I know this video is hilarious but if anything, the last 8 months watching Freya explore food, flavors and textures as a very new human being in this world taught me something that I think we all lose as we become adults.

She without any advertising is intuitive eating. When she is hungry, she starts crying at a drop of the hat and pushes food away when she is full. She doesn’t care if there is still one more pasta on the table. She is done. She wants to run around now.

And even though every child is different and the way we feed our kids are A LOT different, MOST baby behaves the same way. Unless of course you put an IPAD in front of them and they will continue eating because well distraction, right? I mean I find myself finishing a bag of chips mindlessly when I am in front of the tv too.

We have all heard about mindful eating and intuitive eating and though both rather similar in context, they are also VERY different when broken down into specifics. Both types of eating encourages enjoying and savoring food, using hunger and fullness cues to decide when and how much to eat, teaches you to listen to your feelings around food, and teaches the difference between psychological and physical hunger.

However, mindful eating leans towards intentional weight loss and body composition changes. You always hear health coaches say things like; be present when eating, be mindful of your food choice and be mindful WHAT you are eating, do you NEED ice-cream after dinner or is that a craving you want to give in. Mindful eating teaches you to think before acting or in this case eating so that it can set you up for success with your personal goals.

Intuitive eating wants you to throw the link between the way you look, and food not feel bad about your food choices. You are now tuning your mindset towards what your hunger cues are telling you to do. Do you really want to eat chicken breast and broccoli because mindfully that’s ‘healthy’ or do you really just want fruity pebbles for dinner. That’s intuitive eating and not feeling bad about it.

Whether you are intuitive eating or mindful eating. Use the scale of 1 to 10 showing your hunger levels to fullness levels to really access your hunger cues.

1: HANGRY. Get. Me. Food.

2: Got a bite but I’m barely scratching the surface.

6: I got a little bit of fuel in the tank now but I still have room.

10: My abdomen feels like it is about to explode, and I just unzipped my jeans. Oo. Pillow. Maybe I should take a nap. As everyone calls it, food coma.

Watch full video on my Instagram : @bernsthefitnerd

Please DM for more information about intuitive eating and mindful eating. I am a certified health and fitness coach.