What is Intuitive Eating?

I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me recently wanting to more about intuitive eating. Questions like: Where did it come from? How did I learn about it? Does it mean you just eat whatever you want?

I’m not sure if these questions are coming about because intuitive eating has been featured in more mainstream media lately, or if it’s because more and more people are posting about it on social media. Either way, I just wanted to write this to introduce the idea and cover some of the basics.

Just to be clear before jumping in: Intuitive eating is NOT a fad diet. It is the complete opposite of a “diet” or “plan” or “lifestyle”. Intuitive eating is a practice of reconnecting to your body and trusting the messages it sends to you about what and how much to eat. We are all born with this innate ability, but it gets all messed up when we start listening to external cues such as peers, family members, health magazines or TV. The more and more we diet and follow rigid eating rules, the further away we get from listening to what our bodies actually need.

*A good example of an intuitive eater is that friend who orders exactly what she wants off a menu, rather than what might be the “healthiest” or lowest calorie option. She enjoys her meal, but it’s not her only focus at the table. She can grab tacos on a whim and will happily accept a delicious cupcake if she is in the mood for one. Her weight does not yo-yo, and she is not fixated on carbohydrates, calories, or the number on the scale. She appears to be happy and relaxed around food*

Diet culture is very prevalent in our society. It’s very rare to go through a day where we don’t hear someone talking about their diet on the subway, or see an ad for weight loss pills, or scroll past Instagram to see someone selling “skinny tea” (I highly recommend you unfollow BTW). It’s so prevalent that dieting has become normalized. Cutting out carbs? Normal. Counting calories? Normal. Juice fast? Normal. It’s become so normal that most people cannot stand back and see how disordered and harmful these behaviors actually are.

The truth is, 95% of diets fail and about 66% of people gain the weight back AND THEN SOME. What’s crazy is that most people blame themselves – not the diet – for not reaching their goals. Just a side note: the 5% that have “succeeded” are likely engaging in disordered eating behaviors to stay there. The stats don’t lie: You did not fail your diet. Your diet failed you.

The idea of intuitive eating was introduced in the early 90’s by two dietitians – Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. For a more eloquent description of intuitive eating as per Evelyn Tribole:

“Essentially, Intuitive Eating is a personal process of honoring health by listening and responding to the direct messages of the body in order to meet your physical and psychological needs.”

Since they introduced their book in 1995, over 90 studies have shown the benefits of adopting an intuitive eating mindset.

Intuitive Eating is based off of 10 Principles:

1. Reject the Diet Mentality: Throw out the diet books and magazines that promise weight loss through another diet. Get mad at the lies you’ve been told (diets don’t work!). Completely dismiss the idea that the next diet will be “the one”. Without doing this, it is impossible to experience the freedom of intuitive eating.
2. Honor Your Hunger: Don’t ignore the signals your body is sending to you. Kept it well fed with adequate calories without skipping out on any particular food group. If you ignore those signals, you will physiologically set yourself up to overeat later. Learn to listen and rebuild trust with your body. It’s only trying to protect you and keep you healthy.
3. Make Peace With Food: This one is always hard to wrap your head around when you’re breaking up with diet culture, but it’s SO important: Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you keep denying yourself certain foods, it can lead to intense cravings and very often, binge eating.
4. Challenge the Food Police: You know, that voice that tells you certain foods are “good” and certain foods are “bad”? That’s the food police. They are there to make sure you stick to the diet rules you’ve created in your head. The food police are stationed deep within your brain and make you feel guilty and ashamed if you eat certain foods.
5. Respect Your Fullness: Are you paying attention? Listen to when your body tells you it no longer feels hunger. Pause halfway through eating to assess your fullness level and to and ask yourself if the food is still enjoyable.
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor: Ever REALLY wanted ice cream, but wound up eating two fat free yogurts and 6 rice cakes instead? When you find pleasure and satisfaction in the food you’re eating, you’ll find it will take less food (and less time!) to feel like you’ve “had enough”.
7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food: Food can temporarily distract you from your emotions -whether you’re sad, angry, frustrated, lonely or bored. However, food won’t “fix” any of these feelings or make them go away. Find ways to comfort yourself without using food. Long walks, journaling, coloring, Face-timing your nephew – whatever helps you to lean into those feelings or comfort yourself without food.
8. Respect Your Body: We are all born to be different shapes and sizes. If your dog only fit into a large collar, you wouldn’t try and force him to wear a small. Accept the body that is yours. Even if you don’t love it right now, can you practice respecting it or being kind to it?
9. Exercise – Feel the Difference: What if you worked out because it feels good, not because you feel like you have to? If you’re only goal for working out is to lose weight, it’s time to rethink your gym schedule. What do you really love to do? What energizes you? Shift the focus to how working out makes you feel. Do you feel strong? Empowered? Grounded? Calm?
10. Honor Your Health: This is the last principle you’ll get to on your intuitive eating journey. Also known as “gentle nutrition”. The idea is that you honor your body and hunger by making food choices that make you feel well. There is no right way to do this. Everyone has different needs and food preferences. This is where you figure out what works best for you.

If this peaks your interest, I highly recommend the book! Found here.

When people first read this they think, “Sounds interesting, but I can never do that”.

I get it! It’s not the easy road and it may not feel intuitive at first. There is no timeline to predict how fast you will get there. It all depends on how quickly you allow yourself to commit to this new mentality and how long you’ve been caught up in diet culture. It is the opposite of dieting whereas dieting is easier in the beginning, then gets tough at the end. With intuitive eating, it’s really tough in the beginning, but gets easier as you go on.

I hope this answered some of the basic questions I was getting. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I highly recommend you check out Evelyn Tribole @evelyntribole on Instagram to learn more about intuitive eating. In addition check out some of these lovely ladies:

@alissarumseyrd

@streetsmartrd

@hummusapien

@thereallife_rd

@eathority

@rachaelhartleyrd

@immaeatthat