What is Intuitive Eating 10 Tips (part 1)
We all start out as intuitive eaters.
Babies have the innate ability to eat when they’re hungry and stop when they’re satisfied. They may eat less one day but make up for it another day by eating a bit more. Their preferences might even change from day to day. Over time, a lot of us fall away from these natural cues for a variety of reasons. Maybe your parents raised you to be part of the “Clean Plate Club” – where no food ever went to waste, even if that meant eating until you were stuffed. Maybe food was used as incentive or punishment (think, “You can only have dessert once you’ve finished your green beans,” or “You disobeyed dad, so you don’t get dinner tonight.”) Maybe you didn’t have access to the amount of food your body needed. Or maybe, like so many of us, you have been impacted by our society’s culture of dieting. Let’s take a look at the first five principles of intuitive eating and how they can change our perspective of food and eating.
The Intuitive Eating Principles
Reject the diet mentality: Unsubscribe from the rights/wrongs, the goods/bads that diet culture has you believe. Diets don’t fail because people aren’t motivated enough or disciplined enough. Diets fail because they are not sustainable.
Honor your hunger: Consistently rejecting your hunger cues promotes an increase in over-eating, bingeing, and cravings. Allow yourself to nourish your body’s basic biological needs. This helps to form the foundation of body trust.
Make peace with food: Allow yourself unconditional permission to eat. All foods can be an acceptable part of a healthy intake and allowing flexibility to partake in a variety of foods can enhance the overall eating experience.
Challenge the food police: The food police are the thoughts we develop over time that control, nitpick, and place unreasonable rules on acceptable food choices. They may also take some time to recognize, as they are often deep-rooted in our brains. Combat the thoughts that assign moral value to your food choices. You are not “bad” for choosing to eat dessert or “good” for opting for steamed vegetables.
Feel your fullness: This requires getting in touch with your body and beginning to notice the signals it gives when you move toward comfortable fullness. Check in with yourself throughout your eating experiences and notice how your body feels over time.
