To meal plan or not?

The benefits of intuitive eating and food freedom is that you have less stress over what foods to eat since you give your permission to eat ALL the foods.

There are many recommendations and tips out there that meal prep and meal planning is essential to develop healthy eating habits.

So how would meal planning fit in all of this?

Meal planning does put a block into trying to eat intuitively at first, since you are working on trying to practice without rules around eating.

Meal prepping would be more practical in this case, but if you are not careful it can also turn into a stressful practice that can cause burnout.

This is what happened to me. During the winter months, I devoted a lot of time to planning and preparing meals. Although I do enjoy cooking, it got to the point where I was so overwhelmed with it.

I was trying real hard to make great grand meals 6-7 days a week. I read up on food blogs a lot and there are SO many creative recipes out there and was so committed to bring beautiful wholesome meals to my family. I was planning and calculating so much what was going to be made when and what. I didn’t avoid any foods into my meal planning whatsoever so I thought I’d be ok.

I did do some meal prepping on Sundays which made me feel bummed out that the meal prepping I was doing only lasted through Wednesday.

One day I just had a lightbulb moment after trying to figure out what was it that was burning me out so much? Overdoing the meal prep and planning.

Yikes.

So I scaled back. I decided I did wanted to keep meal prepping breakfast that would last up to three days and not worry about the rest of the week. I’ve dedicated to make at least 2-3 dinners from scratch per week and get support with frozen meals for the rest of the days. Make meals more simple (tacos,spaghetti,etc) and more robust if only I had the energy and desire to do so, but not be militant about it. One day to just do take out with something as simple as pizza. Lunch would be either leftovers or something simple like sandwiches.

As we head towards spring and into summer, I am excited to be aware of this now because the last thing I would want to do is hover over the stove for hours on end with the weather being nice and days being longer. I am looking now for a nice sized picnic blanket to take our meals outdoors and looking up all the sandwich and pasta salad recipes which don’t require using the oven or a lot of time. If you have any good ones send them over!

Here’s to making meals simple,without guilt, and work for you and your family,

Deanna

P.S I am bringing back the Intuitive Wellness Cafe podcast and would love to know what topics you’d like me to cover! Let me know and email me deanna@deannakozarov.com

The one statement I tell myself when clothes don’t fit.

When it comes to trying and buying clothes, there is one statement that I keep in mind when your body is changing after no longer dieting.

I found a pair of snow pants on sale online and immediately ordered my size. My daughter found a pair too. We were excited to get them because that means being able to create memories sledding in the snow. We have an amazing hill called Cricket Hill here in Chicago that all the city kids and parents go to when there is a big snowfall.

Once my snow pants arrived in the mail, I immediately tried them on just to make sure before I decided to throw away the bag.

I was not able to get them to button up at all, and they fit VERY snug on my body.

Just great!

I felt defeated at that point. And thoughts started to creep in:

“But I am a large in pants so why don’t these fit?”

“Did I gain more weight?”

“I probably should just give up on this whole non-diet thing and just go on a diet.”

“Maybe I should keep them and one day they will fit me.”

I then remembered this one statement that I had learned in my coaching practice that has really helped accepted my now body and reframed my thoughts to this:

“My clothes fit my body, NOT the other way around.”

If you want to keep going, here are other ones I use:

“I have many pants in the same size. Not all companies use the same measurements.”

” I can’t justify keeping these in my closet if they don’t fit, and that would be a waste of money, I need to find a pair NOW that will fit my current body.”

So right then and there I decided it was not me, it was the snow pants, and happily packaged them back up and returned them to UPS. I put down the reason why I was returning them: ” the snow pants did not fit my body and there is no reason to keep them if I am not going to use them.”

So try these reframes next time you are in a situation where you are trying on clothes and they end up not being in alignment with your body.

Here’s to clothes that fit your body, not the other way around,

-Deanna

How I’m being gentle with myself this winter.

With the New Year comes the pressure to jumpstart those goals you have been meaning to do and get to work.

While goals are great, and I have them too, I invite you to take a different perspective for these next couple months as we dive into the depths of the winter season.

The last week of December my house got hit with the flu, and I kind of was expecting it-I have been keeping myself too busy and was on the go with no frequent breaks, and it caught up to me. We had to cancel plans to spend Christmas Eve in the city. My body was telling me, “time to slow down kid. “

So week of Christmas was spent nursing my family and me back to health with deep rest and endless holiday movies to keep us entertained.

I have to add that I have never been SO grateful to get my appetite back after getting better, because I was so sick I wasn’t even able to make a holiday meal or bake Christmas cookies with my daughter. It made me appreciate having a peaceful relationship with food even more.

After I had recovered and we went into New Year’s Day- I wanted to keep the momentum going. I have been interested in dealing with life according to the seasons to the best of my ability. Winter is often known as the quiet season with more rest, pause, and reflecting. Sure, we will still have obligations that we can’t avoid, but we can try to minimize the amount of expectations we have of ourselves this time of year.

Nature around us does it,but society wants us to operate as if it was in the middle of summertime. The two just don’t align.

The Swedish are known very well for resting in the winter also known as “Hygge”, and I can’t blame them.

Here are some ideas that I am planning on doing or already doing to embrace these winter months. Feel free to borrow them:

-Baking

-Painting

-Watching Movies

-Reading

-Drink more teas

-Naps

– Visiting local coffee shops

-Enjoy the snow when possible: sledding, building a snowman

-Making Soups

-Moving my body: virtual barre classes and strengthening exercises 1-3 times a week total

Which ones will you try? What would you add to this list? Hit reply and let me know, I would love to hear about it!

Stay warm,

Deanna

P.S-I am getting ready to start up season 2 of the Intuitive Wellness Cafe Podcast! If you have any questions regarding intuitive eating, diet culture, intuitive movement, body concerns or anything related to non-diet wellness feel free to reply here with your question for your chance for it to be featured on my podcast. The questions discussed will be always anonymous and may benefit others who listen in.

Two questions you can ask yourself if you want to eat emotionally.

Emotional eating is a complicated topic for many when in reality it can be simple.

First off, you do not need “food rules” in order to “stop eating emotionally”. Feelings are natural after all, we are human.

Also, some people cope with unmet needs and uncomfortable feelings by restricting food, bingeing, or even just the act of eating itself. It is a way to help them feel safe and soothe.

The key here is to build your emotional toolbox and turn to other ways as well to deal with unmet needs and uncomfortable feelings because sometimes food may not be effective when it comes to dealing with your emotions.

Two questions you can ask yourself:

“What am I feeling, now?”

“What do I need, now?”

And if you are not sure it’s ok, the act of being aware and checking in with yourself is progress in itself. If your needs were obvious, you wouldn’t be always turning to food.

But definitely check in and see if you are hungry first and foremost, since having hunger especially if it is extreme can mask itself as anger,anxious etc also.

Sometimes one of the options can be dealing with the feeling directly such as, sit with your feelings for 10 minutes, write in a journal etc.

I work with women on topics such as emotionally eating in depth and can help build your emotional toolbox if needed. If you would like to work with me 1:1, apply for my 1:1 Coaching Program to see if we’re a good fit. You can click on this link to apply: Click here to Apply for 1:1 Coaching.

Take that cat nap.

We finally made it through Thanksgiving weekend. It is now Sunday as I am writing this and we got our first snowfall in Chicago. Tree is up. We are good to go.

I went to bed a little on the late side the night before but did wake up at a decent hour, not too early, not too late. I began to make breakfast and had my coffee but yet, I was still SO tired. “What gives?” I thought to myself.

These snowy days and wintry weather does make me want to take a nap too, you know what I mean, those days where there is no sunlight in sight and all you want to do was nap,but I was fighting it, there was still so much to do! I had to get going on working on my content for this blog and for my business,needed to do grocery shopping, prepare dinner and had to fold laundry. No way can I stop and take a nap!

But as I stated, nothing was helping me gain more energy to do it all, not even my second round of coffee that happened to be a triple espresso latte. Nothing.

So I took that nap. Ten minutes.

I got so much energy just from that cat nap.

I bounced back up and took that snowy walk to the grocery store and lugged that big bag back home.

I finished dinner by 6:15ish pm. I was on a roll.

And I also mustered up the energy to write this post.

What did I learn? That sometimes we need to just stop in the hustle and bustle and just REST. If I needed a nap for more than 10 minutes, I would have. Because no caffeine boost or even food was going to get my energy back up, it was to rest. That was it.

But sometimes you have to do that trial and error to know what your body really wants. It is all part of being intuitive with your body.

So if all else fails, take that cat nap.

This is a reminder to rest,take a nap,have a dance party in the kitchen, whatever it is to help you get that energy boost as we get into the busy holiday season.

Let me know how it goes! And share this post to anyone that you might feel would benefit.

-Deanna

How the act of habituation helped me stop bingeing on potato chips.

When I first started my Intuitive Eating/Food Freedom journey, one of the first foods that I had started eating again after years of restricting was a big bag of potato chips.

For years I would not let them in the house. I would eat nacho chips or “whole grain” chips since for some reason I thought those were “healthier”

But potato chips, for some reason I thought I needed to stay as far away from them as possible because I had thought they are so “bad” for me.

When I would “occasionally” get them during my dieting days, I would literally end up eating the entire bag since I felt I will not be able to have them again because you know, they were “bad”, feel guilty ,and get stomach pains, and then not eat them for months at a time even years before I would get them again, only to go through the same cycle.

When I did let them back in my home, my mind and body somehow felt that this can happen again so of course, I would end up eating the whole bag.

Instead of feeling guilty and what I now know about Intuitive Eating. I let them back in the house over and over and over again until the allure of potato chips diminished into non-existent. This is also known as “habituation”.

I am sure those in the beginning stages of intuitive eating who are figuring this out is going through the same thing, and I want to let you know that this is normal. You are still learning to trust your body after years of dieting, years of restriction, years of labeling foods as “good” and “bad”.

And this is not an overnight thing. Every individual is different but it took me an awful long time to get to where I am now, having potato chips knowing I can have them anytime. When this happens, it is truly magic. I even myself couldn’t believe it at first.

What is one food that you are struggling with right now? Let me know in the comments or email me at deanna@deannakozarov.com.

When that Aunt comments on your body and how to respond (holiday edition).

It’s the most wonderful time of the year but for many of us it comes with a sense of dread.

*Enter holiday family gatherings.*

You are practicing intuitive eating, food freedom, and your body may have changed. You probably have not seen family members in over a year and now it’s time to see them again.

And you have of course that one family member, the judgemental one or two who will indeed, comment on your body and food choices:

“You gained weight.”

“You are going to really eat that?”

“You HAVE to finish your plate, I made it especially for this occasion.”

And so on.

I have definitely encountered this and heck, just because I am an Intuitive Eating Coach does not mean I am immune to these comments.

So here are some tips that may help:

-You can respond back with the weight gain comment with “You haven’t seen me in over a year and this is the first thing you say to me?”

-You can choose to change the subject.

-The good ol’ “ignore them” always works.

-You can respond with “my body is not for discussion” if it feels comfortable for you to say.

-If the body/diet talk continues, I would get up and excuse yourself and say “be right back, need to use the restroom” and avoid that person if you can. You are not obligated to connect with someone that will body shame you or talk about dieting non-stop just because they are related to you.

-As far as having a relative push you to join the “clean plate club” I would politely say “no thank you, I stop when I am full, but the food was great.”

-Remind yourself to give compassion to these people. They are also entrenched deeply in diet culture, and don’t know any better. These people’s minds will not be changed in a split second, you and I both know this takes months and even years to unpack the diet culture messages out there. Just keep telling yourself “yea diet culture is still out there, and these people still hold these beliefs that being in a smaller body is better for you and that diets work, when in reality they don’t.” Or anything that involves practicing compassion towards people who are in the toxic diet culture cycle.

Hope these tips help! Which response(s) will you use on your next holiday gathering? Let me know in the comments below or send me an email at deanna@deannakozarov.com. I would love to know!

And if you would like to be coached 1:1 during the holidays, this is the best time to do so and get additional support. Apply and I will see if we are a good fit for my 1:1 Coaching program. Apply here the following link: Apply for 1:1 Coaching.

Here’s to a peaceful relationship with food and body during the holidays,

-Deanna

Give yourself permission to take a break.

As the season changed over to fall and new routines are being established, I want to just remind you that you have permission to take a break from the things you have been working on.

Maybe it’s from that project you have been working so hard on.

Maybe it’s from the workouts you have been doing, and you rather take a week off or just do a basic walk watching the leaves change colors.

Maybe it’s spending more time making your coffee in the comfort of your home as opposed to getting one from a cafe. Or maybe the opposite.

Maybe it’s the cooking spree you have been on and want to just pop in frozen meals for awhile.

We could all use breaks from time to time, and the old saying goes “don’t give up or quit, just rest” or something to that effect.

I hope you give yourself permission to take breaks. If you don’t believe you can, you can borrow my belief that taking breaks is important. I give you permission to do so.

How will you be taking breaks this season? Would love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at deanna@deannakozarov.com or comment below.

Here’s to taking breaks in the new season,

Deanna

“Sometimes it’s cheese quesadillas and frozen macarons for dinner.”

One of the benefits of living a life of food freedom and away from diet culture is that self-care besides food is on the forefront more often than not.

Last month and this month so far has been real busy and it appears that I may be burning out, I know part of it is not taking a long extended time off like I usually do in the summer despite trying to maintain some sort of morning/night/ after work routine. But even taking time off is only temporary. It is important to have a toolbox of ways to relieve stress and take time off for yourself as part of your daily routine.

But self-care is not just bubble baths and massages. I even developed a sel-care calendar that has 30 ideas on how to practice self-care that goes beyond candles and bubble baths. It also may mean shortcutting your meals so that you can have more time to yourself and your family.

And that is exactly what we did the other day.

Soon as I finished up work, I took myself and my daughter down by the beach which is about a 10 minute walk from our house. It was an unusual warm October day so we went and took advantage of it with my daughter. It was exactly what we needed. I refused to dread the whole “what’s for dinner” and spend hours at the stove this day. I do love to cook but sometimes cooking elaborate meals that take long just don’t cut it.

So for dinner we had cheese quesadillas and frozen macarons that we picked up from Aldi.

Was this a fully nutritious meal? Hardly. Was it good enough and satisfying? Yes it was. Do we eat like this all the time? Nope. but there are seasons in life where you may have to wing it and just have quesadillas and frozen macarons for dinner sometimes.

We wanted to spend more time outdoors because soon the weather in Chicago will change to the point where it gets dark at 5 pm and cool down significantly. Summers and summer like weather in Chicago is short and we take advantage of it as much as we can.

And that is the beauty of food freedom. Without the guilt that you only had quesadillas and frozen macarons for dinner. Or whatever short-cut meals you can think of to maximize quality time with family and friends. And that is part of well-being too.

P.S- I am hosting my very first book club event discussion for those in the Chicago area this month! Details are in the link here if you would like to join us! You can RSVP at my Meetup Group by clicking the following here: Food Freedom Women’s Chicago Book Club Event. See you there!

“Not Dieting” vs Intuitive Eating-what is the difference?

Intuitive eating is an up and down journey that is not linear and not a step by step process. Even Evelyn Tribole who spearheaded this concept states this in her book.

So it is totally normal if you go from dieting for years, even decades, to just simply eating everything and anything because Intuitive Eating means eat whatever you want right?

Yes and no.

Once you learn all foods fit, and diets don’t work, and you are able to listen to your hunger and fullness cues, it doesn’t stop there.

You need to add gentle nutrition.

Are donuts ok to eat? Yup. All foods fit remember? There are no such thing as “good” or “bad” foods. But after eating them oh I don’t know, 2-3 days in a row, do you really want to? Probably not. Your body will tell you, it will say hey, kinda feel not so great eating this all the time, let’s add something else to this-maybe some yogurt or something to give me energy.

Let’s take pizza for example. As a true Chicagoan, I LOVE pizza. I can maybe eat it two days in a row tops, but after the 3rd of fourth day, not really.

Recently, I wanted to take a break from working at my desk at home on a Friday Morning and stop by the coffee shop down the street to snag a Boston creme donut. They just recently started selling them there which was so exciting to me as they stopped selling donuts right after the pandemic ended. I got myself the last one (it was waiting for me). I then decided since the weather was so nice that day, to eat it on the bench by the lake.

I went to that same coffee shop again that weekend and only aimed for a pumpkin spiced latte, even though they had an abundant supply of those donuts. It just didn’t appeal to me, and I had a hearty breakfast before I went there. But I do know that I can have that Boston Creme donut anytime since I believe now that all foods fit. But I wanted to make sure I incorporated something a little more nutrient dense to power through my projects for the day.

You are definitely not perpetuating diet culture if your body is telling you it wants a salad today, or to lay off the donuts for a few days. Your body is always communicating with you, listen to that. And yes, this takes practice.

It’s totally normal to go from one extreme to other when trying to stop dieting at the beginning and rid yourself of the diet mentality. But true Intuitive Eating is listening to your body whether it is telling you it wants a donut for comfort and satisfaction or a salad and some eggs for energy and nutrients. Of course, there is so much more to this too, and I go deeper on this topic and more in my 1:1 Private Coaching program. If interested, apply at the link here to see if it would be a good fit. Click this link to Apply.