Why the title, "Intuitive Fitness?"

This blog post applies to anyone who is still reading my blogs, I will be creating my own website and I believe I will be slapping this name to it, "Intuitive Fitness."

To justify my title is simply because I feel, from my perspective, this is most applicable to our life-styles in health and fitness. It ties strongly to our bodies psychological and physiological aspects.

"Intuition"

My theory: Most methods, principles, and practices we espoused to in our life are usually based on intuition.

Intuition - "knowledge or belief obtained neither by reason nor by perception"

Intuition -  "The reliability of one's intuition depends greatly on past knowledge and occurrences in a specific area" - Some random Wikipedia quote. (I like it)

My logic and reasoning may be so simple and even laughable, but begs for some form of contemplation.

• You eat what is palatable for you. 
• Palatable - agreeable or satisfying to the taste
•  You eat to be satiated for you.
• Satiation - to satisfy a appetite or desire; to satisfy to excess
• You eat to live for you.
• All food is energy and it comes in multiple forms. 
  

So basically you simply eat and act based off of your intuition with a mixture of rationale in some cases, meaning; your trying to lose weight, your trying to be healthy, your trying to gain muscle, or your trying to prepare for a athletic event.
   
Why Intuitive Fitness?

A Hypothetical Example: Me

Before I begin this example, think about intuition and how it applies to you. If intuition is making decisions based on experience with a lack of rationale; you may begin to understand the why, what, where, and when you employ specific lifestyles, methods, and/or practices. Sometimes we just have never thought of why we do things.

James Christensen (me) has a dire need for ice creams and extreme tastes that pleasure his mouth. Sounds gross doesn't it? He wants to fulfill his palatable and satiation needs. He also really has a need to feel satiated. Often times, more than others, he has a huge appetite.

A close friend proposes the idea that he employs a vegan diet because James wants to feel and eat healthier. While at the same time, James want's to employ some weight training and aerobic activity because he want's to "tone up" and lose fat. His friend told him he cannot have any processed foods, must be low-sodium, and no animal products to be a vegan. He also shouldn't be eating any ice-cream or candy.

(Understand his friend is a little extreme)

James begins his new found diet and because he is passionate about change he adheres to this dietary method to the best of his ability. Because he cannot have ice-cream or other things he craves he will eventually run into psychological and physiological obstacles. He also was losing strength and his exercises sucked. He would eventually fail his diet and turn to his vices (ice cream and reeses) and binge for his palatbility and satiation needs simply because the vegan diet is not for him and he was not reaching his goals.

Does this mean the vegan diet is a failed practice or method to maintain a healthy life-style? Absolutely not. This is not a vegan bashing blog post; I just simply used an example of something
I (James Christensen) could not and would not do.

Problem is James was probably doing this diet and not adhering to fundamentals of the bodies needs. He was probably limiting sodium to a low level so is energy sucked. He was lacking essential micro-nutrients such as: iron or calcium. He did not have a high intake of protein to maintain or gain muscle. In conclusion he was not being a smart vegan.

Here's the point thou. He can make the vegan diet work if he would just do these things:

• Consume foods with the essential micro/macro nutrients he was in need of.
• Supplementation - he may just have to if he's going to maintain a well-rounded diet.
• Adhere to energy balance based on his goals. 
• It's easy to under-eat if all you eat it veggies and fruit. He needs to be sure he gets more caloric-dense foods in such as nuts and soy.

Most of our life-styles or behaviors (whatever you want to call it) we revert back to because of our intuition.

You can almost draw a parallel of intuition to instinct. James Christensen goes after ice-cream because it is his instinctive comfort food. He knows it will always be satiating and palatable to the taste. He does not need to rationalize that any further. It makes him happy! This is a problem and he needs a plan to control it. He needs a plan so he can know when that ice cream is appropriate for his goals.

Everything I just described are all factors and/or variables that people face in their pursuit of their goals in fitness/nutrition. They need to learn the ability to intuitively eat along with their goals.

What is intuitive eating? The ability to eat what you want and need that will be conducive to your aesthetic/fitness goals. It is a ability that one day through consistent practice you can become a master at. I believe men/woman like: Martin Berkhan, JC Deen, Roger Law, Alan Aragon, Lyle Mcdonald, Leigh Peele, and many others have mastered this ability or are still perfecting it.

Don't you at one point in time want to eat what you want and exercise how you want so it will be conducive to your goals? This is what I am about to share and promote with those I respect and learned from; it's possible. It is possible to make fitness compliment your life and not be your life.

Why Intuitive Fitness?
  
No true behavior change can take place without consulting the needs and wants of a individual. You must get deep and discover what they want. You must create the goals in mind. You must feed that intuition that's a part of their character.

Soon enough you can employ the practices and methods that are conducive to their goals and wants. Be it Cross Fit, South Beach Diet, Ketogenic Diet, Lean Gains, Paleo, Fast-Food diet, etc. Whatever you want to call it.

A template for a healthy lifestyle (mentally, physically, emotionally) only works when it aligns with that person's needs and wants. 


All diets/exercises work as long as the fundamentals are obeyed in the context of the individuals goals. Find what you want and perform intuitively.