If you’re wondering how you can practice the intuitive eating principles when you go on an all-inclusive holiday, when food and drinks are in endless supply, then you’re in the right place. To explain how this works in more detail, I thought I’d share one of my client’s experiences.
Normally, when my client would go away on her all-inclusive holiday, she would go with the approach of eating as much as she liked (even when she wasn’t really hungry, just because it was there) and get back on the ‘diet’ when she got home.
This time, it was different, before she went away, we had been working on helping her to connect and respond to her hunger and fullness cues. Naturally, as she had been engaging with this on and off a diet pattern and not responding to her body’s natural cues for so long, she was very curious as to how this was going to go, especially when food and drink would be readily available to her all day, every day. Upon returning from her holiday she shared her experience, one that she had never had before.
Remembering the worksheets we had been using together, she noticed that by slowing down and really noticing the sensations she felt in her body when she was hungry and the sensations in her body when she was full, she was able eat in a calm, satisfying and enjoyable manner, to the point of comfortable fullness and satisfaction.
She shared that there was no longer this sense of urgency when she was around food, that it didn’t matter how much food was there, she was able to choose foods that satisfied her, she even mentioned there were times when she didn’t fancy dessert (something she would always have eaten in the past), because she was satisfied and content with what she had eaten.
To top it all off, she came home not feeling the need to get back on the diet. She is continuing to respond to her body’s innate hunger and fullness cues when she is back home, because these never change, whether you’re at home or on holiday.
If you have a holiday planned and are wondering how you can put the intuitive eating principle into practice while you’re away, let me know, I’d be happy to share my top tips 😊.
Áine x
