How to use meditation to be better at intuitive eating

Jul 29, 2023 | Podcast

What’s the difference between mindfulness, intuitive eating, and meditation?

If mindfulness is the umbrella, intuitive eating is the person holding the umbrella while a downpour of diet culture BS rains down.

In the words of Dr. Michelle May, mindfulness “isn’t about being good, it’s about feeling good!”

Meditation and other mindfulness practices can help you reconnect to your hunger, satisfaction, fullness, and compassionate curiosity – all of which are fundamental intuitive eating skills.

Jenna Hollenstein, MS, RD, CDN, is a nutrition therapist, meditation teacher, and author of five books. Her work combines intuitive eating, trauma-sensitive mindfulness, polyvagal theory, and other embodied modalities.

Her latest books include Intuitive Eating for Life: How Mindfulness Can Deepen and Sustain Your Intuitive Eating Practice and Eat to Love: A Mindful Guide to Transforming Your Relationship with Food, Body, and Life.

Jenna’s work has been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Self, Health, Lion’s Roar, Mindful, Vogue, Elle, Glamour, Women’s World, and U.S. News & World Report. Jenna lives in the greater New York City, NY, area.

Jenna Hollenstein, nutrition therapist, author, and meditation teacher — Intuitive eating and meditation enhance each other as practices of mindfulness

Here’s what you’ll learn from our conversation:

1. Jenna describes her own unraveling and recovery from alcohol through her meditation practice and intuitive eating. She shares, “when I began meditating, my brain exploded with all the connections between Buddhist philosophy and the behaviors and substances we use to change how we feel: dieting, drinking, shopping, working, etc.”

2. In her newest book Intuitive Eating for Life, Jenna talks about the 4 foundations of mindfulness and how can they support the practice of intuitive eating.

3. We talk about our definitions of intuitive eating as a practice of mindfulness – one that you get to do at least 3 times a day!

4. Finally, Jenna shares how meditation can support an intuitive eating practice in midlife.