Intuitive Eating 101 [Part 2]
Welcome back!
Today we are finishing up our Intuitive Eating 101 series and talking about the last FIVE principles of intuitive eating. If you want to catch up and read all about the first FIVE principles you can find that HERE. All of these principles come from the book Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.
If you have never read this book but are struggling in any way with chronic dieting, body hatred or food issues go get this book TODAY! You won't regret it!
If you have never heard of Intuitive Eating before let me give you the 2-second summary...
Intuitive eating is all about learning to attune to your body's physical needs around food instead of turning to a diet to tell you when to eat, what to eat and how much to eat.
I learned about intuitive eating a year after I had my first child when I was in the throes of trying to "get my body back after baby" and feeling hopeless after attempting 5 different diets multiple times. I have been working towards becoming an intuitive eater for about 2 years and I have learned so much, but continue to struggle with internalizing all intuitive eating has to offer.
Read on to learn more about intuitive eating principles 6-10 and some practical ways to begin implementing them today.
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor.
This principle looks at tuning into your mind, body, and senses and asking yourself, "What sounds good to me?" "Do you want something hot, cold, hearty, light, soft, chewy, salty or sweet to eat?"
When we eat what sounds good to us at the moment, research shows we enjoy the food so much more. If you want pizza and eat a salad instead, it's likely you won't be satisfied and will be running to the kitchen later to eat what you are truly craving. Research also shows that as we eat something satisfaction is extremely high the first few bites then goes down as you continue to eat. When was the last time you ENJOYED the food you were eating?
Take a few weeks to make a list of foods you love eating for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and dessert.
During my dieting escapades, I found myself vegan for 2 1/2 years. Looking back, it was an attempt to control my weight but over the course of time, I grew to LOVE fresh foods and bold flavor. Cooking vegan taught me different techniques that brought new flavors, foods, and freshness in my life. I still cook vegan dishes on occasion and really enjoy them!
Another example of discovering the satisfaction is being mindful of how something tastes. I have said this before but I love sweets and throughout my dieting years I spent a lot of time restricting sweets, so when I started intuitive eating I began eating them again only to realize some do not taste good at all. If something isn't satisfying (even though you think it should be), you don't have to keep eating it. This was HUGE for me because dieting (restricting) would lead me to eat a lot sometimes (binging) and I can remember when I was eating lemon cake (one of my favorite desserts) and the first few bites were amazing, but then that was all I needed and I slid the plate away. As a dieter, I would have eaten all the cake and never left any then probably felt really full and miserable.
Simply practice being more mindful of how your food tastes and what sounds good to you.
7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food.
Food is emotional. We eat to celebrate and eat to morn. This is not a bad thing. This principle encourages eaters to be aware of their emotions and HONOR them.
I specialize in helping people with their emotions in my private counseling practice as an emotion-focused therapist.
Emotions are messages that tell you important things. Emotions are also fleeting. The come and go - usually in a matter of minutes. Honor your emotions by taking care of them instead of only turning to food when stressed, overwhelmed, bored, angry or shameful.
Begin to just gently be aware of patterns where you might tend to turn to food. What is going on emotionally for you? What other strategies could you try out to soothe those emotions?
In another intuitive eating post, I talked about how as I began to practice intuitive eating I noticed I would often turn to food to comfort and soothe me when my first born wouldn't sleep. Emotionally I was super overwhelmed, stressed, anxious and tired and the only thing I had known throughout my life when feeling SO. MANY. EMOTIONS. was to turn to food.
I want to say it again. It's okay if food has been and continues to be your coping mechanism. There is no judgment or shame here! I simply want you to try and be aware of what emotions you are feeling and brainstorm other possible avenues to help yourself feel better because it is like the food is numbing your emotions and making you feel better temporarily but doing some proper self-care might actually help even more.
Go on a walk. Talk with a friend on the phone. Read a book. Simply try something new.
8. Accept Your Body.
This principle has been the most difficult one for me as my body has gone through tremendous changes in the last few years with two pregnancies.
Science reveals more and more that the shape of your body is largely based on genetics. If you have been a dieter for years you have probably noticed the limitations of your body, and that most of us don't fit into the thin ideal. One of the best and easist steps you can take to begin healing your mind and accepting your body is get those airbrushed women and men off your social media feed and begin to follow those who celebrate body diversity.
I unfollowed all diet health and wellness professionals and products from my Facebook and Instagram feed and deleted the diet Pinterest boards I had created.
Then I began to fill my feed with amazing people in the body positive community like
Tess Holliday - Plus Size Model
Ashley Graham - Plus Size Model,
Chrissy Metz - Plus Size Actress (This Is Us!!)
Sonya Renee Taylor - body positive advocate
Jessamyn Standly - plus size yoga teacher & author of Every Body Yoga
Taryn Brumfitt - From The Body Image Movement and the Documentary Embrace (Go watch this documentary if you have never seen it! It's on Netflix),
Jes Baker - Body Positive Author and Blogger
Virgie Tovar - Fatphobia Advocate
4th Trimester Bodies - a Project photographing real women's postpartum bodies
Eff Your Beauty Standards - Promoting Body Positivity at all sizes.
Let's stop beating ourselves up for not fitting the thin ideal and begin to step into gratitude about what our bodies are capable of.
9. Exercise: Feel the Difference!
This principle is all about cultivating joyful movement in your life.
How many times have you started an exercise routine because it was a part of a diet? How long did that routine last?
I have not loved exercise most of my life because it has always been connected to some sort of diet and attempt to be smaller. I have a LONG history of joining gyms and feeling SO excited for a month or two only to realize I hate it and never want to go.
I also have found my relationship with exercise has greatly been impacted by how I view myself and the beliefs I carry. I am not very competitive or athletic and wasn't very involved in sports as a kid. My family is also not very athletic so movement was not a huge value growing up. This is a ton of mental barriers to get past when it comes to exercise.
Recently I went soul searching and realized I hated going to my current gym. I would attend the exercise classes and there were SO. MANY. PEOPLE and MIRRORS all over every single wall. I'm sorry, but I don't want to watch myself contort into crazy positions or see my facial expressions when I am lifting weights. NO THANK YOU. I would walk in and out of class without talking to anyone. No one talked to me. I. HATED. IT. If you are reading this and you a member of a big gym and love it, that's awesome! Good for you! I just began to realize this was not the place for my intimidated soul.
So I decided to go WAY outside my comfort zone and I went to a CrossFit class. Long story short, I loved it. No mirrors. No crowds of people. No odd workout machines that I have no idea what to do with. No running on the treadmill FOREVER to burn a certain number of calories.
It felt like a group personal training session and they told me exactly what to do and how to do it. If I couldn't do it they gave me a modification and there was NO JUDGEMENT just encouragement. The workouts are different every time, so I never get bored and I am always learning something new. Crossfit might not be for you, but I want to encourage you to find a form of movement you enjoy.
When was the last time you engaged in some sort of movement and thought to yourself "Wow this is really fun!" Maybe you are in a place where you have a regimented exercise routine and you need to take a break for a while to rest and improve your relationship with exercise and with yourself.
Move your body because it feels good not to lose weight or because you feel like you have to!
10. Honor Your Health With Gentle Nutrition.
This LAST principle incorporates gentle nutrition into your life. The reason it is not first is that you likely already know WAY too much about nutrition from all the diets you have tried.
Rejecting the diet mentality is also first for a reason.
Your brain needs to be retrained to understand diets do not work! Nutrition is important, but essentially if you are an intuitive eater you will intuitively incorporate gentle nutrition without really even thinking about it. It is important to remember that you do not need to eat PERFECTLY to be healthy. I recently heard looking at nutrition balance on a weekly basis instead of daily is super helpful and taking the pressure off eating "perfectly" every day. Eat the food you love. Some will be healthier than others and that's OKAY.
I really love this podcast (#24) by The Body Love Society because it talks all about this principle and why it cannot be the focus of intuitive eating because it gentle nutrition will come naturally with intuitive eating.
Intuitive eating is a process that takes time. I heard a few months ago from somewhere (I'm not sure where) that it takes about a YEAR to fully comprehend and put intuitive eating into practice. That is a long time my friends - especially when you are accustomed to diets providing you results in a week or two.
The journey is worth it - I have more freedom around food than I have ever had before and it is amazing!
Intuitive eating is about rearranging and healing your heart. You are perfect the way you are. Your weight doesn't define you. It's not about the food it is about something deeper. Search your soul to begin trying to figure out what your food and body obsession is really all about.
What principle is the hardest one for you to understand or internalize? Where are you at when it comes to becoming an intuitive eater and ditching diets forever? Leave a comment below I would love to hear from you!
In health,
Chelsea
*Source Intuitive Eating 3rd Edition by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch 2012
Encounter Counseling offers in-person counseling in Grand Junction and online counseling state-wide in Colorado including Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins and Colorado Springs.
