Intuitive eating is to be fully in touch with your body and what it wants. When we are born, we know what we need and when we need it. Instinctively, we eat when we are hungry and stop when we are full. If your body is in a healthy state and you know how to listen to your internal cues, you will already be intuitively eating.
Unfortunately, eating is used as a tool to change the body into what we think it should look or perform like. The average person will try at least two "fad" diets a year and give up after less than one week. Diet trends like "Atkins", "5:2", and "eating clean" can create an unhealthy relationship with food. Not only do they impact social life, create anxiety and poor performance but they also imbalance the metabolism and hormones. When you restrict a food group or "bad food" you are more likely to binge, leading to shame and feeling the need to restrict again. At this stage, eating has little to do with hunger and more to do with counting calories and quantities, which is not a sustainable lifestyle.
Intuitive eating is not for everyone. Those with active eating disorders should understand it is important to get to a place where your hormones and metabolism are regulated. This may take a little longer and is achievable yourself, but you may feel you need help. Practitioners can help guide you with techniques like mechanical eating (where you are advised to eat every 3-4 hours to help encourage your natural internal hunger cues and learn to trust them). There is also healing that needs to happen within you. Ask yourself: What do I need to feel? Is there an emotion that I am bypassing? Am I hungry or am I emotional eating? It is important to know the difference. Physical hunger is your body sending signals that it needs nourishment: grumbling stomach, dizziness, and poor concentration. Emotional eating is emotionally driven: boredom, sadness, and loneliness. When you feel the effects of physical hunger you are more likely to eat too much. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being full and 1 being starving, you want to eat at 3-4 and stop at 6-7. The idea is to step completely away from tracking calories as this can become obsessive. If you have tracked calories or macros in the past, you know that the body needs protein, carbs, and fat in every meal. Once you understand this, you can gauge it on your own. Look at it from an overall perspective: some days you will eat more than others-- it depends on what you have done and where you are on your cycle (ladies). Take it slow, be patient and loving with yourself on your journey back to a healthy mindset about food and body image.
Eating is about feeding the body for it to survive and thrive. It brings families and friends together- it can heal! Healing your relationship with food goes beyond your health, it affects your whole life. The body has an amazing way of taking care of itself if we take care of it, by giving it the fuel it needs. When you are in tune with your body, you will reach for wholesome food. You just need to listen to it!
Comments