Are you sick and tired of diets and are ready to give it a try to Intuitive Eating?
I get it, sister! I’ve been there, done that and also got super tired of living a diet regimented life as if I were part of the army (minus the financial benefits) with so many rules, restrictions and limitations. Fortunately, I was able to escape from it as well as many of my clients! So, hang tight. Don’t despair. You can also escape from army diet culture and finally experience joy, freedom and health through Intuitive Eating!
What is Intuitive Eating?
First of all, let’s define what intuitive eating is. Intuitive eating is the way we were born to eat, paying attention to the physical signals of hunger and fullness that your body sends you since you were a little baby. Intuitive eating also includes finding satisfaction in the foods you eat in the same way babies know what they like and what they don’t. And of course, this satisfaction found in food also feels good emotionally. Just look at the happy face of a baby after she’s done eating.
What gets in the way of intuitive eating?
Unfortunately, this natural built-in mechanism and way of eating gets disrupted in the lives of many people, especially women, around the time they start school (or before and after) due mainly to body shaming messages and beliefs instilled in them from family, friends, school, culture and society at large. Evelyn Tribole (one of the creators of the intuitive eating framework and professional trainings), published an at depth definition of intuitive eating.
Benefits of Intuitive Eating
You must be asking what specifically is there for you if you adopt an intuitive eating lifestyle? For starters, taking the first steps towards eating intuitively could deeply reduce tons of stress, worry and frustration in your life. It could also improve your overall health as the more relaxed, confident and in peace you are when you eat, the better job your nervous system and digestive system can do to squeeze all of those wonderful nutrients out of the foods you eat.
In their book titled “Intuitive Eating” (4th edition), Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, both registered dietitians and intuitive eating experts, state that intuitive eaters have lower: triglycerides, emotional eating, binge eating, blood pressure, body dissatisfaction; and higher: self-esteem, body appreciation and acceptance, pleasure from eating, HDL (good cholesterol), variety of foods eaten, well-being and optimism, and life satisfaction.
Intuitive eating, satisfaction and family life
Also, intuitive eating encourages you to welcome satisfaction back in your eating experience, which was most likely taken away by the diet Grinch who told you what, when and how much to eat for years in your life. Christy Harrison, renowned registered dietitian, podcaster and intuitive eating expert refers to diets as “the life thief”. How does that sit inside of you?
Imagine how your family, your kids, your partner and friends will also be impacted positively by seeing you enjoy food in a different way by using the principles of intuitive eating. They probably will notice the shift and even say, “wow! It feels good to be around you now. You’re not cranky anymore!” And that crankiness and limited joy imposed by diets can be totally reversed by going back to the roots of how you were meant to eat your entire life using intuitive eating! Your children will also continue to eat intuitively or start doing it again as you become their intuitive eating role model. You’ll save them from having an unhealthy relationship with food and their bodies in the long-run.
Are you convinced yet? At least enough to dive into the following 5 effective ways to start your Intuitive Eating Journey? Here we go:
1. Paving the way
Take a deep breath and answer these questions: Has any diet you’ve been on given you the permanent results you wanted? Do you still feel preoccupied about food and your weight all the time? Do you still dislike and reject your body and wish you had a different body so you can finally be happy? What’s the worst that can happen if you accept your body as it is right now? There aren’t good or bad answers. You just want to know where you are now and if you are ready for a change in your life that allows intuitive eating. Take time to reflect on these questions. No rush. Be honest with yourself with no judgment. Get a pretty journal and spend time reflecting and answering these questions. Go to a quiet and nice place and start writing or just meditating on these questions. You can stay in this step for as long as you need until you feel you’ve touched rock bottom with ineffective diets and are ready for a monumental rewarding change: embracing intuitive eating in your life!!
2. Say goodbye to Diets
This is probably one of the hardest things to do when you’ve been a chronic dieter for years and years. You may feel like I’m asking you to change your religion or something else that even if it doesn’t feel totally right, it still feels familiar. It’s totally normal to feel like that and even to feel scared. However, hopefully after spending enough time reflecting on what your life has been under the control of diets, as described in step 1 above, now you’re open to start rejecting all the unsolicited advice and rules from the diet world and people around you. It’s time to stop counting calories and macros as well as to exercise with the only purpose of burning calories. That’s all part of having a diet mentality. From now on, slowly start checking with yourself when making decisions about food instead of using information from outside your body.
3. Start reconnecting to your body
The way to start checking in with yourself instead of listening to diet advice is through reconnecting to your body signals sent directly from your nervous system. Watch this video where I show you a simple way to start reconnecting to your body signals by noticing and feeling your own heartbeat and breathing. Watch this video to start re-establishing connection with your body.
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4. Open the doors and welcome hunger
Welcome hunger into your life again and forever. Hunger isn’t something to be tricked, hidden, pushed away or feel ashamed of. It’s actually a survival signal sent by our bodies so we can give it what it needs. Would you challenge yourself from feeling and meeting the need to pee? I wouldn’t think so. Slowly, start paying attention to your body sensations such as lack of energy, stomach growling, light-headed feeling and headache. Ideally, we don’t want to wait until feeling intense body sensations like the ones just mentioned. For the following weeks, pay attention to other more subtle sensations that come before the most intense sensations like headaches or stomach growling. Perhaps it’s a light sensation of emptiness in your stomach or a light difficulty in concentration. It’s time to get to know your body better. Use the following Hunger scale infographic to help you reacquaint yourself with your hunger signals.
5. Rediscover Satisfaction
Believe it or not, finding pleasure and satisfaction in food leads to well-being and having a better relationship with food in general. People who tend to eat what satisfies them also tend to become fuller sooner and have no real need to continue to eat randomly and mindlessly. Take the first steps to allow yourself to eat forbidden foods that you’ve missed for a long time. You can start with only one forbidden food. Find a pleasant place where you won’t be distracted (put electronics away) and use all of your senses to eat that lasagna or donut tasting each bit of it as if this was the most glorious food ever. This may be a very difficult step to take for anyone who has had a diet mentality for a long time. No rush. You’ll know when you’re ready for this step. You can stay in this step for as long as you need to until you get bored of this food and then pick a different one.
Embracing intuitive eating and making it an important part of your life could be the change or the last piece of the puzzle you need to start improving your relationship with your body and food. Remember to take time and have patience with yourself as you start implementing the 5 steps listed above. No need to rush through them. And you can totally do this as many others have done it before!
If you want support as you navigate your way into intuitive eating, I’m here to help you. I’ll be happy to extend a complimentary invitation to chat with me and further discuss where you’re on your intuitive eating journey. Please, book a free discovery call here.
