When The Body Speaks, You Should Listen

Health, Fitness, & Your Intuition

Fun Fact: I love coffee. Everything about coffee. The exotic smell, the earthy grounds, the rich muddy color. But the best thing about coffee is how it stimulates ideas, motivates action, and provokes discussion.

Over a cup of coffee with a friend, I realized an interesting connection between the way we eat and our college education system.

The link between eating and education was….listening to our intuition. Specifically, trusting our intuition. For it is a lack of intuition that impairs both the way we eat and the way we educate youth in modern America.

Is it really so strange that our eating and learning styles suffer from a root cause? A psychology professor once told me,

“The way we do one thing is the way we do all things.”

And the more I think about this, the more I think that it’s true.

In America, our education system instills the wonderful trait of skepticism. Don’t trust strangers, don’t trust the news, don’t trust the internet. Skepticism is imperative for discovery. A skeptical mind is fundamental to critical analysis and questioning the validity of arguments and claims.

But this skepticism has also led to a lost sense of self-trust, disregard for first hand experience, and apprehension towards spiritual beliefs. Educational institutions rely on scientific studies, authority figures, and numbers to tell us what is real and true. Constantly, we are reminded NOT to trust our intuition. Consequently, we believe our intuition is always wrong.

I am not saying DON’T trust the data. What I am saying is, DON’T DISCOUNT your intuition.

Eating is supposed to be intuitive. We should not depend on nutritional labels, food scientists, and food pyramids to inform us which foods are good or bad. We are the experts on whether or not a certain type of food has a positive or negative affect on our bodies. In fact, we are the only ones who can accurately describe how a certain type of food makes us feel. No one can feel your state of health for you.

WHY was this some astronomical discovery for me?

Because I am someone that lives off of labels. I religiously track my food and if I don’t know what’s in it, I don’t eat it. Period. That has been my approach to health.

What it comes down to, is that I don’t trust my body to tell me what’s good for me. This realization makes me a little skeptical of skepticism.

In America, we view our bodies as somewhat separate from our minds. “Surprising” scientific findings about the mysterious mind body connection suggests that, in our culture, we view the mind and body as disconnected.

People are shocked by studies showing how exercise helps improve Parkinsons & Alzheimers, promotes recovery from brain injuries, and treats mood disorders (especially anxiety and depression).

But for those who exercise, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that physical activity could treat these diseases and disorders. We shouldn’t need cardiovascular studies demonstrating reduced risk of disease in order to convince people that exercise leads to good health. We should not need stats stating “adults need 2.5 hrs/week of moderate intensity aerobic activity plus at least 2 hrs/week of muscular strength training in order to be healthy”.

We should just exercise because intuitively, our bodies enjoy it. And intuitively, we know we need more of it.

Of course the studies help. And data is fun. Personally, I approve of obsessing over research findings and wild health stats.

In addition, the food science and professional advice helps us filter, monitor, and gauge our intuition. If I just ate what my tastebuds told me was delicious, I’d be snacking on chocolate bon bons and sprinkles cupcakes all day. But if I really listen to my body, I know that these foods have negative consequences. Sugar highs and crashes, low energy, brain fog, and worst of all …the sugar cravings that leave me incapable of breaking eye contact with donuts in a coffee shop pastry display.

But if we find some sort of happy balance between trusting our body’s reaction to food and the labels that break food down into a science, we could all each achieve our own level of optimal health.

Our “intuition” will tell us what to eat and when to stop if we are willing to listen and trust.

Step 1. Listen

Step 2. Trust

Science can lie. Statistics can be made irrelevant with individual differences.

So follow your heart and do what feels right.

Or wear a heart rate monitor and stay within a ‘healthy’ range of 60–100 BPM.

Moreover, know that both methods of listening are valuable and both can be helped by respecting the other.

EAT WITH A PASSION. WORK OUT BECAUSE YOU LOVE IT. And when your body talks, try to listen.