, and so it might have an hand stabbing level of green, it might be a variation of that. So eating this way, eating zero to five or between hunger and satisfaction, also shows me my dependence for God. Oh, yes, it's a beautiful thing, because how many times in any given day will I get hungry? And I can be reminded that he is my provider and I need him for a million reasons. When I said that, you said oh, yes, what came to mind for you?
Speaker 2:And you said oh yeah, well, because I feel like I've been able to handle so many areas of my life really well over the years. I mean, there's been some doozies, but this area of food and eating, I need God more than ever. I don't know. I feel like maybe he chose this for me as my area to draw him, and I mean truly. I do feel that my intimacy with him has increased so much because of this. And then I've been thinking a lot lately about talking about, well, what are, what are your goals and plans purposes compared to mine, and it's like his design is for us to be in relationship with him and to look to him for all that we need. It's actually his design, you know. So it's a good thing, whereas the world kind of our culture in the world says do it yourself, you shouldn't need anyone. Be strong by yourself, pull yourself up, you can do it. And so trying to reframe that Dependence on God is actually a beautiful, just like you said, heidi, it's beautiful and it's God's design. And do I want to be living in God's design?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I definitely do, and I love how pursuing peace with food and eating, and eating according to hunger and satisfaction, causes me to really lean into him. I just to even get to know my body better. You know, I might ask him Lord, what is my hunger signal, would you show me? I mean, by now I happen to know, but people who are new to it invite him to show you. He knows your body Intimately. He has created you fearfully and wonderfully. And then, god, please show me my stopping point and give me a heart that is excited to stop, because I'm being led by the God of the universe and he's coaching me and I'm saying yes, lord, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I love that. I love that God is coaching me. I love that and he is, his spirit, lives within me and it's my counselor and my coach. You know my encourager All the time. I can look to him anytime and say help me with this Lord. This is hard, this is hard for me, help me.
Speaker 1:Another thing I love about eating zero to five and being willing to wait for kind of it becoming second nature, if you will, and not giving up and doing something else is it builds a heart of gratitude in me for God's provision. Not only do I get closer to him as I learn more about my dependence on him, but I learn that he is such a good giver of every good and perfect gift.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean, I think about all the years that I ate so mindlessly. I wasn't even tasting the food that God provided for me. You know I wasn't grateful. I wasn't tasting it. And so now it's like wait a minute. There's thousands of textures and flavors. It's amazing what God has seen for us. It's absolutely amazing. I want to enjoy this food. I want to try new things. I want to be grateful for what he has provided. He could have just made manna for all of us. Every day we go out to the driveway and we scoop up our manna and it's like the same thing every day. But instead he's like, oh no, I'm going to do all these colors and textures and the flavors, you're going to be so excited about these flavors. And then all these years of just eating without even thinking about it or tasting the food. So yeah, I love that point. It builds our heart of gratitude.
Speaker 1:So so important. And you know, one of the things that I love to do and we encourage people in our coaching groups to give this a shot, of course is an ideal meal experience. And I can never and I'll tell you what that is in just a minute but I always find myself overflowing with gratitude when I do an ideal meal experience. It just happens. So the ideal meal experience is where we sit down with food that we absolutely enjoy. It's a favorite, our bodies respond well to it. We're intentional with the food, we're intentional with the time. Maybe we even have people that we love with us doing this and we slow down and taste the food and chew it slow. You know just, it's a beautiful time that ends up being number one, intentional. Number two, a practice of eating mindfully, zero to five, eating, spirit, lead eating. But you'll find that when you do that, your heart does well up with gratitude and it's just proof that you know. One of the things about this way of eating is that I learned that God is such a good giver of gifts, so I love that.
Speaker 2:I love it too. I love it. And what's fun about the ideal meal experience is that it can be anywhere, anytime. You can do it at the circus, you can do it at a staff meeting, you can do it out to eat at a football game, at home by yourself, in the morning, in the afternoon, every week, at your book club. You can have an ideal meal experience anywhere, anytime. It doesn't have to be, you know, sitting down and very quiet and nobody there and that kind of thing, although you can do that when you and the Lord. So if you've never done one of those, if that's the first time that you've heard about an ideal meal experience, I would say give it a try. Definitely we will love it and then you can keep a little running list of all the situations that you have had victory with, intuitive eating, zero to five eating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what I find it's also really useful for is if I'm struggling with this feeling natural and it's just so much effort to eat this way, if I have an ideal meal experience, I am reminded of how beautiful eating this way is and what it does is it recalibrates me to eating zero to five and the blessing that it is and the joy that it is and how good God is to invite me to do this. So that's another benefit of the ideal meal experience. So here's another thing about eating this way eating zero to five, the way then within his taught, in the way revelation within now teaches, of course, is it helps me to appreciate this fearfully and wonderfully made body. Yeah, design, wow.
Speaker 2:I was talking with someone the other day who was brand new to revelation within, thin within, on a trip that I was on, and we were talking about what intuitive eating is, and this person said I can't remember the last time I was really hungry. I've been avoiding it for years. Yeah, and I thought, well, that was me too, because I thought hunger was a bad thing. But when you think about our bodies and how God designed us, when we're cold, we put on a sweater, probably blanket. We're tired, we rest, we lay down, we sleep. When we're not feeling well, we we live life differently. We take care of ourselves in a different way when we have to go to the bathroom, we go and we have signals in our body that are actually very, very important to us, and we have to imagine ignoring all those signals. So here we are, and God has made this amazing signal in our body for hunger, that it's strong. We know it. It's not difficult to find if you have cracked just a little and also satisfaction, and many of us for years we haven't listened, we've ignored all of it. So I do, I appreciate more and more the way God has made my body. It's amazing, an amazing complicated mission that is.
Speaker 1:That's so beautiful.
Speaker 2:Those of us that dieted for many, many years were used to rules and restrictions, but what we're looking at here is boundaries and their life giving, and they're beautiful and they cause our lives to feel better not worse. They cause our lives to feel like there's a real order and, like you said, natural, heidi. It feels more and more natural as we practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Are we going to get it right away? No, and are there going to be times that are harder than others because of difficult emotional situations? Yes, absolutely. And does God give us grace for all of those things? Yes, we're on a journey constantly, but over time there is more and more a natural rhythm of eating the way God designed and really being in tune with our body signals.
Speaker 1:And I absolutely love that.
Speaker 2:And I'm in progress. I mess up all the time, but I'm so excited to continue practicing this and walking this into the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:I think the thing that makes a difference that and we've talked about this before, but this is a great episode to bring it back in is what do I do when I slip, stumble, slide or fall? I want to be sure that I look and learn, and, and all that really means is I'm going oh, oops, that didn't work so well. I'm dispassionate. I'm not going to condemn myself there's no condemnation for us and I'm not going to condemn the nation Romans eight one. And Jesus certainly doesn't condemn me for my eating. But what he does is he wants me to turn to him and say is there a way I can prepare myself for the next time temptation might be presented? I don't mean in the moment there's a temptation. Now I've got to open my Bible. That's not likely to happen for me and I don't know if it would for many. But is there a way I can prepare my mind, my heart, maybe, if necessary, to say yes to God and to learn from the things that I wish I hadn't done? Because that's what God wants to do. He wants to redeem my mess up. He doesn't want to waste a thing. The only true failure is the failure we fail to learn from. So I think what helps this kind of fall into place and become more natural is that rhythm of oops, lord, what should I do differently so that doesn't happen again? Yeah, it's totally possible for it to become a natural rhythm in my life, eating between the parameters of physical hunger and physical satisfaction, and all these great things. It builds my dependence on God. It shows me how to be less greedy and there's some things that are negative that it does away with too and building a heart of gratitude in me for God's provision, helping me to appreciate this amazing body that he has made fearfully and wonderfully.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well, and I'm just going to say it, my body feels better when I eat this way. I really feel better. I feel stronger, more energized. My digestion feels better. Everything feels better. There is more peace in my body. When I'm just, you know, listening to the signals that God has, has designed in it, it just feels better. And when I feel better physically, I feel better in all the other ways too. So I really appreciate that too.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for joining us on our episode this week. We are so glad you came.
Speaker 2:We are so glad that you've been with us today and we hope that something that we said was helpful for you and encouraging for you Absolutely, we're just glad that we had the time with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we want to have more time with you, so join us at RevWithinteam. Yes, am, and come and see us over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, come and join us. We have an amazing community and all kinds of things going on. Yes, so we will see you next time on Revelation Within. All right, go Bye now. Bye now. Bye now. Bye now, bye now. Be quiet and stay tuned.