When you tell someone to  listen to their body to tell them when, what, and how much to eat, the first look you get is one of distrust. Nutrition and intuitive eating go hand in hand.  When you listen to your body, what you eat matters too.

“But I want to lose weight?”
“Then I will always want french fries and dessert, not fruit and veggies.”

Then you talk to them about unconditional permission to include all foods in their diet.

“Do you want me to gain more weight?”  eye roll, frustration. sigh.

Nutrition does not get thrown out the window!  I promise.  Just think about why diets fail.  Not only because of deprivation and the damage mentally in being told you can never have something again, but they never address why the weight was gained in the first place.  Take away all the can’t and shouldn’t so you can figure out what foods you love to have once in awhile, foods to modify and include more often, and discover loving certain foods for all the good they give your body.  Get to a place of I choose… not I “have to”.  You choose because eating foods only for their taste does NOT make you happy.  If it did you would not be frustrated with your weight, energy levels, and mood swings. 

The first step does mean take the “bad” foods and eat them unconditionally.  Yes, you want them more at first but if you let go of the fear you will quickly see you are sick of them and move on.  Weight loss is not a factor in this part.  It can’t be for it to work.  When people say, “Karen, does nutrition get thrown out the window?  Doesn’t it matter?”  I think, did nutrition matter when you choose a 100 calorie pack of oreos over heart healthy nuts because it was less calories?  No.  The nutrition piece of the puzzle got lost a long time ago when dieting became about a smaller dress size not about improving the quality of our food.  It got lost when all the can’ts and shouldn’ts were too much to handle so we recreated the “bad” foods with chemicals and took out all the nutrition and calories so at least you won’t gain weight.  

How about this?  Next time you want a chocolate chip cookie, instead of eating the whole box or grabbing a 100 calorie pack, make your own.  Use dark chocolate, add walnuts or some ground flax seed, or use half wheat flour.  Enjoy it all the same but know you are also bumping up the nutrition.  Afterall, the last piece of the puzzle is the most important because then you can see the whole picture.