What is Intuitive Eating?

A lot of people in today’s world want to lose weight, stop dieting, and figure out how they can be happy with their bodies.

They are typically looking for fad diets, dieting, and restriction eating to get to these goals and achieve them.

Here’s the problem: 95% of diets and restrictive eating don't work. Yes, initially they help you lose the weight, but then the lost weight plus an additional 5-10 pounds is regained at some point. This is why Intuitive Eating is such a good approach to stopping the endless dieting cycle.

So what is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach to health and wellness that helps you tune into your body's signals, break the cycle of chronic dieting, and heal your relationship with food.

Intuitive eating is comprised of a set of 10 principles to help create a healthy relationship with food, mind, and body.

Intuitive Eating is about trusting your body to make food choices that feel good for you, without judging yourself or falling under the influence of diet culture. Intuitive Eating asks that you think before you eat, “What does my body truly want: cake, carrots, salad, french fries, roasted potatoes, chicken or steak?”

Intuitive Eating asks you to do the following:

Tune into your hunger levels, satiety levels, and satisfaction with what you are eating.

• Pause during the meal to think about how it tastes and how full you are.

• Stop eating when you are comfortably full, even if that means leaving food on the plate or saying no to dessert, unless you want to finish eating because it tastes so dang good and you know it won’t taste this good reheated. Or because you really want an extra scoop of ice cream.

Intuitive Eating means that you make peace with all types of food. Unlike traditional diets that restrict or ban certain foods, Intuitive Eating requires you to stop thinking of food as “good” or “bad.” Instead, you listen to your body and eat what feels right for you.

Intuitive Eating is your path to lifelong, long-term recovery from an eating disorder, chronic dieting, and disordered eating. One of the reasons I started working with clients on Intuitive Eating is because I see how this type of path and plan helps people develop lasting change in eating habits of restrictive eating, chronic dieting, and lifelong body shaming. Intuitive Eating has helped many of my clients recover from the endless diet cycle and get to a better place with food and body. Intuitive Eating helps you get there; it is just a different approach than we are used to.

How do I work with my clients when introducing Intuitive Eating as a way to help you achieve nutrition and food goals?

1. We will explore what is happening with food in your life.

2. We will look into behaviors around food.

3. We will find out if you are well-nourished throughout the day.

   • Are you eating enough to avoid a night binge?

4. Are you eating the way you are meant to eat?

5. Why are your behaviors part of your life?

   • How can you change them to better suit you?

More often than not, behaviors started as a coping mechanism to help you get through a time in your life. The behaviors were helpful...till they weren't. Knowing the why will help us on our path toward your eating recovery.

Your “why” may have started because of any of the below reasons or any reasons not listed or some that may not be listed here:

• Emotional reasons including depression, anxiety, stress, etc....

• Body image

• Society’s pressure for bodies to look a certain way

• Physical reasons, such as hunger and fullness

• Diet culture

• Trauma

• Biology/Genetics

If you are not happy with your food, nutrition, or your feelings about yourself, if you are finding yourself on a constant diet trying to achieve these weight and nutrition goals, please reach out to me and we can book a discovery call and explore whether or not I can help you get you on the path to using Intuitive Eating as a way to create a healthy relationship with food, mind, and body.