Intuitive eating has become increasingly more mainstream lately. The proof? The original pioneers of the concept, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, were recently featured in the New York Times – 30 years after they first developed the concept.
So, you may be wondering: “What is intuitive eating exactly? And is it something for me?”
I wrote about what intuitive eating is here. In this post, I will go a little bit deeper into IE, so you can decide for yourself if it’s something you’d like to pursue.
First and foremost though, I’d like to point out that we are all born intuitive eaters. As babies, when we are hungry, we wail to get our caregiver’s attention so we can be fed. And when we are full, we stop eating. If we don’t like something, we make a face and refuse to eat. If something doesn’t agree with us, our bodies will let us know by having discomfort or expelling it.
So why aren’t we intuitive eaters as adults?
As we grow older, we get more and more people telling us what to do. We start getting messages that we’re too [blank] or not [blank] enough – and that we need to change. We compare ourselves to other people and learn to pay more attention to our “flaws.” We are inundated with messages that being thin is healthy and that our size is part of our worth. Consequently, we’re taught to hate our bodies and to not trust them.
Is it any wonder that many of us have very complicated relationships with our bodies and with food?
The good news is that it’s possible to unlearn all that nonsense by coming back to yourself; to your body and its signals; to your thoughts and feelings; to you.
Intuitive eating is an INSIDE job. Literally.
This is why I tell potential clients that losing weight cannot be the focus when working with me. As soon as weight is involved, the process of intuitive eating is no longer an inside job because the marker of “success” is external. The focus isn’t on YOU, but rather, what the number on the scale is, or what size your dress is.
Intuitive eating gets you to look at yourself. It’s not just feelings of hunger, fullness, and satisfaction, but also: your thoughts, feelings, desires, behaviours, aspirations, obstacles, inner saboteurs, objectives, and JOY. Everything is inside of YOU. There is more depth to you than just a number, my friend, so it makes sense that we look at all of it.
Intuitive eating is an opportunity to really get to know yourself and if I were completely honest, not everyone is ready for that. Not everyone is interested.
And that’s okay.
If you’re interested in going deeper, I invite you to book a call with me so we can talk about how intuitive eating works for you. Alternatively, sign up to my email list or follow me on Instagram to get more bite-sized bits about intuitive eating and how this can change your life!
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