You may have heard a lot of talk about intuition, but have you heard about intuitive eating? It’s essentially an anti-diet with no right or wrong path to follow, instead intuitive eating is based on the concept of allowing yourself to fully enjoy what you’re eating and to love food.
It sounds pretty good, so what’s the catch?
The term ‘intuitive eating’ was coined in 1995 by two Dieticians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, when publishing their book of the same name. Through their clients they had discovered that by focusing on weight as the defining measurement, more often than not their clients eventually regained the weight they’d lost after dieting. They therefore developed intuitive eating as a way to depriotize weight gain and take the stigma away from food. There’s a strong emphasis on understanding your body’s needs and knowing the difference between physical and emotional hunger i.e.either hunger due to lack of energy/physical hunger pangs, or based on emotions and cravings. Intuitive eating is recognising and understanding when you are comfortably full and not continuing to eat ‘unnecessarily’. Although this may sound easy, it takes a little time to get to know our body and its different cues.
Intuitive eating calls on us to reassess our relationship with food and see it as something that our body needs, not something that should be restricted and measured. It’s about listening to what your body wants and fully appreciating and enjoying food and it is therefore part of being more conscious and mindful in our lives.
The concept of intuitive eating follows these 10 basic principles:
- Reject the diet mentality
Intuitive eating is the anti-diet, it encourages you to take your focus away from quick-fix diets and the latest fads.
- Honor your hunger
Eat when you’re hungry, don’t hold off as you’re then more likely to overeat anyway. Keep your body fed and listen to its cues.
- Make peace with food
Give yourself permission to eat, don’t tell yourself that you can and can’t eat certain things. If you tell yourself you can’t eat something you can end up feeling deprived of it and potentially go on to binge.
- Challenge the food police
It’s that little voice in your head telling you off for enjoying your chocolate cake, or praising you for cutting calories. Challenge these thoughts.
- Discover the satisfaction factor
Embrace the pleasure of eating. When you eat what you really want and enjoy your food you wind up feeling happy and satisfied.
- Feel your fullness
Listen to your body, observe the signs that you are comfortably full. Take a mindful moment as you’re eating and check in with how you’re feeling, how the food tastes, if you’re still hungry.
- Cope with your emotions with kindness
Find kind ways to resolve your emotional issues. Know that food won’t fix these problems and can wind up making you feel worse in the long run. We all experience emotions of anxiety, boredom, etc. but we must ultimately find the source of the problem in order to resolve it.
- Respect your body
Accept your body, accept your shape and respect yourself so that you can truly enjoy being who you are. You can’t reject diet mentality if you’re hung up on your body size or shape.
- Movement – feel the difference
Focus on how you feel when you exercise, get active and feel how you’re energized. Take your focus away from how many calories you’ll burn and find something you enjoy doing. Feel the difference.
- Honor your health – gentle nutrition
Make food choices that are tasty, make you feel good and at the same time honor your health.
Eating intuitively can lead you towards a healthier relationship with food and a more balanced diet. Unlike diets such as the Keto diet which focuses on restricting carbs, or the macro diet which restricts calories and is time consuming, intuitive eating is more of a lifestyle shift. It teaches you to honor your stomach rumbles, enjoy your food and feel satisfied with what you’re eating.
Want to learn more about intuitive eating and its benefits? Book a session with me today and I’ll help you assess your current situation and guide you towards a healthier future.
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