Do you recognize feelings of hunger and fullness? How do you respond?

If you’ve gotten into the habit of ignoring your feelings of hunger or intentionally under-eating when they come up, it’s time to tune back in.

If you’ve gone through periods of restriction, you can’t expect an instant ability to tune into your body. You’ve been denying your true, physical feelings for a while, so it will take time to recalibrate.

Here’s what happens when you get into the habit of ignoring your hunger cues:

1. You’ll have a hard time maintaining energy because you can no longer feel hunger or fullness, and it becomes harder to recognize these cues.

2. You start to crave foods without much nutritional value. It’s likely that if you’re ignoring hunger cues, you’re also paying little attention to what food you might actually need to power through your dancing.

A common practice that encourages you to ignore your hunger altogether:

Dieting.

It’s true. Most diets suggest that you ignore your hunger cues and undereat to meet your goals. I’m sure you’ve heard the myth of “calories in vs. calories out” and the principle that to lose weight, all you need to do is create a calorie deficit.

So many dancers fall into the trap of severely undereating to meet body goals. This compromises your bone health, recovery, energy, and strength.

The value of listening to your body.

Dance training and development is served by the ability to tune in closely to your body. The ability to know when to stop dancing due to injury is invaluable, and knowing when to eat more to support your dancing is equally essential.

Many dancers have a hard time with both those skills — do you?

By listening to your body, you’ll avoid worsening an injury as it’s starting. Early injury intervention can, of course, help lessen time away from dance and speed recovery time.

When you listen to your body and give it the food it needs when it needs it, you’re boosting immunity, keeping cravings at bay, and supporting strong muscles and bones.

If you’re already disconnected from your body’s cues:

Put some regular practices in place to tune back in.

Dancers often say, “it feels good when I feel hungry.” While I understand where they’re coming from (yes, I’ve been there), when you get to a place where you feel good running on empty, it’s possible you’re in disordered eating territory. Obviously, there are other factors, but if you relate to that feeling, take a closer look.

The more disconnected you get from your body’s cues, the harder it is to find balance with food and to reach your personal best body.

You’ll also be more likely to give in to cravings and fall into patterns of undereating or restricting and overeating or binge eating.

If you have the goal to reconnect to your body so you can identify your hunger and fullness cues, but you’re not there yet, start with these tenants of “Structured Eating.”

Structured Eating maintains the following guidelines: 

• Eat within the first 30-60 minutes of waking.
• Eat every 3-4 hours so that you are eating 3 meals and 1-3 snacks per day.
• Balanced meals include proteins, carbohydrates, fats, fruits, and vegetables.    
• Balanced snacks include protein, fats, and either complex carbohydrates, fruits, or vegetables. 
• Mini meals may help with blood sugar and symptom control in the late afternoon. 

Here are some additional tips to tune into your body again.

1. Make sure you keep healthy snacks handy — that way, when hunger strikes, you’ll be able to respond.
2. Stay aware of the timing of your meals and snacks, and eat every 3-4 hours. Never go more than the 5-Hour Rule.
3. When you’re hungry, EAT.
4. While you eat, pay attention to how you feel (physically, mentally, AND emotionally).
5. Stop eating BEFORE you’re “full.”
6. If you use an app to track your food intake and calories, STOP.
7. Try to move away from letting food choices be influenced by friends or family.

If you find that these tips aren’t quite getting you to where you want to be, don’t be afraid to seek support from a health coach who works with dancers in order to create a balanced relationship with food and your body. It is often necessary to get an outside perspective to make these adjustments. A holistic health coach can help you adjust your lifestyle and approach to food so you can wholly tune into your body. 

The post Why honoring your hunger cues is essential. appeared first on The Whole Dancer.

During these uncertain times, a Vision for your future could be exactly the inspiration you need to stay focused on your goals without fear. In times of uncertainty or stress, a Vision provides a light at the end of a sometimes challenging tunnel.

In business, a Vision is written to define purpose and direction. A personal Vision can be used in a similar way to guide and motivate you towards your biggest goals and dreams.

When I work with dancers individually, one of the first things we do is create a Vision. 

My client Malena wrote a Vision for her future. She imagined her ideal life in 1, 3, and 5 years in the future. She saw herself ultimately getting a contract with Pacific Northwest Ballet.

From her end goals, we worked backwards to craft smaller goals. They included getting into the PNB Summer Intensive, then getting accepted into the Professional Division. From there, she could get the contract offer.

Malena always had her Vision to come back to when things got tough or stressful. It was the “why” behind her hard work. It provided motivation when she was lacking and pushed her to stay focused and on task.

She was just offered her contract with PNB and was amazed. She said, “I can’t believe it, it’s exactly what I wrote in my Vision 3 years ago.”

How to write your own Vision:

Dream big! If you had a magic wand, what would your life look like in 1 year? 3 years? 5 years? 

Write your Vision in the present tense (e.g., I am dancing with Carolina Ballet as an apprentice), and include all the life details that get you excited. Think about where you’re dancing, what your position is, roles you’d like to perform, where you live, how you feel, what lights you up.

From your Vision, craft your goals:

This is about imagining what’s possible for your future if you really go for it. These goals are about the steps and work you have to do to make that Vision a reality.

Some goals might be more concrete: “I’ll attend the PNB Summer intensive and get into the highest level.” While others might be more abstract: “I’ll improve my mindset so I can dance with greater confidence in auditions and classes.”

Whichever goals you’re looking at, make sure you come up with action steps that can support you in reaching your desired outcome. For the examples above, what technical aspects of your dancing need work to help you get into the intensive? How will you work on them?

For the mindset piece, maybe you’ll employ daily positive journaling exercises to shift your thought patterns or work with a coach to gain additional insights into what might be holding you back.

Think about where you should train in order to dance with the company of your dreams. Are there any connections you can make or people you can work with to get closer to your goals?

Why dancers benefit from a clear Vision:

It inspires you to focus on what matters. When times get tough and you’re struggling, you’ll have a clear reason to continue to show up and do your best.

Creating a Vision draws from infinite possibilities, so it might make you uncomfortable. What if your Vision doesn’t happen? If you get too stuck in that way of thinking, you’ll likely self-sabotage.

Instead, stay focused on all the ways you can make your Vision a reality. If you’re in a place of self-doubt, address that, just like you would a necessary technical improvement. 

The more you believe your Vision is possible, as lofty as it might be, the greater likelihood you’ll achieve it!

photo of Malena by Lindsay Thomas Photo

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