Emotional ups and downs. Restriction and deprivation. Anger at the scale. Anger at your body. Sound familiar? You may be a chronic dieter, and you’re probably fed up with frustrating diets that just leave you irritable and craving your favorite foods. That’s where Intuitive eating comes in. Intuitive eating allows you to make peace with food by focusing on your internal hunger and satiety cues instead of trying to force yourself to stick to overly rigid or restrictive diet rules. These kinds of depriving diets tend to backfire. They leave us feeling miserable and teach us to have a negative relationship with food and our bodies. Intuitive eating is about cultivating a sound and balanced approach to food and nutrition that isn't overly rigid or restrictive. Intuitive eating is about eating in a way that makes you feel your best both physically and mentally.
If I was to sum up Intuitive eating in one sentence, it would be, “Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full, and don't go into any extremes”. If you are hungry, eat. Listen to your hunger cues. When you are full, stop eating. If you are in the mood for pizza, eat pizza. If you are in the mood for a salad, eat a salad. Don’t let diet culture convince you that you have to cut out any major food group in order to be healthy. In a truly balanced and healthy diet, all foods fit. It seems simple, but years of dieting and battling with food and weight can make this simple nutrition advice difficult to follow or trust.
Intuitive eating and mindful eating really go hand-in-hand. Mindful eating is a practice of being focused and present while eating. It means paying attention to what you are eating - the taste, the texture of the food- and what you are doing while eating. Often, when we are distracted while eating, we consume more than we intend to, and we eat past satiety simply because we aren’t focused on recognizing our satiety cues. Mindful eating is about bringing the focus back on the food and enjoying what we’re eating.
It takes time to really learn to recognize and respond to your internal hunger and satiety cues, especially if you’ve spent years dieting and ignoring them. But you can begin to work on eating mindfully and intuitively today. The next time you sit down to a meal, make an effort to really pay attention and tune in. Pay attention to the food you are eating, how it tastes, and how it makes you feel. By learning to eat mindfully and intuitively, you will take steps to improve your long-term health and your attitude towards food for good.