Deciding WHAT to eat used to be a PAINFUL process for me. There were so many different voices in my head: What I instinctively wanted, what the latest Glamour article told me I should be eating, what my Instagram idol was eating, and what I thought my mom would want me to eat.

I would literally roam the streets of the East Village because I couldn’t decide what to have.

Should I sit at a restaurant? Get takeout? Cook at home? Macrobiotic food? A burger? Pizza? Raw vegan salad? Groceries at the health food store?

It was a NIGHTMARE. I felt stuck and paralyzed and drowning in “shoulds.”

I realize I’m incredibly privileged to have so many choices, but the truth is, that can make it 10x harder.

I was trying to listen to my intuition, but it was like I couldn’t even hear it because it was buried under layers of advice and years of eating what I thought I should eat rather than what my body actually wanted.

That was from around 16-22, and tapered off from then.

It’s not a linear process and I still have moments where I’m not sure what to eat, but they’re few and far between, and the internal dialogue is fun and playful versus doom and gloom.

Like playing a goofy game, unattached to the end result, versus feeling scared of what I might choose and what it might “do to my body.”

Because the truth is that it doesn’t matter that much. What you eat is important, but it’s more important to stop letting food determine your mood and worth. Let it go.

So what are the three best ways to decide WHAT to eat when you have a million different voices chirping in your head?

1. Intuition.

This is the best way to know what to eat. You get an intuitive hit and go with it without questioning yourself.

But, it can take time to hone this skill. It’s one of the primary skills my clients master in my 6-month Good Taste Transformation.

If you feel out of touch with your intuitive side, do a little experiment where you only eat based on your intuition for a full week.

Keep a little journal with you and notice how you feel after each intuitive meal.

You can strengthen your intuition by learning what works for you through self-observation.

Eating intuitively takes the pressure off your logical mind and lets you stay in your flow without getting tripped up in rules and calories.

It’s worth it to do this experiment and keep flexing your intuitive eating muscles through practice.

Once you master intuitive eating, this is the #1 way to know what to eat.

It can be a little rocky as you practice, since your intuition might be clouded by preprogramming, superficial cravings, and what your friends are eating.

2. Pleasure.

This is my second favorite way to know what to eat. When you’re hungry, ask yourself, “What would bring me pleasure?”

When you’re looking forward to your meal, your mouth starts to water and your digestion revs up. This leads you to metabolize your food efficiently, absorbing the nutrients and getting rid of any waste. No bloat, no weight gain.

When you eat food that doesn’t taste good, your system doesn’t get excited and you don’t digest your food as well, or get that mental satisfaction that leads you to naturally stop when you’re done. Hello, bloating and weight gain.

Choose food that sounds, looks, and tastes good and eat it slowly to give your stomach a chance to tell your brain you’re full.

3. Nutrients.

This comes last because although it’s helpful, it can be the most cerebral and therefore confusing way to know what to eat.

BUT, it can be useful if I’m not having a strong craving or intuitive hit.

99% of the time I am, because I’m a total instinctual hedonist, but sometimes I’m like “Meh, I just need to get some nutrients in.”

If you know the nutrients you generally need, you can quickly go over what you’ve eaten that day, and perhaps the day or two before.

For example, sometimes I totally get into a cheese haze and forget that I need high-quality, grass-fed red meat almost every day to keep my energy and iron up. I’m anemic and have low blood pressure, and it’s helped me a lot.

Sometimes I forget vegetables and I’ll realize I haven’t had any all day and a big plate of sautéed kale with garlic sounds amazing.

See what I’m doing here? This approach is a combination of knowing what you need and what you’ve eaten recently and filling in the gaps.

I use the intuitive approach 99% of the time, after years of honing it. Pleasure is always a part of that, and the nutrients get into my body somewhere between those two, since I’ve become extremely tuned in to what my body needs, for both pleasure and nutrition.

Do you have trouble deciding what to eat? It used to be TORTURE for me.

Which of these three approaches will you experiment with this week?

Will you do the 1-week intuitive eating experiment? That’s where you ONLY eat what your intuition tells you to for a full week, and you observe yourself by using a journal or note in your iPhone to track how you feel after each intuitive meal.

Leave a comment below and tell me your game plan. I can’t wait to hear from you, beauty. 🙂

Photo: Shireen Bawnlavery