What is Intuitive Eating? (Part 2 of 2)

Diets promote the idea that progress comes as long as you follow the rules. This promotes a perfectionist mindset and makes you feel that you need to follow all of the rules. If you mess up, your progress will go off track.

The mindset of approaching Intuitive Eating needs to be approached differently. There is a concept of the spiral of healing that at times, it will get more challenging before there is improvement. There is no failure but times of reflection and growth when challenges present.

Intuitive Eating has 10 main principles which provide a guide for the process of changing how you are approaching food and your body (Tribole & Resch). The first five principles were explained in What is Intuitive Eating (Part 1 of 2)? Here is an overview of the last five principles and suggested action steps you can take with each one. These explanations and action steps are starting blocks for each principle.

 6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor

Description: Food is meant to be nourishing but also enjoyable and pleasant. Consider the environment in which you are eating and make this area inviting. Reflecting on your experience with the food and environment can help you reach a point of contentment with your meals and snacks.

Potential Action Steps: Try new recipes, snacks or meals which have appealing tastes, textures, colors, and smells. Explore what types of foods allow you to feel satisfied with flavor and experience as well as fullness. Lay out a couple of foods in front of you and reflect on the five senses (taste, smell, touch, sight, and sound) while consuming your food. Take note of what foods are more enjoyable experience than others. Consider other factors which increase satisfaction with eating such as people, environment, and traditions.

 7. Honor Your Feelings without Using Food

Description: Food can be comforting and temporarily feel as though the food can help. Even though food provides comfort in the moment, this does not solve the core emotions.

Potential Action Steps: Before assuming that you are an emotional eater, first acknowledge self care rituals. Consider ways to improve sleep, eating through the day, and managing stress levels. Add one goal to increase self-care in the week. Start to acknowledge emotions you are feeling in the day by recording your emotions in an app like Dalyio. Consider ways to take time to attend to your emotions with alternative methods such as writing in a journal, listening to music, going for a walk, or talking with a friend.

 8. Respect Your Body

Description: Learn how to accept your body for how it is in the moment. Instead of criticizing, celebrate your body’s abilities. Instead of critiquing, consider approaching your body with compassion and curiosity.

Potential Action Steps: Reflect on how you currently treat your body. How can you care better for your body in the current state? This may require getting rid of clothes which do not fit and purchasing clothes which are comfortable. Start to acknowledge yourself and others by personality and characteristics versus physical appearance. This can be done by writing valued traits of yourself on sticky notes and placing them on your bathroom mirror.

 9. Movement: Feel the Difference

Description: Instead of using exercise to compensate for food intake, consider using movement as enjoyment. Take notice of how you feel moving your body during activities and the benefits of movement such as increased energy, better sleep, improved emotional regulation, etc.

Potential Action Steps: Write a list of different activities which require movement of the body. Try a new activity a week and investigate which ones you enjoy. Consider how your body feels before and after completing the movement activities by writing down the benefits and challenges. Consider ways to include others in your movement activities by inviting friends or family members to complete the activities with you.

 10. Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition

Description: Understand how approaching nutrition is not a make it or break it based on one food decision but rather eating pattern over time. Perfection and rules are not the goal but rather understanding how food serves your body best. Explore foods while adding variety with eating.

Action Steps: Start to incorporate a variety of foods into your diet. Aim to include nutrient dense foods and play foods since all foods fit. Take time to reflect on your thoughts and cravings for food. Reflect on your motivation of eating and the satisfaction you are reaching with meals and snacks. Take time in your day to notice hunger/fullness cues and adjust food portions as needed. Provide grace on your hunger/satiety cues since they differ day to day.

Remember, transitioning back to your natural state of intuitive eating takes time. This is a continual process of relearning and retraining our brain and body to new normal with food. Providing yourself grace and compassion during this transition is key.

For more information, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch have created multiple book resources to provide support and information for transitioning to an intuitive eating framework including the Intuitive Eating Workbook and Intuitive Eating book. Christy Harrison also provides resources on Intuitive Eating including her book, Anti-Diet and her podcast, Food Psych. As a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, I can help you improve your relationship with food, increase self-compassion, and improve body-mind connection.

The mental health therapists at our office offer counseling for a variety of issues including trauma using EMDR, depression, anxiety, grief, and couples counseling. We work with teens, adults, and couples. We also offer online counseling services which can be great for people with busy schedules or for people who live in parts of Pennsylvania with limited counseling options. You can check out our website to see the full list of counseling services that we offer. Or, Request An Appointment here.

Reference: Tribole, E. & Resch, E. 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating, http://www.intuitiveeating.org/10-principles-of-intuitive-eating/