Creating Your: ‘I Don’t Eat’ Food List: The Power of Awareness

Let me ask you a question — do you know which foods make you feel your best… and which ones don’t? Most of us have no idea. We eat things out of habit, comfort, or convenience, and then wonder why we feel bloated, tired, or cranky the next day.

Today, I want to share a really powerful tool that I use with my clients — it’s called the ‘I Don’t Eat’ Food List. It’s not about restriction — it’s about awareness.

WHY AWARENESS MATTERS

When you start paying attention to how foods actually make you feel — physically, mentally, and emotionally — everything changes. Because here’s the truth: your body is always giving you feedback. We’ve just gotten used to ignoring it.

Sometimes that feedback looks like headaches, fatigue, cravings, bloating, inflammation, mood swings, or even weird things like vivid dreams or water retention.

But if you don’t connect the dots, you’ll never realize what’s causing it. That’s why awareness is the first step toward balance and better health.

HOW CERTAIN FOODS AFFECT YOU

You may think your body’s just unpredictable — but it’s not. It’s reacting to what you put into it.

For example:

• Maybe chips or fried foods give you bad dreams or poor sleep.

• Maybe you notice you gain a few pounds overnight after eating certain takeout foods — often because of things like MSG, sodium, or sugar.

• Maybe even one alcoholic drink leaves you achy or swollen the next morning.

  
  

These reactions are your body’s way of saying, ‘Hey, this doesn’t work for me.’

And that doesn’t mean those foods are ‘bad.’ It just means they’re not right for your body.

CREATING YOUR “I DON’T EAT” FOOD LIST

I like to call this tool the ‘I Don’t Eat List.’ Not because it’s about perfection or judgment — it’s about personal power.

You’re not saying, ‘I can’t have this.’ You’re saying, ‘I choose not to eat this, because I know how it makes me feel.’

It’s self-respect in action.

When you start listing the foods that don’t serve you — and why — it gives you clarity. And once you see the patterns, it becomes easier to make choices that truly support your health and your goals.

THE WORKSHEET

To help you get started, I’ve created a simple worksheet you can fill out after each meal or food experience. (You can get the worksheet here: https://www.attunedwholistic.com/creating-i-don-t-eat-food-list)

You’ll record what you ate, how you felt afterward, and what you learned.

Over time, you’ll start to see patterns — foods that energize you and foods that drag you down. That awareness is gold. It’s how you learn to eat intuitively for your body — not someone else’s.

So today, I challenge you to start creating your own ‘I Don’t Eat’ List. Not because someone told you to avoid a food, but because you’ve noticed how it truly affects you.

And if you’d like support figuring out what foods might be slowing down your metabolism, spiking your cravings, or affecting your sleep and mood, that’s exactly what I help people do inside my Balance Your Metabolism Program. https://www.attunedwholistic.com/balanceyourmetabolism

Together, we identify your personal food triggers, reset your metabolism, and build a plan that works for your unique body.

Download your worksheet (https://www.attunedwholistic.com/creating-i-don-t-eat-food-list), fill it out over the next week, and let’s start building your awareness — one meal at a time.

Because when you know your body, you can finally work with it, not against it.

Awareness is power. And once you have that, everything else starts to fall into place.

Adriana Ellis is a Certified Health and Weight Loss Coach and Holistic Nutrition Coach who specializes in helping women over 40 lose weight without cravings. She blends low-carb, unprocessed nutrition with psychology-based craving-control.

Her programs focus on processed food addiction recovery, emotional eating, mindset work, and metabolic balance. Adriana teaches women how to create a peaceful relationship with food, regain control over cravings, reduce sugar dependence, and lose weight in a sustainable, nourished, and empowered way.

She is the founder of Attuned Wholistic, where she offers her signature 16-week Balance Your Metabolism Program and other cravings-focused coaching programs for women who feel stuck, overwhelmed, or defeated by past diets.

www.attunedwholistic.com