Have you heard about intuitive eating, but don’t know where to start? Today, I’m going to cover some of the concepts of intuitive eating to give you a better idea of what it is, and if you want to start trying to apply it to your life. The beauty of intuitive eating is that there isn’t really one right way to do it. It’s all about doing your best, and what works best for you and your life.
Principle 1: Rejecting the diet mentality
Diets don’t work. I covered this in a lot more detail in my “Why you should ditch your diet for good” blog post. If you want more info on this I highly recommend you check out that post. Essentially, dieting doesn’t work. It isn’t you that keeps failing the diets, it’s the diets failing you.
Principle 2: Honor your hunger
When you feel hungry, pay attention to that feeling and eat! What you choose to eat to fulfill that feeling is 100% up to you. It’s important, however, to recognize when we’re hungry and eat food to satisfy that feeling. Not eating just leads to further feelings of hunger until you’re eating everything in sight because you’re so ravenous! Not to mention the fact that our bodies need food! When your body needs more food it lets you know through feelings of hunger. Ignoring these cues just does yourself and your body a disservice.
Principle 3: Make peace with food
In my opinion, this one can be the hardest to tackle. Making peace with food means removing those “good” and “bad” labels. It means giving yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods. And doing so without feelings of guilt or shame (though it’s normal to struggle with this for a while). It’s about eating the foods that you enjoy, and not placing any foods in the “off limits” category (unless you have a food allergy or some other health condition necessitating this). For weekly food peace support, I highly recommend checking out the “Love, Food” podcast.
Principle 4: Challenge the food police
Personally, I view this principle as relating to both your internal food police and your external food police. Your internal food police is that voice in the back of your head that gives you a pat on the back when you eat a salad and a kick in the butt when you eat a cupcake. It’s the voice that tells you you’ve been “good” for avoiding those cookies at work, and the same voice that calls you “bad” for eating one. Trying to view food from a neutral approach can help in quieting down this voice. There aren’t any “good” or “bad” foods. Further, eating or not eating a certain way has nothing to do with your worth as a person. It doesn’t make you “good” for eating vegetables and “bad” for eating a cheeseburger.
Once you’ve quieted your inner food police, the next step is tuning out the external food police. This is the people around you who constantly make judgement comments about food. The coworker who talks about how “bad” she was for eating pizza over the weekend. The aunt who skips bread at dinner and makes a point to mention that she’s doing it to be “good”. Now, I’m not saying that you need to lecture everyone around you about being the food police. It can be really challenging, however, to try and eat intuitively when everyone around you isn’t. Try and find some people who are in your corner to use for support. When others around you do make these comments, try to ignore them, or if you feel comfortable you can respond politely however you see fit. We live in a world that has a disordered perception of food. Finding a community of people who have a positive relationship with food, and limiting your exposure to those who don’t (if possible) can help. Obviously, there are people in our lives that we can’t really avoid, but if you’re following someone on social media (for example) who makes you feel bad about food or your body it might be time to unfollow them.
Principle 5: Respect your fullness
Just like how you should eat when you feel hungry, it’s important to learn how to stop eating when you feel full. This means paying attention to your body and how you feel instead of paying attention to external factors like how much everyone else is eating, how much food is on your plate, etc. Remember that you can always have more food later if you get hungry again. Being more present while eating and slowing down a little bit can help you figure out if you’re full or not. If you’re able, remove distractions and take the time to actually enjoy a meal. Check in with yourself and ask, “Am I still hungry? Do I want more?”.
It’s 100% normal to struggle with any and all of these principles. Intuitive eating is not an easy thing to learn, and often goes against the grain for most people. Our world has a disordered relationship with food and health that goes so deep it can be hard to pull yourself out. Take things one step at a time. Forgive yourself for making mistakes. Remind yourself that it’s okay to not do everything perfectly. Find people that make you feel good about yourself to be in your corner. If you’re really struggling and need more help, reach out to a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who follows an intuitive eating and health at every size approach. I’ll be covering the last 5 principles of intuitive eating here on the blog in a couple of weeks, but if you’re eager to get more info now I suggest checking out the 10 principles of intuitive eating. If you want to take a deep dive into intuitive eating, I highly recommend reading the book Intuitive Eating.
Have you tried applying principles of intuitive eating to your life? Which principles do you resonate most with? Which are you still struggling with?