A Glimpse into Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach to eating based on 10 principles. Check out this post to get an overview of intuitive eating.
Today I want to discuss intuitive eating which was a topic that I thought was some real hippie nonsense the first time I heard it, so stay with me! Intuitive eating was developed by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch and has been called the non-dieting diet. Intuitive eating has 10 principles that are summed up by by 3 major points: eat for physical rather that emotional needs, rely on internal cues to eat, and give your self unconditional permission to eat.
I don’t 100% agree with Intuitive eating, but check out this post about anti-diet books to get a fuller picture. Eating intuitively is a mindset some embrace for a healthier relationship with food and exercise. Let’s break down my favorite parts:
All Foods Fit
One big component of intuitive eating is that there are no good and bad foods. All foods serve a purpose whether that is nourishing our cells with vitamins and minerals or providing another need. Think about a time you were surrounded by family or friends eating a good meal. Who cares what that food’s nutritional content was, it was still fulfilling a need. You were enjoying company with people and sharing a meal while talking, laughing, and connecting. We shouldn’t discount the importance of food beyond nutrition.
I truly mean all foods. No matter what food you think you think should be off-limits, there can be a place for it in your diet. No food eaten in moderation is going to kill you (unless you’ve got a food allergy duh!). And remember, you may still get nourishment from something full of trans-fat and GMO’s (gasp, I must be crazy!)
Restriction leads to Overeating
Building of the last point, if you have an off-limits food, what really happens when you decide you’re swearing off cookies? Maybe you are doing good for a week or so, saying no to a free cookie a friend offers you. But continuing to restrict foods gets harder and harder. Finally, you decide to treat yourself with one cookie, but before you know it, you’ve eaten the whole box! No judgment, I’ve been there too (I’m looking at you, GF Girl Scout cookies…)!Here’s the crazy part, by restricting our food choices we are fighting against our own biology. Spoiler alert, our hardwired habits always win out!
Our brains are designed to survive times of feast and famine. So when food is available, we are wired to eat plenty to store up for a famine. Nowadays, for most of us food is plentiful, and we don’t need to store up fat, but our brain still sees that box of cookies as a safety net for the future. If we allow ourselves to listen to our bodies and eat 1 cookie when we crave it, then it can actually prevent us from a binge later. And let’s face it, a treat every now and then isn’t going to hurt us, and it may nourish us in other ways too! Long story short, restriction almost always fails us in the long run!
Eat when you are hungry, stop when you’re full
I know this sounds obvious, but how often do you actually eat when you are hungry. Ever since we’re in school we are told when to eat our meals. How often do you eat because you feel hungry and how often do you eat because it’s “time” to? We can be confined by our school or work schedules to some extent, but if you tune in to how you are feeling, then you can make it work for your schedule.
In addition to eating when you are hungry, we also have to learn to stop when we are full. This one honestly took me awhile to learn because I always want to “clean up” my food. Why put 1 piece of pizza in the fridge? But we have to learn to listen to our hunger and satiety cues to feed our body what it needs. If you need 5 small meals a day to feel good, then screw the traditional 3 meals plan society has created! You do you!
Listen to your body and trust what you hear
Listening to your body basically sums up the heart of intuitive eating. Listen to what you want to eat, listen to when you want to eat, listen to when you are full. Our bodies are complex, and they are pretty good at keeping us alive. I’ve wanted to eat ice cream for a late night snack, and I’ve craved a salad or something green after a week of traveling and living off fast food. Our bodies have a way of telling us what we need and making sure we get the nutrients we need to be alive.
It can take time to trust the feelings you are having, but learning to give up the diet mentality we are all taught takes time and trust that your body knows what its doing. Of course you could take this to the extreme (which is one of my complaints about intuitive eating), but the idea is that if you eat cake for all your meals for a week you will realize you don’t feel so great and add back in some other foods too.
I don’t 100% agree with everything in the book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works. But I do think there are a lot of good ideas to think about how we think about and talk about the foods we eat. I really love these books carving out space for diet counterculture, and you should check them out if this peaked your interest!