31 Days of Intuitive Eating, Gentle Nutrition, and Body Kindness Action Steps!
March is National Nutrition Month and that makes my dietitian heart sing. 💕
As you know, I’m all about helping you enhance your health and wellbeing by showing you how to:
practice gentle, flexible, sustainable nutrition strategies
have a happy, healthy relationship with food
be more kind to your body
And what better way to show you what this is all about than to give you a whole month full of simple ways to put these principles into action!
Make It a Marvelous March…31 days of energizing, totally doable action items to show yourself some food and body love:
You can download the printable PDF version of this calendar here.
Your daily action items explained:
Easy peasy. Start your day off right by drinking a glass of water. Water helps deliver nutrients throughout your body, supports your immune system, aids digestion, and sufficient hydration can help you feel good.
Snack on fruit: have a bowl of berries with yogurt… eat an orange… slice apples and slather them with peanut butter and a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips… halve a grapefruit, sprinkle it with raw sugar, and broil it for a few minutes to make a grapefruit brûlée… or make a fruit salad.
Choose a meal and intentionally tune into your fullness cues today. To make this easier, slow down the meal, put your fork down between bites, and minimize distractions while you eat.
Bodies change throughout the lifespan… this is normal. Instead of shaming yourself, consider it an act of self-care and let go of at least one item of clothing that no longer fits you. Even better if you’re able to replace it with something you feel good in.
Throw in some extra greens in at least one meal today. Need some ideas? Add greens to your eggs, throw some spinach in a smoothie, stir some arugula or kale into a pasta or grain dish, or try snacking on some kale chips.
Stretching has so many benefits! Set aside 15 minutes to stretch or try a guided yoga practice. Yoga with Adriene has some great free yoga videos of all lengths on her website. I also love Peloton yoga classes if you have access to the app.
Flax, chia, and hemp seeds are all great sources of brain- and heart-healthy omega 3s. Pick one and sprinkle some in your yogurt, on your salad, or in your cereal.
Show your body some love… write down 5 reasons your grateful for your body. Post it in a prominent place where you’ll see it often, such as your closet or on your bathroom mirror.
One of my favorite ways to get more veggies into my day is to include some at breakfast, a meal we might not always associate with veggies. Add them to eggs, make some avocado toast and pile it high with veg, make a quiche, or throw some in a smoothie.
Do a 3 bite check in at each meal today. Before your meal: take a deep breath to center yourself and assess your hunger levels; how hungry do you feel? During your meal: how’s the food tasting? How are your hunger levels changing? Towards the end of your meal: Are you full? Does it feel pleasant or unpleasant? Do you feel satisfied? Checking in like this not only helps builds connection with your body and its eating cues but it also provides you with powerful feedback to guide your eating choices.
This is the only type of detox I’ll ever recommend… do a diet culture detox. Turn off diet and weight loss advertisements when you hear them on the TV or radio. Unfollow social media accounts promoting diets, before and after images, touting weight loss, or any others that make you feel badly about your food choices or your body. Change the subject on conversations about dieting or that involve negative comments about bodies (your own or anyone elses’s).
Get some vitamin D… strap on your shoes and get walking! I love to listen to audiobooks and podcasts while I walk—or, added bonus, make a walking date with a friend!
Spend 10-15 minutes journaling today to process your emotions and quiet your mind. Here are a few prompts that may be helpful: What does an ideal day look like for you? What’s your WHY behind your food and self-care goals? What’s one thing you need to let go of in order to better prioritize your self-care?
Seafood is rich in heart-healthy omega 3s, which help fight inflammation and support cognitive function. Remember the acronym SMASHT for the best sources… sardines, mackerel, anchovies, salmon, herring, tuna. Here’s a super easy salmon recipe you may want to try.
Before you reach for food today, check in with your body. Are you feeling physically hungry? Or is this more of an emotional hunger? If it’s emotional, what specifically are you feeling? Consider whether food is the best way to address this or if it would be more helpful to go for a walk, call a friend, journal, rest, or engage in some other form of self care.
Turmeric is an Indian spice with anti-inflammatory properties. One of my favorite ways to enjoy it is to make a turmeric latte. Here’s my recipe!
Choose a body positive mantra and repeat it to yourself as often as possible. Here are some of my favorite options: all bodies are good bodies… my body is my partner and my home… I accept my body just as it is… I am so much more than a body.
Make a nutrient dense smoothie for breakfast or a snack today. Here are some of my favorite recipes for you to try.
Ditch the food guilt and commit to savoring your food instead. Choose one meal or dessert and enjoy the heck out of it. Focus on the flavors, textures, colors, aromas, and more. Pretend you’re an alien from another planet who has never had or seen this food. Notice all the sensory aspects and observe how this changes the eating experience.
Get meal ready and choose three meals you’d like to make this week. Perhaps pick one new recipe to try and choose two other meals you know you can make easily that everyone enjoys.
Un-budget your movement. We all get thrifty with our physical activity by calling out to people in the next room, asking others to grab something for us, parking close to the store, taking the elevator, piling everything up at the bottom of the stairs to save a trip up, and on and on. Today, do the opposite—un-budget these activities and get your body up and moving as frequently as you can.
Cinnamon has anti-inflammatory properties, is rich in antioxidants, and may help with blood sugar regulation. Make a big mug of hot water and flavor it with a cinnamon stick and lemon wedge. Bonus: this is a fun way to contribute to your hydration needs today!
Use visual plate wisdom today: at each meal fill half your plate with fruits and veg.
Foods rich in probiotics are great for gut health. Try yogurt, fermented sauerkraut (I like the Cleveland Kraut brand), miso, kombucha, or kimchi.
You know that voice in your head that makes harsh comments about your body as you go about your day? Possibly it says things to you that you would never in a million years say to anyone else? Let’s practice thought-stopping today! Whenever you notice a negative body thought creeping in, stop it in its tracks. Literally say to yourself, “that’s an unkind thought. I’m going to send myself love and compassion in this moment.”
What’s gone well for you this week? Jump into our Health and Healing Community with Intuitive Eating now and tell us all about your 3 biggest self-care wins so we can help cheer you on. Not on Facebook? Find another way to celebrate some recent successes.
Write a love note to your body… not sure what to write? Think about what you’re grateful for, experiences you’ve had in your body, things your body has allowed you to do. Show it some love like you would your best friend or romantic partner. Save this somewhere to pull back out when you’re having a difficult body image day.
Swap in some whole grains today. Choose a whole grain bread, try a new grain (bulgur, quinoa, barley, or farro are all fun), choose a whole grain pasta, or have brown rice.
Beans have loads of health benefits and add fiber to your meals. Rinse some canned beans and throw them on your salads, add them to a grain dish, toss them in a soup, or make a simple bean salad.
Do you have lots of “rules” you try to follow when it comes to your food choices? Typically, these come straight from diet culture, are weight-loss driven, rigid, and often not grounded in nutrition science. For example, perhaps you think you should never eat sweets… try to avoid carbs or high-fat foods because you believe they’ll make you gain weight… maybe you rigidly count your calories each day… or perhaps you only allow yourself to eat in certain time windows. In intuitive eating we call these thoughts the food police. They make healthful eating unnecessarily stressful and overwhelming and often lead to all-or-nothing approaches to food. Try catching these food police thoughts, consider them critically, and break one you no longer need.
More often than not, we’re working, driving, reading, scrolling social media, or doing any number of other things while we eat. This makes it really difficult to tune into hunger and fullness cues and how food makes us feel (or how we want to feel at the end of the meal). Minimize distractions while you eat today. See if you can simply be present with your food—perhaps set a nice place setting at the table, eat at a picnic table outside, or light a candle. Make it a bit “extra.” 💚