If you’re trying to eat healthy, you’ll hear much about intuitive eating and portion control.  Both of these are great concepts, and at their best, can be wonderful tools in our health journey.  But there’s a tendency, I think, for us to either obsess about what we do or don’t eat, or to blow it off and just do what we feel like.  Neither path will lead us to be the healthiest we can be.  Integrated with a biblical understanding of our health, though, these ideas can help us honor God with our bodies and care for them well!

What is “Intuitive Eating?”

“Intuitive Eating is an evidenced-based, mind-body health approach, comprised of 10 Principles and created by two dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in 1995.”  Its goal is to connect with your body’s own personal processes and needs, moving away from dieting as a lifestyle.  Intuitive eating involves 10 principles:

• Reject the Diet Mentality
• Honor Your Hunger
• Make Peace with Food
• Challenge the Food Police
• Respect Your Fullness
• Discover the Satisfaction Factor
• Honor Your Feelings without Using Food
• Respect Your Body
• Exercise—Feel the Difference
• Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition 

(source for above: Intuitive Eating)

I love the concept of this and incorporate some of the principles in my own health journey.  In an ideal setting, we’d be able to utilize these principles to care for our bodies well.  How easily we fall into a “diet mentality,” struggle with labeling foods “good” or “bad,” and use food to try to fill a void it can’t fill.  Fostering a healthier connection with our mind and body is a wonderful practice, and much of it aligns with an accurate biblical perspective of our bodies!

Here’s a potential problem with intuitive eating, though:

If we’re not careful, we can place all our confidence either in our own personal feelings, or in what some “expert” says is a healthy meal for us.  If we approach intuitive eating without grounding ourselves in scripture, we risk listening to a fickle voice or making the eating or not-eating itself our idol (a struggle for many of us!).  God created us in His image and He has blessed us with delicious food, intricate, amazing bodies, and the ability to move and work and bless Him with them, but our life on earth is tainted by sin.  So even our ability to determine what is “healthy” is tainted without His wisdom!

One of my biggest takeaways from my Whole30 journey is that I really need to experiment with what foods work best for my body in a given season.  While the “expert” opinions change from generation to generation and even day to day, we can generally trust that eating clean, fresh foods as close to how they were grown or lived as possible, will be optimal for our health.  But our bodies change from season to season and our needs may change as they do.  Think about pregnant mommas who may need more of certain vitamins and minerals.  Those with an autoimmune issue may need to eat less or none of an irritating food.  Struggling with weight gain may mean focusing on more green leafy vegetables and less starchy veggies and sugary foods.  For me, experimenting with what works for my body has to be in context of studying not just food-related wisdom, but the wisdom of what God’s word has to say.

The Bible tells us, essentially, that we can’t “trust our gut,” or lean into our feelings alone to determine our course in life.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? – Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)

So intuitive eating can be a wonderful tool, but it has to be connected to our growing in understanding of who we are in Christ, and has to be yielded to His leading!

(One of the most powerful ways I’ve found to do that is through memorizing scripture.  It’s work, but absolutely transforms how we think and live.  Find more about how to do that with my scripture memory system.)

How can I use healthy portion control without being obsessive or complicated?

Another excellent tool in our healthy-living toolkit is portion control.  It’s amazing to think of how serving sizes have changed over the years, and it’s easy to lose touch with what our bodies really need to fuel them for our wild, wonderful lives.  On the same note, it’s also important to remember that God gave us food to enjoy!  The sweet-tart pop of flavor in a sun-warmed strawberry, the crispy skin of grilled chicken, the warm pudding-y goodness of a poached egg… these are no accidental discovery from our amazing Creator!  As in all areas of life, our first guide to healthy living must be the One God wrote.  It tells us the story of our creation, it shows us His sovereignty over all of life, and it calls us to live in obedience to Him in every area of our lives.  So while it might at first seem unrelated, going to scripture is our first, and best, resource for our whole health, including things like intuitive eating and portion control, dieting or working out, you name it.  Because God created us as whole beings, even our physical health relates to what we read in scripture.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  – Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)

How do we know what constitutes a nourishing meal?

I loved the “plate” idea I first saw in reading about the Whole30 health experiment.  It’s simple, and it’s a great framework for general purposes for creating a healthy meal.  (See below for more on a nourishing plate!)  “Rules” are not new when it comes to food in scripture, either.  Throughout the Old Testament, God gave laws about food, cleanliness, and minute details of every aspect of life.  Festivals and fasting were part of regular spiritual practice, reminders of God’s goodness and our desperate need for Him.  In the New Testament, too, we see instruction for both wisdom and freedom related to our consumption of food.  So having guidelines can be another useful tool in our health journey!

Trying to decide whether, or what, to eat?

Here are three great questions to ask yourself.

1. Have I had enough water? Often, we think we’re hungry, when our bodies are telling us we need to hydrate!  Drink water, herbal tea, and infused water and see if that makes a difference!  Wait 20 minutes or so to decide if you’re really hungry.
2. Am I hungry enough to eat broccoli and fish?  It was many years before I read about asking this question.  But it’s a great guideline!  “Meh, I’d like some dark chocolate and cashew butter, though!”  Sometimes we can go for that, but if we’re not willing to eat a clean source of protein and veggies, chances are we’re facing a craving, not true hunger.  Decide, and act based on that knowledge!
3. Am I eating enough at each meal?  Sometimes we feel “snackish” between meals.  That may be because we’ve exerted ourselves in physical activity or we need more calories.  A snack isn’t a bad thing, but it could be that we’d be better served by upping our protein and healthy fats and/or nutrient dense veggies at regular meal times.  We might discover we don’t need snacks in-between, and could feel better in the long run.

While guidelines can be great, it’s so important to remember that our bodies aren’t our own.  Any “rules” God lays down are always connected to our relationship to Him.  It takes intentional effort to learn, apply, and then put in proper context, any advice we may receive about caring well for our bodies.  “Healthy living,” for a Christian, should be an ongoing effort to listen first to God’s word, then human wisdom, apply what works and lay it all down at the feet of our Maker.  When we create boundaries for our physical wellness, they should always point us toward our connection to God, and the true freedom we find only in Him.

(We study this at length in Refined Journey, my 40-day meal-plan and Bible study focused on nourishing ourselves, body and soul.)

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  – Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)

What does it mean to build a nourishing plate?

Armed with lots of input about what “healthy” means, it’s up to each of us to apply what we learn the way it works best for us in our given season.  Currently, I’m feeding myself, a teen and a pre-teen at home (both athletic, hungry guys) and their dad, and I’m  working from home while also battling some autoimmune symptoms.  I love meal planning and recipe-searching.  I have cookbooks galore.  My Pinterest boards are overflowing with goodness in photo/recipe form.  But what has helped me the most is to look at each meal as an opportunity to build a “nourishing plate.”  While I can tend to forget to eat until I’m ravenous and then go on a snack rampage, if I force myself to slow down and create a meal, it’s almost always a healthier decision.  I also can never forget something my Grandma Rose taught me – to think about how a meal looks as well as how it tastes.  So I try to incorporate color and texture, sweet, salty, sour, and umami.  I want our meals to be lovely to look at AND taste!  Nutritionally, I love using guidelines I first learned from Whole30: Use your hand as a guide!

• Start with 1 to 2 palm-sized portions of healthy protein.
• Fill the rest of your plate with vegetables.
• Cook or serve with healthy fats in a portion the size of your thumb.
• Add fruit occasionally!

*Are you interested in Whole30?  I was a Whole30 certified coach, but for a variety of reasons, made the decision not to continue to align myself with the organization.  But because I know it has been such a help to so many getting started, I created a free Whole30 “Cheat Sheet” to get you started (grab your copy here!).  While I have great concern about some of the belief system and practices, I do see benefit in much of the concept; to that end, here are some of my favorite Whole30 resources.

While these are excellent tips for our regular meals, of course we are free to enjoy all the food God has given us.

It’s so interesting to me how we tend to either lean toward legalism or gluttony… and yet God desires for us to have freedom even in our boundaries!  This is an area I’m still growing…

““All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.  ‘Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food’—and God will destroy both one and the other.” – 1 Corinthians 6:11-13 (ESV)

So let’s put these ideas of intuitive eating and portion control into practice.  What are you hungry for?  What nutrients might your body need?  Warm, cozy, immune-building chicken soup?  Bright, quick salad or veggie-and-protein nourishing bowls?  Try a few of these recipes and see what becomes part of your good-food-journey!

Here are a few of my favorite meals:

So what are some quick recipes you can use for yourself and your family that are nourishing and delicious?  Each of these recipes can work well with both intuitive eating and portion control, and more importantly they contain a balanced helping of nutrients!  And some might argue most importantly, they taste great.  🙂

• Easy Meal-Prep Greek Burger Bowls
• Sweet Potato Breakfast Bowls with Bacon and Cranberries
• Shrimp Egg Roll in a Bowl
• Salmon Burgers on Sliced Sweet Potatoes
• Spring Chicken and Vegetable Soup with Fresh Herbs

Are intuitive eating and portion control part of your health journey?  What are your biggest struggles with eating healthy?  Or better yet, what are your favorite hacks for nourishing your body?  Share in the comments and let’s grow together!

Inspiring (grateful-for-these-bodies) daily, welcoming God to work,

-angela