If you know me, you know I’m all about intuitive eating, and you know how much I am constantly talking about it. But wait… What is it really?
In short, intuitive eating would simply be called “eating” if diets didn’t exist. Read that again 😉
Intuitive eating is a scientifically backed and proven approach to nutrition based on self-awareness and mindfulness. Intuitive eating helps people save themselves from self-hate and even helps individuals recover from eating disorders.
Intuitive eating and being mindful about what we eat enables us to listen and respond to our body cues and be in control of our emotions— but without food rules and restrictions or guilt and shame.
It’s the perfect balance between fueling your body and satisfying your emotions. It’s the only way you can truly be yourself around food. Intuitive eating is a way to be around food without feeling stressed about what you’re fueling your body with.
It can be a bit confusing in the beginning because it’s unlike anything else you’ve tried. Think about it this way: it is the complete opposite of a diet. For example, here is what intuitive eating is NOT:
- A meal plan
- A pass or fail diet
- A method focused on weight loss
- Self-control
- Eating everything you want at any time
- Distraction and mindless eating
If you’re like me, you’ve been burned before by diet culture. Putting in all the work, restricting yourself from the things you love just to binge eat and feel guilty later. All the yo-yo dieting, different fads, and jargon— it all makes you feel ashamed to enjoy food, one of life’s best simple pleasures and something that comes so naturally to us.
When you eat intuitively, you don’t have to feel ashamed of what you eat. Instead, you avoid the binge eating and the yo-yo dieting and create a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable!
It’s not a diet—Intuitive eating is a mindset-shift, journey, and a gentle transformation. Intuitive eating helps you align your body, mind, and soul. It enables you to make peace with food and your body because you’re respecting your body’s need for fuel instead of fighting against it.
Understanding and prioritizing your body’s needs and emotional needs can look like:
- Healing your relationship with food
- Rewiring your food-emotion associations
- Building a strong foundation for your metabolism
- Understanding the triggers that make you eat, overeat, and stop eating
- Learning how your body defines hunger and satiety
- Knowing what your body needs to be fulfilled physically and emotionally
- Having the tools to respond to your physical and emotional needs
You’ll start noticing your satiety cues and emotional needs, and instead of ignoring them, you’ll know how to handle them in a gentle and loving way, instead of with shame and guilt. By listening to your body, your heart and soul (not what diet culture tells you you should be eating) will choose foods that are both fueling and satisfying!
Intuitive eating is really about looking at all the aspects of health and wellness without focusing on your weight and physical appearance. It doesn’t mean your body can’t change as an intuitive eater, and it doesn’t mean that you aren’t allowed to want to lose weight, but it does mean that instead of shocking your body with another round of forced weight loss, you will find the alignment healthily and gently. It’s the approach that allows you to treat your body with love, kindness and respect, and have it trust you back.
It’s the perfect balance between responding to your hunger and satiety cues, as well to your emotional cravings – embracing the pleasure of eating. It’s no longer about self-control but about being in control!
I’ll say that one again: instead of controlling, you learn how to be in control. Life. Changing.
Achieving that does require a shift in mindset, strategies, and support, but goodness is it magical and rewarding to finally make peace with your body and with food.
Before you know it, those puzzle pieces will transform into your new reality. I believe it. Do you?
And if you’re ready to make moves, stop overthinking it. Start your intuitive eating and food freedom journey to this magical transformation.