Intuitive Eating: Is it just another diet?
Until I tried Intuitive Eating, I thought it was just another diet, but with some guidance and practice, I was surprised at how well it worked for me. After a while, I stopped looking at foods as good or bad. Instead, I listened to my body and ate what felt right. My anxiety about what to order when I ate out with my partner vanished, and I started enjoying life more and was more spontaneous overall.
I can hardly believe how much my fear of eating certain foods controlled so much of my life. It was so helpful for me that I decided to get my Intuitive Eating Counsellor certification.
Here’s the low-down.
Eating should be intuitive, but it isn’t for many people. Trusting so-called experts about what, when, and how much to eat steers you away from your body’s internal signals. Unlike conventional diets, Intuitive Eating has no rigid rules. Instead, it offers guidelines that help you relearn how to trust and honour your body’s signals. Intuitive Eating helps you reconnect to your body’s internal signals and remove the obstacles to attuning to these signals. These obstacles could be rules or beliefs about certain foods or one’s body.
The ten guidelines of Intuitive Eating are:
Let Go of Dieting. A Diet mentality gives you false hope that a particular diet will help you lose weight quickly, easily, and permanently.
Honour Your Hunger. Respond to early indications of hunger by feeding your body enough.
Make Peace with Food. Let go of food rules and feel confident eating food without guilt.
Challenge the thoughts that lead you to believe certain foods are good or bad.
Respect Your Fullness. Practice checking in while you eat to see how the food tastes and monitor your hunger level.
Avoiding distractions, eating in a pleasing environment and eating food that tastes good makes eating more satisfying and pleasurable.
Honour Your Feelings Without Using Food. Emotional Eating is a way some people cope with or numb their feelings. Eating or restricting yourself can never meet your real emotional needs.
Respect Your Body. Learn to respect it for its capabilities.
Find ways to move your body that make you feel good, energized and alive.
Honour Your Health with Gentle Nutrition. The foods you eat should taste good, nourish, and give you energy.
Book a call to see if Intuitive Eating is a good fit for you.