You know that feeling all night studying and you are dead on your feet exhausted?? What foods do you crave? Lollys, coke, a coffee with 2 sugars???

Remember a time that you have tried to feed a baby ‘just a little bit’ more and no matter how hard you try they just spit the bottle/ boob out?

How about last Christmas after two weeks of binging on Christmas cake and too many wines? How is it possible you were almost excited to be starting on your New Year’s diet resolutions- that in some weird way you were actually craving salad?

These are all examples of Intuitive Eating in action. Times when your body was shouting very loudly that it needed energy/ had enough food/ wanted some decent nutrition – and was shouting so loudly that you actually heard it.

Do you know though, that your body is always talking to you this way?

We just have to learn how to listen.

Intuitive Eating is a dynamic integration between mind and body

Intuitive eating is evidence based, mind-body health approach to eating where YOU are front and center. YOU are the decider of your daily meal plan.

Once upon a time, as a child, you were an intuitive eater.

BUT years and years of endless dieting and following restrictive eating patterns have led to you no longer being able to speak that language. Intuitive eating helps you to re-learn this by breaking down the barriers that prevent you from hearing what your body is trying to tell you.

IN 1995 Dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch developed this concept in their book “Intuitive Eating- A revolutionary program that works”

Since then two further editions of the book and over 90 scientific studies have been conducted on Intuitive Eating. These have measured its positive impact on body image, life satisfaction, body satisfaction and inversely related to disordered eating and dieting., 1,2

The 10 principles from the book Intuitive Eating are:

• Reject the Diet Mentality.
• Honor your Hunger
• Make Peace with Food
• Challenge the Food Police
• Respect your Fullness
• Discover the Satisfaction Factor
• Honor Your Feelings without Using Food
• Respect your Body
• Exercise – Feel the Difference
• Honor your Health, ie gentle nutrition ²

Working through these 10 principals of Intuitive Eating will remove roadblocks and cultivate your own body awareness.  You will begin to hear the whispers and then the roar of what your body is telling you.

The first, often most difficult principal is to “Reject the Diet Mentality.

Throw away those diet books and your bathroom scale. It’s time to get angry about the false promises of quick weight loss, and furious that these made you to feel like a failure when it didn’t work.

Has anyone told you that there is not a single long-term study that shows that diets work? That losing weight by dieting and food restriction actually leads to weight gain?? Yes, weight gain ⁽³⁾ Even worse are the phycological effects of this focus and preoccupation on weight  – body dissatisfaction and weight stigma,and this in turn negatively impacts health ⁽⁴⁾

Yes its time to get very angry.  And when you finally recognize that diets don’t work, you can start to take a gentle approach to nutrition and your body.

But its not easy.  First up, you must trust that your body knows best. During the IE journey you will rediscover hunger and fullness. You will also learn to recognize that there is more than one kind of ‘hunger’ that you may be trying to satisfy with food. (Emotional hunger anyone?).
The work you will do will be hard but the rewards are HUGE.

No more guilt and angst about food. No more fighting with your own inner food police.

But will I lose Weight???????

The real answer is we don’t know. I explain more about if you can lose weight with Mindful Eating in THIS Video.

No one can answer that question.  Your body will settle at the weight it wants to be at.
This is perhaps the toughest part of the process. Trusting your body enough to give it the power. But while you are working through the principals of ‘Honoring your Hunger’, ‘Making Peace with Food’ and ‘Respecting your Fullness’ this trust will grow.

As will the amazing realization that:

THERE ARE NO RULES.

THERE IS NO BAD FOOD (there is also no good food)

And yes, you too can learn to eat as you did as a child, by instinct and intuition.

“Call a truce, stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can’t or shouldn’t have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and often, bingeing. When you finally “give in” to your forbidden foods, eating will be experienced with such intensity, it usually results in Last Supper overeating and overwhelming guilt.”

― Evelyn Tribole, Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works

Would you like support with your eating, weight management, body image, life goals or just motivation and encouragement?

We are here to help. We will help you to move from struggle, overwhelm, inner battle and obsession to freedom, motivation and joy.

Book your free call with Eugenia to discuss your challenges and what you desire for yourself. Together, we will decide what is the best program for you and how we can help you with your uniqe needs.  Or join our memerbs’ club today!

References:

• Tribole E. Intuitive Eating: Research Update : SCANS PULSE Summer 2017;3:3:1-5
• Tribole, E, Resch E. Intuitive Eating, 3^rd New York, NY: St. Martins Press, 2012
• Rothblum E. (2018). Slim Chance for Permanent Weight Loss. Archives of Scientific Psychology:6, 63–69. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/arc0000043
• O’ Hara L and Taylor J. (2018) What’s Wrong with War on Obesity? A Narrative Review of the Weight-Centered Health Paradigm and Development of the 3C Framework to Build Critical Competency for a Paradigm Shift. SAGE Open: Apr-June: 1-28. org/10.1177/2158244018772888 I am text block. Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.