30 - Intuitive Eating Made Simple

Ever feel like you’re constantly second-guessing what to eat or searching for the “perfect” health routine? In this episode, Courtney shares how to quiet the noise, tune into your body’s wisdom, and reconnect with your intuition — because your body already knows exactly what it needs.

You’ll learn how to slow down, recognize your body’s subtle signals, and rebuild trust with yourself so that food choices become effortless and aligned. Courtney also breaks down what intuitive eating actually looks like in real life (hint: it’s not just “eat whatever you want whenever you want”) and even shares a simple, practical at-home test to identify potential food sensitivities.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• What intuition really is — and how it communicates through physical cues, emotions, and cravings
• Why your body “whispers before it yells” and how to catch those subtle messages early
• Simple daily practices to strengthen your intuition and slow down
• The truth about intuitive eating (and how it’s different from dieting)
• How to use the pulse test to discover if a food is causing stress in your body

Connect with Courtney:

• Free Glow-Up Affirmations — the perfect daily boost to help you stay grounded and connected. --> Grab them here
  
  
• Connect with Courtney on Instagram → @healthywithcourtneyy

Transcript

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Welcome to the Nourished Living Podcast, where I'll be diving deep into nutrition, holistic wellness, and practical tips to help you live your healthiest, most vibrant life. I am Courtney Podany, a nutritional therapist, certified personal trainer, type one diabetic and mom. I'm here to help you take charge of your health with ease and competence. Together we'll explore how to nourish your body, mind, and soul in a way that feels good and sustainable. So grab your favorite beverage. Take a deep breath, and let's get into the episode. I. Welcome back to the Nourished Living Podcast. I'm your host, Courtney Podany, and this is the 30th episode. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm here. When I wanted to start this podcast, I kept thinking that it wouldn't be sustainable long term. Because I didn't have that many things to actually talk about, but I swear each week another idea pops up or you know, I have great questions from you guys that is able to carry over into a whole episode. So I am so grateful for that. I'm grateful that you guys are here with me and that I've been able to continue helping'cause we're still going. I've still got ideas and. It's been wonderful. So this week we are wrapping up our fall break from the kids' school. And since I didn't grow up with a fall break, we just went straight through to Thanksgiving. I was like, well, why are we doing this? We just started school, but I took the kids up to the mountains and we didn't have any. Schedules, we didn't have to set any alarms. We got to spend some nice time outside and relaxing, and it actually turned out to be the break I didn't know I needed. Now, as I look at the week coming up, I'm like, whew, that seems busy. But I also feel this new rejuvenation and motivation, so I'm excited for the week ahead. Anyway. Let's get into today's episode. Today we are going to chat about intuition and how it plays such a powerful role in the way we eat and take care of ourselves, because I would like to say for those of you in the back who haven't heard it from me before, your body already has all the answers you're looking for. The problem is most of us are moving so fast and we are so distracted that we can't hear what our body is trying to tell us. So in this episode, I'm going to break down how you can start slowing down to hear your body's whispers, how to strengthen your intuition, and how this ties into intuitive eating in a really practical way. When people hear the word intuition, sometimes it sounds like mystical or woo woo, but in reality, intuition is simply your body's built in wisdom. It's the way our bodies communicate with us through signals cravings, energy shifts, emotions, and even physical symptoms. And here's the thing with intuition. It whispers before it yells. Think about the times you felt a little off before you came down with something that was your intuition whispering. Please slow down. Or maybe you've had subtle bloating or low energy before it turned into bigger digestive issues. That was another whisper. Or that fatigue before burnout fully sets in your body always starts with quiet cues. But if we ignore them long enough, they will get louder and louder until we can't miss them anymore. Another way to think about intuition is to notice how it feels in your body. Sometimes it's not a thought at all. It's a physical sensation. For example, I'll use myself here. Let's say, I felt stuck deciding between two restaurants. In my mind, they both sounded good, so I felt like I couldn't choose. So I will test it out by saying, okay, we're growing to Chipotle, for example. And if my body feels calm with no resistance, that means I do actually want Chipotle. But if I immediately feel this little pit in my stomach or a heaviness in my chest, that is my intuition telling me, no, I do not want Chipotle. That's my cue that I actually want the other option. And intuition can show up in a lot of little ways in the body. For some people it feels like either lightness and expansion, so like a sense of relief or excitement when something is a yes, or it could be a heaviness or contraction, like tight chest, a pit in your stomach, a sinking feeling when something is a no. You could feel restless, like you can't sit still, which may signal that something is off, or you could feel calm, almost like your whole body exhales and you feel like you no longer have excess weight on your shoulders, telling you that you are in alignment. So if you're trying to tune in more, notice those physical cues. They often come before your brain tries to rationalize it all. Your body will tell you what feels right and what doesn't if you give it space to speak. So strengthening our intuition. How do you actually get better at listening? Well, the key is slowing down when you create space, even just for a few moments. You give your body a chance to speak. That could look like taking five minutes of silence in the morning, going for a walk without headphones, or simply pausing before a meal to ask yourself, am I really hungry? What sounds nourishing right now? Every time you listen and respond, you strengthen that intuition muscle. You build trust with yourself. And the more you build that trust, the less you need to outsource your health decisions to someone else. Because let me tell you, you don't need another diet. You just need to learn how to tune in to your own body's signals. So let's talk about intuitive eating now. First, intuitive eating is not another diet or a set of rules. It's not about eat whatever you want whenever you want with no awareness. What intuitive eating is it's eating in response to what your body is actually asking for. It is slowing down enough to hear those cues and then honoring them. Here's what that might look like in practice. Sometimes you'll crave protein because your body needs something grounding and stabilizing. Sometimes you'll realize you're reaching for sugar because you're actually tired and need rest. It is stopping when you feel satisfied, not when your plate is clean. Just because you were taught to finish your food a few weeks ago, my body kept telling me that it wanted cold foods or raw foods. So throughout the week I had protein shakes, carrots with hummus, and lots of salads. And I would say this is actually pretty rare for me. I typically want cooked and warm dishes for all of my meals. So I didn't necessarily know why my body was asking for this, but when I drank the protein shake or ate the salad, it did truly feel good. So I'm glad I was able to pick up on that message and honor what my body wanted. So for those that really like to have answers for everything and a clear. Path from point A to point B type of situation. You might not always get that, but we just have to learn to be okay with it. So that ties into another piece of it. If you are eating something, let's just say a sandwich, and even though it's from your favorite sandwich place and you were so excited for it, but it doesn't taste good or you ate it and just didn't feel satisfied afterwards. Well, in that case, maybe your body needed something else in that moment, so you can try to tune in again to pick up on this next time. And the biggest piece of this is slowing down. You can't know when you're full if you're rushing through meals, eating in the car, or distracted. Try eating one meal this week without distractions. No phone, no tv. Just pay attention to the flavors, the textures, the smell, and how your body feels as you eat. You'll notice those fullness cues show up so much clearer when you're not rushing. Another way we can put this into action where we really challenge our body to tell us exactly what it needs is known as the pulse test. You can use this if you think there's a food that you are sensitive to or you just haven't had good reactions to it in the past. It's a simple process that can just be done at home. First, I want you to, in a seated position, take your pulse for one minute. Let's say it comes out to about 70 beats per minute. That's gonna be our starting number. You can use like your iWatch or something like that to measure it, but I always like to count for myself so that I know there's less room for error. The food that is in question. Let's say maybe you think you're lactose intolerant, you're not exactly sure, so we'll use cheese for our example, but this can be done for any type of food. So you sit down, take your pulse for one minute, we get 70 beets per minute. Then you're going to stick the piece of cheese in your mouth for 30 seconds. Do not chew. Do not swallow. Just let the cheese kind of hang out in your mouth. After 30 seconds, remove that slice of cheese, do not swallow it, and then take your pulse again for another minute. If your pulse increases six beets per minute or more, that means that you are sensitive to that food and probably should refrain for a little while. Okay. However, if your pulse did not go up and maybe it just went up like one or two beats, anything less than six or stayed the same or decreased, that means that that food is okay for you. So what we're doing is we're introducing something stressful to our body. Our heart is going to start beating more rapidly. So the increase in heartbeat is actually showing us that, hey, this is stressful for our body and not good for it. So if you think there are certain things that you're sensitive to, I would definitely give that a try because it's actual concrete evidence from your body, yes or no for that food. You can't do it for multiple foods at once because then you wouldn't be able to narrow it down, right? Just try one food at a time. However, you can sit down and, you know, try it over the course of a handful of foods. However, I would wait a little bit in between, especially if one of the foods did increase your pulse. I would like to give it time to get it back down to your resting, which in our example would be that 70 beats per minute. Then you can go ahead and try it out again. So just a fun little way that you can experiment on your own to find what is best for you. So here's the big takeaway. Intuition and intuitive eating are about connecting to our bodies and trusting that it knows exactly what is best. It's not about getting it right every single time. It's about listening to bring awareness to those subtle messages our body is sending before it starts screaming at us, and we are forced to take a break. And the more you listen, the more you'll be able to identify what it's actually telling you. So this week I encourage you to experiment. Pick just one meal where you slow down, put away the distractions, and listen. Notice when you start to feel satisfied. Notice what foods actually feel good in your body and trust those signals. And if you loved this episode, make sure to connect with me over on Instagram at Healthy with Courtney, two Ys and Courtney. And don't forget to grab my free affirmations. They're the perfect little boost to keep you grounded and connected on this journey. Thanks so much for tuning in, and I'll see you next time on the Nourished Living Podcast. Thanks for hanging out with me today and tuning into the Nourished Living Podcast. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and found something you can start implementing right away to kickstart your nourished transformation. If you loved this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who could benefit from these insights. You can also connect with me over on Instagram at Nourished Living for more resources and support. Until next time, stay nourished.