Tired of dieting? Want to learn how to feel in control around food again?
Intuitive Eating was introduced in my post, Get Off the Diet Roller Coaster, For Good! In this second post of the series, I will summarize the 10 principles discussed in Intuitive Eating that helps readers learn to stop dieting and enjoy eating again!
10 principles of Intuitive Eating:
- Reject the Diet Mentality. “Don’t eat after 8 pm!” or “Don’t eat foods that contain white flour!”. Diets use “food rules” to dictate eating. These food rules, as well-meaning as they are, often interfere with our bodies biological wisdom of feeding ourselves. You may be thinking, “If I stop dieting I won’t ever stop eating!”. Keep reading! Once you awaken and honor your intuitive eater you will feel more in control of food. To learn more about how dieting can be harmful to our health and wellbeing read “Five Reasons Not to Diet in 2017”.
- Honor your Hunger. Hunger signals are a sign that your body is working properly. You may not remember the last time you felt hungry. Or maybe feeling hungry scares you. Perhaps you get “hangry” when your blood sugar starts to drop affecting your mood and usually leads to overeating. Getting in tune with your hunger levels will help guide your intuitive eater.
- Make Peace with Food. This principle involves “legalizing all foods”. Yes, I mean giving yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods, intuitively. Perhaps this sounds scary. Maybe exciting? You may be thinking “I will never stop eating if I give myself permission to eat my favorite foods!”. Remember once you don’t feel deprived your drive to overeat will decline. Once you know that you can have your favorite foods anytime you want your cravings will significantly decrease.
- Challenge the Food Police. The “food police” is self-talk & societies talk about what we should & shouldn’t be eating. It goes something like this, “You can’t eat that it will make you fat”. Or headlines like this “Five Foods You Should Never Eat”. Even well-meaning Aunt Sue saying, “Are you sure you should be eating that?” is considered the food police. This authoritative, and often inaccurate, voice is a barrier to awakening your intuitive eater.
- Feel your Fullness. This principle deals with learning what fullness feels like and honoring it. Dieting and the food police leave you in a constant state of deprivation which can get in the way of honoring fullness.
- Discover the Satisfaction Factor. This principle is one of my favorites! Diets usually don’t consider one’s palate. This principle involves re-learning what foods actually taste good to you. Once people honor their palate and begin to eat foods that they really like it results in reduced cravings and feeling more in control with food.
- Cope with Your Emotions without Using Food. Often times people will use food to soothe emotions whether they are “positive” or “negative” emotions. Often people use food to cope with boredom, procrastination or loneliness. In any case, this principle provides strategies to cope with emotions without using food.
- Respect Your Body. This principle deals with respecting your body the way it is AND taking care of it. The idea behind this principle is that if you don’t respect your body you won’t take care of it. Respecting your body is accepting that your body needs care no matter the size or shape of it.
- Exercise–Feel the Difference. Unfortunately, exercise is often associated with dieting-once off the diet the exercise stops. This principle is getting back into movement or exercise just for the enjoyment of it. There is good evidence to show that movement promotes overall health & wellbeing, but it isn’t an effective tool for weight loss.
- Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition. This is the very last principle that Tribole and Resch encourage readers to work on. You may be thinking, “What about my health?”. While the types of foods that you eat are important to health, too much focus on nutrition early on in the intuitive eating process, can often turn into another diet. Remember, our bodies by design are made to keep us alive. You may be surprised by listening to your intuitive eater you will already be consuming nutritious foods-it is in our biology!
Do these principles sound: Intriguing? Scary? Impossible? Exciting? These are all normal reactions to contemplating becoming an intuitive eater. But, these are effective tools to making peace with food & your body!
**Note about Intuitive Eating & eating disorders. If you have an active eating disorder or a history of an eating disorder please ask your treatment team if Intuitive Eating is right for you. To learn more about eating disorders please visit the National Eating Disorder Association or talk with your doctor.
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