Intuitive Eating Fundamentals
Well, this is a little embarrassing to admit. I somehow have yet to do a blog on a very important topic: WHAT EVEN IS INTUITIVE EATING (or IE)??!
A handful of past blogs have some information about IE sprinkled in, but I wanted to do a deeper dive today and review the 10 principles of intuitive eating, why most of us lose our ability to eat intuitively, and bust a few myths!
IE is based on 10 principals outlined in the book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works. Written in 1995 by two Registered Dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, and now in its 4th edition, this evidence-based book has forever changed the lives of many men, women, and children. Each principal is a critical step to the journey of becoming an intuitive eater.
Reject the diet mentality. Stop believing that the next diet will be different. Get angry at their lies of fast, easy, and maintainable weight loss. Set yourself free from diets.
Honor your hunger. Provide your body food at the beginning stages of hunger without hesitation. Let your body start to regain the trust that if it is hungry, you will acknowledge this and feed it.
Make peace with food. Give yourself unconditional permission to eat any food. By restricting certain foods, we tend to binge on them. With unconditional acceptance to eat any foods, you will not feel the need to deprive and then “give –in.”
Challenge the “food police.” Say a hard NO to the food rules that pop into your mind like “low-calorie food is good,” or “desserts are bad.” Learn to replace the food police with the voice of your inner intuitive eater.
Discover the satisfaction factor. Eat foods that you enjoy. Take pleasure in the eating experience.
Feel your fullness. Listen to your body during and after your meal. Respect and trust it when it says you are no longer hungry.
Cope with emotions using kindness. Food is not a solution to feelings of loneliness, anger, stress, boredom, etc. It may provide a temporary numbing to pain, but overall can trigger worse feelings. Find ways to get to the root of the problem without food.
Respect your body. Our genetic make-up has a lot to do with our body shape and composition. Stop comparing your body to others around you, and treat your body with dignity.
Movement—and feel the difference. Move your body because of how it feels, rather than doing it for looks, or calorie-burning effects. Do things that make your body feel good, energized, and happy. This is a great way to motivate yourself to move if you generally don’t consider yourself someone who likes exercise.
Honor your health with gentle nutrition. Eat things that make you feel good. Don’t put too much emphasis on nutrition at every meal. What you eat consistently over time is what matters.
We are born intuitive eaters. Babies cry to be fed and stop eating once full. Toddlers are amazing intuitive eaters! When you put out food for them, they will eat what they want, when they want, and leave the rest! Then us adults, with the best of intentions, mess with our kiddos intuition. When we make “clean plate” rules, use food as punishment or reward, or overly control their intake, and it backfires. They learn to use external measures for when/what/how much to eat. These external measures usually lead to dieting and having a painful relationship with food.
Intuitive Eating is all about getting back to our inner wisdom for feeding ourselves without the external noise. It is eating in a way that prioritizes satisfaction, makes our bodies feel good, incorporates health, and loses the side of guilt. Diets take away our autonomy, which is one of the many reasons that they so often fail. If you were to tell me I was “never allowed to eat chocolate again”, suddenly I would really, really want some chocolate ice cream. Our bodies are wired against restriction, the physical and mental kind!
I want to bust a myth right here and now, that IE means “not caring about your health”. WRONG! One of the principles is about incorporating gentle nutrition into your eating. It also means you care about your health so much that you want to repair your metabolism, repair your relationship with food, find healthy ways to cope, and prioritizing self-care. Not only that but compared to dieters, intuitive eaters are found to have better lipid panels, reduced blood pressure, increased self-esteem, less weight cycling, and decreased stress. Sooo, IE definitely incorporates health on all levels! Want to learn more about the science behind Intuitive Eating check it out here.
The other myth I want to bust is the if I eat intuitively I’ll just eat “junk”, truth is once we have a neutral relationship with food we naturally eat a well-rounded diet. If we feel out of control around food, that is usually due to restriction, remember my chocolate ice cream example? By restricting, we usually end up rebelling and feeling out of control. We have to remove the mindset that food can be “junk”, some foods provide fewer nutrients than others- and that is okay! Once all foods are on the table, you will neutralize those “out of control” feelings around food. Give up the food fight if you will!
If this approach resonates with you, I highly recommend reading Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach 4th Edition!
What are your questions about Intuitive Eating? Let me know!
