If you are wondering how to eat intuitively on a vegan diet, there are just a few things to keep in mind.

Eating intuitively as a vegan isn’t much different from any other kind of intuitive diet. In theory, veganism fits very well into intuitive eating.

Everyone should try intuitive eating at some point just to see if it fits with their health and lifestyle. It is one of the best ways to go back to the way that people used to eat before we became worried about diets.

How to Eat Intuitively on a Vegan Diet

Eating intuitively on a vegan diet is a simple process that anyone can do. It is great whether you are just going vegan or have been vegan for years.

Intuitive eating is great for most people, especially if you’re looking to develop a better relationship with food. Intuitive eating can help you with whatever your goals are.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you start to eat intuitively:

Ignore Food Rules

There are all kinds of food rules that people have come up with throughout the years. Such as carbs are bad and fat is bad.

Though some food rules do have a legitimate point, intuitive eating is all about breaking free of those rules to eat what you want to eat. That doesn’t mean going crazy and eating only fat, carbs, and sugar. It just means eating what you feel your body is telling you to eat.

Food rules are all well and good at certain times, but they can really restrict your food and lead to an unfulfilling diet. An unfulfilling diet will often lead to overeating and indulging in unhealthy foods only to feel guilty afterward.

Intuitive eating is about eating the things that you want within reason. Without guilt or restriction.

Avoid Portion Sizes

Anyone who is eating a vegan diet should banish the idea of portion sizes. They just don’t apply to vegans since we eat a diet that is heavily made up of vegetables.

Portion sizes weren’t designed with a vegan diet in mind. This is especially important for vegans who eat intuitively.

If you listen closely enough, your body will tell you how much you need to eat. Some days your portion sizes might be bigger, while other days, they are smaller. Our appetite naturally fluctuates and balances itself out at the end of the day.

This is a very natural way of eating that modern-day diets don’t allow. There is nothing wrong with eating more or less some days. It just means that your body needs more or less energy to get you through the day.

Listen to Your Hunger Signals

It can be so easy to start to forget about our hunger signals and what they mean. Between strict diets and schedules, we have started to ignore our body’s signals of hunger. Sometimes we might ignore our hunger to wait and eat at the “right time” or eat before we even feel hungry.

When it comes to intuitive eating, you should try to only eat when you are hungry. When you really think about it, there is no reason to eat if you aren’t hungry. Eating when you aren’t hungry just helps to train your body to eat when it doesn’t need to. This can lead to mindless eating. The same goes for the reverse. If you are still hungry even though you just ate, eat a little bit more.

Vegans might think that they need to eat very large portions to stay healthy, but eating intuitively says something different. If you go vegan and feel more hungry, it means your body does need more food. But if your appetite doesn’t change, don’t force yourself to eat more.

Try to learn how to listen to what your body is saying and eat when you are hungry – not when you think you should eat.

Understand the Feeling of Being Full

Another common issue that we have developed is not recognizing when we feel full. This can often come down to eating heavily processed foods designed to make us want to eat more. 

Overeating on a continual basis can often lead to not understanding when we are full, which leads us back to overeating to the point that we can feel sick or uncomfortable.

One of the goals of eating intuitively is to never get to that point of overeating. Intuitive eating is meant to retrain your body to understand what it already knows it has just forgotten.

Once you are able to recognize those feelings of being full, you will be able to eat the portion sizes that are just right for you. You will also feel so much better after eating when you know when to stop before becoming uncomfortable.

Eat a Balanced Variety

Many people assume that a vegan diet is restrictive and boring. Plain, bland, dull, and repetitive. But that just isn’t true! A vegan diet is rich in variety and flavors if you are willing to try them out. There are so many vegetables, legumes, grains, and fruits to try and add to your diet.

As a vegan, eating intuitively should also involve trying to incorporate new types of food into your diet. Don’t skimp on the variety, explore your grocery store for new and interesting options.

The best way to have a healthy vegan diet is to eat plenty of variety. However, don’t force yourself to eat certain foods if you don’t like them. If you just don’t like tofu, you don’t have to eat it! There are plenty of other vegan foods to enjoy.

Learn How to Cook Plant-Based Meals at Home!

Reducing your meat intake and eating more plant-based foods is known to help with chronic inflammation, heart health, mental wellbeing, fitness goals, nutritional needs, allergies, gut health, and more! Dairy consumption also has been linked to many health problems, including acne, hormonal imbalance, cancer, prostate cancer and has many side effects.

For those of you interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App — with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest plant-based recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet.

Here are some great resources to get you started:

• Weekly Vegan Meal Plans
• Plant-Based Health Resources
• Plant-Based Food & Recipes
• Plant-Based Nutrition Resources
• The Ultimate Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition
• Budget-Friendly Plant-Based Recipes
• High Protein Plant-Based Recipes
• Plant-Based Meal Prep