Intuitive Eating is picking up a lot of steam in the health world– and I KNOW it’s because people are craving a solution to living a healthier life without going on a diet, or falling headfirst into a bag of Doritos every night.
You’ve likely heard of Intuitive Eating– and if you’ve been around here long enough, you’ve heard me talk about it a bunch, too.
But do you really know what it means? (It’s OK if you don’t!).
There are a lot of myths around Intuitive Eating, like… – it’s just eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full– it’s all about eating whatever you want, whenever you want (donuts and cookies all day doesn’t sound healthy, does it?)– you can’t meal plan or plan ahead when you’re eating intuitively, you just need to decide what you want in the moment
I could go on!
So let’s debunk these, a little bit– and allow me to share what Intuitive Eating actually IS.
Here’s the deal: we were BORN to eat. We were born with the need to nourish our bodies through food, and as we progressed beyond the breast or bottle, we started eating solid food. As children, most of us were not told exactly what time to eat. Yes, we had snack times and lunch times, but if we were hungry, we asked for a snack, when we were full or the food was no longer satisfying, we stopped eating. Somewhere along the way, as we grew up, someone told us what we should eat, when we should eat, or how much we should eat. THIS is diet culture. It’s relying on outside sources to decide what, when and how much we should eat, rather than our own inner wisdom.
We’ve all heard of intuition, right? Intuition is simply tuning into our instinct, rather than conscious reasoning. Intuitive Eating is getting back to the basics of our own inner wisdom when it comes to eating, rather than relying on outside sources to tell us what, when, or how much to eat- WE are the experts of our own bodies.
But here’s the thing- unless you’re seven, chances are, you’ve already been exposed to diet culture, which means Intuitive Eating is a process.
It STARTS with a decision, but the skills are learned, or re-learned, so don’t feel like I’m telling you you were born to do this, it’s just like riding a bike. It can feel like riding a bike- when you’re first starting, and you fall off and on and off and on, until one day, you fly. Sometimes you still fall, but when you get back up, you know how to ride again.
THIS is why there are ten principles to guide Intuitive Eating. It’s not a linear process, like a 12-step program or a diet plan, but what it offers is light structure to help you develop the skills to tune into your body and find what works for you.
This doesn’t negate the science of nutrition. We can combine the science of nutrition in a gentle, non-restrictive way once we learn the principles of intuitive eating in order to thrive in our bodies- and this is what I am all about. Finding YOUR beautiful balance, simplifying nutrition and tuning into YOUR intuition.
Sound AMAZING, but potentially incredibly difficult if you’re a mom? I get it, mama. But it doesn’t have to be.
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