108. Intuitive eating when you're sick

At this time of recording, I'm not well. You ever notice how your body gives you a heads up when something's not quite right? Maybe your appetite changes, and you're just not feeling your usual snacks. It's like your body's way of saying, "Hey, something's up, watch out!"

So this got me thinking about intuitive eating even when we're sick. I mean, who would have thought being unwell could inspire a podcast episode?  So thank you universe for making me feel unwell so that I am inspired to talk to you about the following:

✨ How can we practice intuitive eating when we're feeling unwell?

✨ What signals do our bodies give us when sickness is on the way?

✨ Should you worry about what you’re eating? What are some easy foods to consider when unwell?

✨ Why is it important to trust our bodies’ cues and not worry about diet when we’re sick?

Remember, rest, nourish, and take care of yourself. And if you're tuning in because you're under the weather, get well soon! 

If you’d like some help understanding what your body tells you and becoming an intuitive eater, check out my coaching options. Link's in the notes. Book a free discovery call, and let's chat. 

Because once I'm back to 100%, I'll be able to help you on your journey. Take care, and bye for now!

Transcript

A quick heads up before you start reading..... My transcriptions are automatically generated. I do not type them manually. For this reason there may be errors, incorrect words, bad spelling, bad grammar, and other things that just seem a little 'off'. You'll still be able to understand what is being said though, so please just ignore that and enjoy the episode.

[00:00:00] Hello, hello. I come today full of cold, full of cold. Uh, who knows where it's gonna go, but I feel pretty rubbish. So I'm sat here, no makeup on, I've brushed my hair, that's about it. I've got my favourite comfy jumper on. You know, comfort is the way forward right now, because I don't feel very good. So, I don't know how long this episode will be, it might just be the very bare minimum, but I wanted to talk to you about this, because it inspired me. So thank you universe for making me feel unwell so that I am inspired to talk to you about it. 

Yeah, let me let's talk about this. Let's talk about how we can still do intuitive eating when we're feeling unwell. Sometimes, let's face it, we don't want to eat. We just don't want to eat and to to start thinking [00:01:00] about intuitive eating when you're feeling rubbish, it just doesn't feel right.

So, let me tell you how clever the body is. Let me tell you how even when you're unwell, your body is still guiding you. Still being intuitive. It's very clever.

So, I've got this horrible chest infection, sore throat, sore mouth, you know, nasty cough, that sort of thing. And now that I pay more attention to my body in relation to food and drink, it's really clear to me how Amazing my body is in trying to guide me in these things. It's quite amazing. It's absolutely confirmed for me that you can continue your intuitive eating when you're sick.

Even more so in fact. Quite often your body will start to tell you that there is something coming. Right? Maybe your appetite changes. Have you ever had that? Have you ever felt a bit off your food? Maybe you don't really fancy anything. [00:02:00] Um. Or you don't fancy what you usually would or you don't fancy as much as you usually would and then a couple of days later you find that you've got a stomach bug or you've got a cold and it's almost like your body is trying to protect you and Prevent to prevent it happening.

So what does your body actually want? Do you remember that old saying, Feed a cold, starve a fever? Have you ever heard that? It's an old wives tale, and I think some people still live by it. I don't, I don't know. But it's not actually true. It stems back to a guy called John Withells from 1574. That long ago.

And he came up with this theory that when you eat, it increases your core body temperature. Which it does, by the way. So, with that logic in mind, he thought if you don't eat, it'll [00:03:00] reduce your body temperature. So when he said feed a cold, it, it was the attempt to warm you up. Starve a fever, the attempt to cool you down, right?

Makes sense. Especially when you're thinking of it in the 1500s, it makes perfect sense. But now we know that that's just not true. It's not completely true. Instead, it's better to be a bit more intuitive in your eating when you're sick. So let's bring this back to intuitive eating basics, right?

What does your body want? For me, my mouth and my throat are sore. They're really sore from the coughing. They're sore because I've got a couple of sores in my mouth from the infection, maybe. I don't want hard, crunchy food that is going to hurt my mouth to chew it or feel harsh to swallow. 

I don't want [00:04:00] spicy food. I don't want salty food. I don't want anything that's potentially going to aggravate my sore mouth. I don't really want anything claggy. D'you know what that means? It's a good word, isn't it? Claggy. Um You know, it leaves this sticky film type thing going on. So things like cheese. Cheese does that. I love cheese But it does leave the throat feeling a bit claggy Chocolate will do the same for me.

Do you find that? Chocolate leaves kind of a film and it aggravates the cough. So I don't want anything that's going to cause me to cough more. Intuitively, I know all of that, just intuitively knew. 

For you, it could be different. So maybe you've got an upset stomach. Maybe your body will intuitively [00:05:00] tell you that it doesn't really want rich food or fatty food.

Maybe it'll tell you that it doesn't really want dairy, for example. All things that might aggravate an upset stomach. Personally, all I wanted and all I still want when I look in the cupboards, when I look in the fridge, is Weetabix, porridge, orange juice, that sort of thing. And for me, that tells me that my body is craving the vitamins in the orange juice for starters, and maybe the cool, soothing properties of a cold drink like orange juice.

And my body also wants the carbs, the energy in the cereal. Normal breakfast cereal? Nope, that's not what I wanted. My body's telling me it wants the soft, [00:06:00] easy to swallow, warm options. It's comforting, it's easy to eat and it's going to give me the energy source. I don't really want fizzy drinks or hot tea with milk in it because I felt like that was going to bother my throat as well.

Instead what my body's asking for quite often at the moment is hot fruit tea. My clever body, right? Protecting me from aggravating my symptoms but still encouraging me to stay hydrated and to have the comfort of something warm and to soothe, because warm drinks are often quite soothing, aren't they? And I'm willing to bet that your intuitive eater, your inner intuitive eater, would do much the same for you.

You have to eat even if you don't want to when you're ill. And I'm really well aware that [00:07:00] often we would like to be that intuitive eater when we're sick, but sometimes it just feels too difficult. So here's where practical hunger comes into play. 

In intuitive eating, there's a thing called practical hunger. And it's eating according to your circumstances. So, maybe you eat before you go into a long meeting.

Even if you're not that hungry, because you know that by the time that meeting's done you're going to be really hungry. So you eat something before you go in just to stave it off a little bit. Or maybe you know you've got a particularly energetic day ahead so you have a bigger breakfast than you normally would and that's practical hunger.

So, intuitive eating when you're sick can mean bringing this practical hunger into play then. To help your body recover, you need to fuel it. It needs the energy to fight off the bugs. It needs the energy to [00:08:00] get back to full health. And even if you don't feel like eating, you need to. You need to eat something.

You need to fuel your system. You need to help that recovery process. Most of the time, because there's always exceptions, you need to eat and give yourself that helping hand, right? But make it easy for yourself. It doesn't have to be cooking a three course dinner.

It doesn't have to be creating this massive variety of foods for you to eat through the day. Just make it easy. Soups and smoothies, for example, can be a really great source of vitamins and minerals, calories for energy, fluid for hydration. Yogurts can be a really good source of protein and fat, which will give you the energy.

They'll fill you up a little longer and they can be really easy to [00:09:00] eat. You know, things like yogurt, you just, well, you pretty much drink it, don't you? And allow yourself the convenience foods without guilt too. It's better to have a microwave meal than to not eat at all, because you simply don't have the energy to cook.

There's nothing to be ashamed of in having microwave meals, takeaways, convenience foods, quick and easy stuff out of the fridge or freezer. Do that rather than not eating at all. There's always a way to get some energy in. Even if eating feels like the last thing that you want to do, and then as you recover, don't be surprised if all of a sudden your appetite comes bouncing back and, and you just wanna eat.

'cause your body's gonna try and recover some of the energy that's been missing. If you've had a few days or more where you haven't eaten properly, you haven't eaten the usual amount that you would eat, [00:10:00] your body's gonna know that 

If your food has been restricted. Think back to the binge restrict pendulum.

Remember that? There's a whole other episode on that if you don't know what I'm talking about, but that binge restrict pendulum means that your body's going to try and counteract the restriction by encouraging more eating. And I know it's not been active restriction. You're not intentionally cutting calories, cutting food groups, that sort of thing.

But by the nature of being unwell, that's what you've done. You've eaten less, so your body just feels restriction like it usually would and tries to get you to eat more. So there might be a drive to eat more carbohydrate heavy foods. Remember your body loves carbs for energy. Maybe you want more fruit and vegetables because your body's trying to replenish its vitamin stores.[00:11:00] 

So try not to worry about your overall diet, right? Balance will be restored when you are well again. For now, whatever's being called for, trust in that and honour that. Go with it. Trust that your body knows best. 

And please, whatever you do, do not count the calories in throat lozenges and medicated drinks. You know the ones I'm talking about. You don't need to count them. You don't need to worry about them. Those things are there to help you. They're helping you feel better. They're helping you to recover. They're helping you to have less pain. So use them, use them guilt free.

Getting rest, nourishing yourself so that you can get your strength back, taking care of yourself, those are the important things. That's what [00:12:00] matters. 

Do you know what? I thought I'd come on and have a chat, but I am struggling so do you know what, I'm going to leave it there because I think I've said everything I want to say on this topic.

Just basically don't worry. Don't worry about what you're eating. Trust your body because it will drive you to eat what you need at that time when you're ill. Don't worry about your balanced diet. Don't worry about what is in a throat lozenge or a medicated drink. Just look after yourself and do what you need to do to get better.

And on that note, I am off to get another warm drink. 

And if you're feeling under the weather because you've looked this up, because you're feeling unwell and you're worried about your eating or whatever, then get well soon because it's rubbish, isn't it? Get well soon. If you'd like some help to understand what your body is [00:13:00] telling you and become more of an intuitive eater, then why not take a look at my personal coaching options? The link is in the notes, right? 

Go book something in. Book a free discovery call with me. You can get 30 minutes of free time with me. We can look at what you need. I'll give you some actionables to take away. But yeah, book it in now because by the time we actually meet, I'll be feeling better and I'll be able to help you. I am here to help you. If you need anything, just drop me a message. Take care of yourself. Bye

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