Intuitive Eating

Intuitive Eating is a weight-inclusive, self-care eating framework, which integrates instinct, emotion, and rational thought. It is an evidence based model with over 100 studies to date, founded by dieticians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in 1995.

Intuitive Eating

It’s a personal and dynamic process, which includes 10 principles:

01.

Reject the Diet Mentality

Becoming aware of your diet mentality thoughts can be enlightening, as often they can be so engrained and habitual, you don’t even know they are there. In this principle we work on moving away from diet mentality thoughts and reframe them to become more intuitive. This process begins the journey towards regaining trust in your body and listening to it’s needs, instead of leading with rules and restrictions from external sources such as diet plans and rigid thinking.

02.

Honour your Hunger

Hunger is a natural biological cue that lets you know that your body needs nourishment. Nourishing your body is as essential to life as breathing and is an important part of intuitive eating. Strict diet plans often ask you to ignore your natural biological hunger cues, which can set off a biological cascade, both physically and psychologically and a primal hunger, which is an urgent intense desire to eat – which often leads to overeating. Learning to honour and respond to this first biological signal sets the stage for rebuilding trust in yourself and in food.

03.

Make Peace with Food

Making peace with food is a critical component of intuitive eating, which involves eating the food you desire while staying attuned to your hunger, fullness and satisfaction cues. It’s the process of making your food choices emotionally equal, without placing shame or judgement on them, whether you’re eating a chocolate biscuit or a piece of broccoli. Your dignity remains intact, regardless of your food choices, you’re not a bad or good person based on what you eat.

This is also an important principle because it shifts you out of the deprivation mindset, which can cause food cravings and a longing for the foods you have forbidden.

04.

Challenge the Food Police

The food police is a strong voice that is developed through dieting and diet culture. These thoughts are the sum of dieting and food rules, and they get stronger and stronger with every structured food plan you follow. These thoughts, negative taunts, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking comments are housed deep in your psyche, as a result of diet culture. Having tools to quiet the food police, is a critical step in returning to eating intuitively.

05.

Discover the Satisfaction Factor

Rediscovering satisfaction is the foundation of intuitive eating. When you follow strict rules around what, when and how much to eat, you could be missing out on one of life’s simplest joys—the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting, the pleasure you gain will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself, you will find that it takes just the right amount of food for you to decide when you’ve had “enough.”

06.

Feel your Fullness

Feeling your fullness is just as important as feeling your hunger when it comes to intuitive eating. In order to honour your fullness, you need to trust that you will give yourself the foods that you desire. Listening for your body’s signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry and observing the signs that show that you’re comfortably full.

Bearing this in mind, there are several factors that can influence how much food it takes for you to experience comfortable fullness including your initial hunger level, your activity levels, timing, the amount and type of food, social influence and how much you’re allowing yourself to eat unconditionally with attunement (as it will be hard to stop eating if you tell yourself you will never eat a particular food again).

07.

Cope with your Emotions with Kindness

Using food as a coping mechanism for certain emotions, can lead to feelings of guilt and disconnection from your hunger and fullness signals. Learning how to cope with your emotions with kindness, without turning to food, can help you connect and respond to your hunger and fullness cues, whatever emotion you are experiencing in the moment.

Joy, anxiety, peace, loneliness, gratitude, boredom and optimism are emotions we all experience throughout life, each have their own solution and it’s helpful to remember that food will never solve a problem.

08.

Respect your Body

Respecting your body means treating it with dignity and kindness, as well as meeting its basic needs. Think of your body as your lifelong companion, always striving to keep you safe and maintain balance, while honouring your natural genetic blueprint, which includes things like your height, weight and health along with your eye colour and foot length.

By embracing your body and appreciating its journey with you, you pave the way for a healthier relationship with food and yourself. Remember, being overly critical or unrealistic about your body size or shape will only hinder your progress towards eating more intuitively.

09.

Movement - Feel the Difference

There’s no question that exercise is beneficial for your health on so many levels, but the challenge for many lies in maintaining a consistent routine. When movement feels like a chore driven only by the desire to burn calories, it can quickly become demotivating.

Reframing your mindset towards exercise is essential for cultivating a sustainable relationship with movement. Instead of fixating on weight loss, shifting your focus to how exercise makes you feel can make all the difference. Embracing moving for its intrinsic rewards rather than its potential to alter your weight allows for a more fulfilling and long-lasting commitment to moving your body.

10.

Honour your Health - Gentle Nutrition

This principle is around making food choices that honour your health and taste buds, while making you feel good. Remember you don’t have to strive for perfection in your eating habits to maintain good health. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency, from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating. It’s what you eat consistently over time that matters. Progress, not perfection is what counts.

A little note here too…there’s a reason why this principle is left until the very end. It isn’t because it is the least important, but because by the time you get to this principle, you will no longer be engaging in diet mentality, and therefore you won’t be at risk of using any nutritional guidance, as another way of creating rigids rules around food. Remember to always trust yourself and your intuition when it comes to nourishing your body, you’re the expert.

Intuitive Eating