While Intuitive Eating is relatively new, it has over 200 studies showing its positive impact on a wide variety of health outcomes, including improvements in body image, healthier metabolic profiles, decreased disordered eating behaviors and an increase in psychological wellbeing.
Intuitive Eating is a set of principles that empower an individual to be put back in charge of their own food choices and self-care behaviors. These choices and behaviors can be from a place of connection and attunement to their body and its unique physiology and needs.
Intuitive Eating has the very real potential to transform your relationship with food, your body and yourself. The skills developed through practicing Intuitive eating include interoceptive awareness, which not only allows a person to be more aware of their body’s cues around food, but also their thoughts, emotions and behaviors overall.
Essentially practicing Intuitive Eating allows you to be more intuitive and intentional in other areas of your life.
Unfortunately, Intuitive Eating is very often misunderstood or misinterpreted, so let’s clear up some common myths!
- Practicing Intuitive Eating doesn’t mean you are irresponsible. Instead, it means you are accepting responsibility for your own food choices and self-care decisions instead of having a diet dictate them to you.
- Intuitive Eating isn’t about being reactive and impulsive with food. Instead, Intuitive Eating fosters intention and awareness with food.
- Intuitive Eating isn’t just about how you feel physically. Instead, Intuitive Eating recognizes that your mental and emotional health are just as important as your physical health.
- Intuitive Eating is not about weight. Instead, Intuitive Eating is about setting weight aside so you can focus on meaningful changes you can make in how you care for yourself.
- Intuitive Eating isn’t anti-weight loss. Instead, Intuitive Eating is pro-health for all bodies no matter their size and no matter what happens to their weight while practicing Intuitive Eating.
- Intuitive Eating does not mean giving up. Instead, Intuitive Eating means you work hard to unlearn old and unhelpful belief systems that keep you stuck in negative behavioral cycles.
- Intuitive Eating is not just about what you are eating. Instead, Intuitive Eating means cultivating a respectful, connected relationship with food, your body and yourself.
- Intuitive Eating isn’t a destination you reach. Instead, It’s a continual learning process and a way of approaching self-care that is ever-evolving, because you are ever-evolving.
- Intuitive Eating doesn’t just mean you eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full. Instead, Intuitive Eating gives you freedom to process a wide variety of factors in order to make a decision about what, when and how much to eat.
- Intuitive Eating isn’t just another diet. Instead, it’s a process of reconnecting to your natural instincts that support you in knowing how to eat.
Your body is really smart. There is so much knowledge that lives inside it. Intuitive Eating is one framework that helps you come back home to yourself and find respect for your own wisdom. While diets and food rules are disconnecting, the principles of Intuitive Eating foster connection and attunement. Your relationship with food, your body and yourself will all benefit!
