Welcome to How to Love Your Body on today’s episode we are going to be talking about Intuitive Drinking - we aren’t just talking about drinking alcohol, we are talking about drinking anything! We get that in diet culture the only thing “acceptable” is drinking water or low cal/ zero calorie drinks and there are a lot of rules around water too! When becoming an Intuitive Eater and UnDieter there is unconditional permission to eat AND there is also unconditional permission to drink.  We do hear often - “What do I do about drinking soda, I really love it but I don’t think I “should” be drinking as much as I want.” This goes for anything - juice, alcohol, coffee drinks, and water etc.  Note: If you choose not to drink alcohol for any reason- that is a perfectly fine choice and is not about restriction. Alcohol is not essential and for the sake of someone’s mental, physical, and emotional health if it’s best to not have it in your life that’s a personal decision and we absolutely respect that. We did an entire episode on Intuitive Drinking regarding alcohol - refer back to episode 101 if you’d like more on that. Here are some Intuitive drinking tips:     -Buy the mini version: If you love the taste of something but realize drinking too much of it doesn’t feel good in your body - see if you can buy the mini version. Mini cans of soda or juice etc that allows you to still enjoy it while still feeling good in your body.  -Body Autonomy: Remind yourself that you have body autonomy and can make your own decisions regarding your body. If you are drinking soda, juice, alcohol- you get to tap into your body and ask - do I really want another glass of wine right now? Do I want to pour more juice? Do I want to order another soda?  How would that feel in my body? - If you think, “it sounds really good to have another one but I know I won’t feel good.” Then you can make the decision to stop. It’s not restriction or dieting - it’s you knowing your own body. If you think, “I really want another one but I know it won’t feel good.” You can still choose to order another one/ drink more if you want - Sometimes I know another cocktail or glass of wine won’t make me feel good the next morning but if I’m with my girlfriends or in a social environment I’m having fun in - sometimes one more is worth it even if it won’t feel good. Sometimes not having any alcohol at all is what feels best and sometimes having 1 or 2 feels best. It depends on the social setting, desire, and empowered choice. This can go for soda and juice too! - Find what feels good: If certain drinks you LOVE don’t feel good in abundance - still have them of course as we mentioned with the “mini version” or however much you want but what you can do is find what feels good as well. Ex. I’ll have sweet cocktails or margaritas or fun blended drinks etc but having a lot of that won’t feel good. Something else I really enjoy are hard seltzer’s which allow me to have drinks and feel good as it doesn’t feel as heavy or sweet. Bubbly soda drinks are enjoyable but having too many won’t feel good for me. I love drinking flavored seltzer drinks. Still have the fun bubbles, I enjoy it and feels good.  - Nothing is inherently bad: Also know that non caloric versions, sugar free versions etc are not inherently bad. For instance, I like diet coke, I prefer it to regular coke. Is this because I drank it during my dieting years so I’m more used to it? Maybe. But I do not feel deprived at all when having it , I genuinely prefer it. AND if I was really wanting some and regular was the only kind available I would likely have some, it is not a forbidden drink, just one I don’t prefer. Exploring the motivation behind your “preferences” is an important part of breaking down restriction. - Be aware of backlash:   You can a