How is Intuitive Eating Good for Your Health?
The definition of intuitive is: “using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning.”
Now can you imagine being able to walk into the kitchen and choose something to eat without first running through dozens of reasons why you should or shouldn’t eat something?
What would it be like to feel into what it is you want to eat and then trust yourself?
What would it be like to just KNOW what to eat?
That would be heavenly!
Intuitive eating (IE) allows one to do exactly that. IE is the practice of giving up restrictive dieting and learning how to listen to your own body’s cues when it comes to food and movement.
Intuitive eating is based on the 10 principles as outlined in the book “Intuitive Eating” by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch which was updated and reprinted as recently as 2020.
Intuitive eating is not about weight loss, although weight loss may occur. Weight gain may also occur, or your body may stay the same. IE is not intended to be used for “weight management” because “weight management” is exactly what has interfered with our relationship with food in the first place.
Did you know: Well & Good included intuitive eating on its list of future trends in food and health? Smart move!
Intuitive eating is powerful because it helps us to heal our relationship with food. If you do NOT have a difficult relationship with food and body, chances are, you are already an intuitive eater.
The rest of us have been conditioned and influenced by our culture and have fallen prey to the many toxic beliefs around food and weight and the body. Beliefs that say you must be thin to be worthy and beliefs that say the size of your body is one of the most important things about you.
Intuitive eating offers a framework for recognizing these toxic beliefs and letting them go.
IE also helps us to understand the emotional roots of our relationship with food so we can change what is no longer working for us. IE invites us to learn how to feel our feelings and how to cope with emotions without using food.
Therefore, two BIG ways IE improves our health is by improving our mental and emotional health. In a world full of anxiety and stress, the last thing we need to be anxious about is our food.
IE also improves our physical health in many ways. For one, it teaches us that we need to make sure we are eating enough food.
Our toxic culture (with a $500 billion dollar dieting industry) has to lead to many people ignoring their hunger and under-eating and this can exacerbate mental and emotional distress.
IE also teaches us to eat foods that are satisfying and fuel us enough to get through our busy days.
In addition, IE invites us to make choices that make our bodies feel good without getting hung up on fad diets and conflicting nutritional beliefs. This is about what works for YOUR body, no one else’s.
IE also helps us to leave behind the binge and restrict the cycle so our weight can stabilize and we can stop the yo-yo gain and loss which has been linked to the weakening of the heart muscle.
From a mind-body perspective, I believe that yo-yo dieting weakens your heart muscle because it takes you away from loving yourself. Our bodies are so smart.
IE is an invitation to practice more self-love and compassion. Your body has always been doing the best it could with what it had. Isn’t it time we started listening to it instead of bossing it around?
Intuitive eating is what we call a “no brainer”, especially if you have gotten into a pattern of moving from diet to diet and still haven’t landed on something that feels good to your body.
Learning and practicing Intuitive Eating is not always easy, it’s not a quick fix and there are sometimes pitfalls to navigate. But as long as you stay curious and don’t give up, IE can help you create a stable foundation from which to feed yourself for the rest of your life.
You know what they say — give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime! Once you teach yourself how to eat without guilt, fear, or shame, it’s a skill you will have forever.
With IE you can also stop thinking about food and your body and start creating the life of your dreams, which by the way, is also good for your spiritual health!
There you have it. Intuitive Eating is good for your mind, body, and spirit. When something is a win-win-win, you know it has to be worth checking out.
But don’t take my word for it. Try it for yourself and let me know how you feel! (And if you are curious about the IE pitfalls, stay tuned and I’ll write another post about those so you know what to watch out for!)
