What exactly is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive Eating is NOT the hunger/fullness diet!
Intuitive Eating is a compassionate, self-care eating framework that treats all bodies with dignity and respect.
Intuitive Eating is based on 10 Principles:
#1 Reject the Diet Mentality
Diet culture is a liar and is all around us. Learning to break up with diet culture is key to reconnecting with your body and becoming an Intuitive Eater.
#2 Honor Your Hunger
Learn how to rebuild trust with your body and recognize your hunger signals.
#3 Make Peace with Food
You deserve unconditional permission to eat. This Principle teaches you how to do just that.
#4 Challenge the Food Police
Forget about being “good” vs “bad” when it comes to food, and learn how to challenge that voice in your head that tells you otherwise.
#5 Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Diet culture causes us to lose touch with what it feels like to truly be satisfied by food. Satisfaction is *ke*y when it comes to being able to recognize when you have had enough (and when you haven’t!).
#6 Feel Your Fullness
Learn to trust that you will provide your body with what you need – your hunger/fullness signals will follow. Developing mindful coping skills will help you do just that.
#7 Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness
Find ways to help you treat yourself with kindness, which also allows for you to experience and cope with emotions in a positive way.
#8 Respect Your Body
Learn to view your body with respect and acceptance. All bodies (including yours) deserve dignity and respect, regardless of their size or health status.
#9 Movement —Feel the Difference
Forget calorie-burning and find ways to move your body that give you joy. Learn to shift your focus to how you feel when you move.
#10 Honor Your Health – Gentle Nutrition
Learn to make food choices that make you and your body feel good. This step is purposefully the last one to focus on as falling back into diet culture can be a slippery slope. This is about honoring your health, not being militant about it.
How long will it take to become an Intuitive Eater?
Working towards being an Intuitive Eater is individualized and unique to each person. We all come from different backgrounds, with different eating histories. If you have been dieting for 20 years, for example, it is going to take time to learn how to listen to your body and make your own food choices! The process of becoming an Intuitive Eater is just as important as the goal, and every Principle has its own unique set of mini-goals to work towards. Unfortunately, we live in a culture that emphasis dieting and weight loss at every turn, so learning to become an Intuitive Eater means setting you up to fight back against these messages as you move through different stages of your life.
Check out the 4th Edition of the Intuitive Eating book by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch to get started
