So, you’ve started your Intuitive Eating Journey? It can be challenging to go it alone. If you’re reading the book or listening to podcasts on the topic it can be hard to know where to start for your unique journey. Here are my top 5 tips for making Intuitive Eating a success right out of the gate.
Eat Enough Food
Usually, if you’re embarking on Intuitive Eating you’re coming from some restrictive dieting. Diets or cutting out food groups or not eating when you’re hungry may currently be a way of life for you. It can be a real challenge to sort through what and how much to eat to fuel your body appropriately.
The importance of eating enough cannot be understated! One of the reasons that you may feel out of control around food at times is that your biology is working against you. Every time you diet, restrict food groups, or don’t get enough overall fuel or carbs, your body believes you’re in a starvation situation. An emergency in which your body does everything it can to keep you alive.
Think about it: if you were actually in a situation where you were starving it would be of great benefit to your survival for your body to help you out! Your body bumps up your cravings, giving you almost a primal drive to overeat. You obsess about food, can’t say no to it, feel that you desperately cannot stop once you’ve started, and think about it constantly. You even derive more pleasure out of food than you normally would! This is all your body’s innate drive to keep you alive.
Since we are in the land of abundant food, it can seem like your body is your enemy. I promise, if you learn to eat enough, it will calm down all these intense reactions to food and you can make rational, pleasurable choices around food again.
So How Do You Know If You’re Eating Enough?
I recommend eating 3 meals a day and at least 2 snacks in between when you’re hungry. If you have seriously blunted your hunger cues then you may need to just eat snacks twice a day between breakfast and lunch no matter if you feel hungry or not. Eventually your hunger signals will settle in and you’ll be able to trust them.
Eat all food groups. No more counting or reducing carbs. Eating enough carbs seriously helps your biology calm down. Eat at the very least 3 full servings of starches per day. Yes, that means rice, pasta, bread, cereal, oatmeal, chips or bagels. Your body uses carbohydrates for fuel first and foremost. When you restrict them you set your body up for failure. Include them early and often in your journey.
Finally, eat when you feel hungry. Don’t allow yourself to skip meals or get overly hungry. Hunger signals are your body’s way of communicating. Teach it that you are going to obey it and nourish it appropriately.
Give Yourself One Finite Sweet Treat Per Day
This might sound crazy to you if you haven’t allowed yourself sugar for a long time. (See my post on Sugar Addiction for more info on this topic). Or, you may be exactly ready for this concept. Giving yourself a finite treat helps your psyche know that you can have it abundantly and often. It helps you settle into the security that sweets are not going anywhere, that you’re not on a diet, and that you are “supposed” to have one daily.
I like the concept of a “finite” treat. What I mean by finite is that it is prepackaged or has an obvious end to it. Like one scone from Starbuck’s, or one small ice cream cup with toppings from the ice cream shop, or one ice cream sandwich, or one muffin. You get the picture.
You may feel like it’s so hard to have a whole box of cookies at your house without eating the entire thing in one sitting, and the concept of a finite treat helps to solve that problem. You have the best of both worlds. You get to have the yummy things you’ve been depriving yourself of, and you don’t overdo it. Your psyche learns that yummy food is available and abundant and not off limits, and you’re getting practice at having a reasonable portion of it that feels good to your body.
The added benefit is that if and when you are tempted to have more than one sweet treat a day, or to keep going once you’ve started, you can tell yourself that you “have” to have another one tomorrow so there is no need to keep going today. I love this for my clients that have trouble with binge eating. Binge eating is so much about mindset, and when you can work with that mindset, telling yourself that you get to have more tomorrow, the binges often subside or greatly lessen.
If you are the type that doesn’t enjoy sweets, then maybe your finite treat is french fries, or nachos, or fried mozzarella. Whatever will help you feel like you’re having something that you previously deemed off limits. It should make you definitively feel like you’re NOT on a diet, so don’t choose something that’s only slightly out of your comfort zone.
Learn Emotion Regulation Techniques Early
I find that most people who have dieted a lot or that binge eat have not developed the valuable skills needed to regulate their emotions in ways that do not involve food or weight. I also find that most people have not given much thought to how they take care of themselves emotionally. Then when they try to refrain from using food as a go-to source of comfort, it is all the more challenging.
You can first start by identifying emotions. Ask yourself what the feeling is, put your thumb on it so to speak, and give it a name. Is it anxiety? Boredom? Depression? Apathy? Frustration? Most people are not practiced at noticing emotions and giving them a name. We are so used to feeling something uncomfortable and reaching for a drink, a snack, a Netflix session, a few minutes on Facebook.
Once you’ve identified the emotions going on, you can then more naturally build into discovering what would feel good or help you through the emotions. A good cry? Talking to your best friend? Going outside for some fresh air? Going to bed early? Discovering ways to take care of your emotional self in intentional ways is one key to success with Intuitive Eating.
Draw Upon Previous Experiences with Intuitive Eating
I don’t necessarily mean the official intuitive eating. I mean the ones you stumbled into. For me, it was my first pregnancy. Somehow I dropped all notions of needing to eat perfectly and just ate what sounded good. I ate so many things that I had previously deemed “bad,” like lasagna, pizza, pasta, and cheese. I ate them in normal portions. I enjoyed them fully and moved on. Thankfully, it was just what my baby needed because he was happy and healthy and so was I. (Then, I sadly returned to my insane weight loss practices almost immediately post pregnancy.)
Once I embarked on Intuitive Eating a number of years later, I could remember back to what it felt like to eat according to my body’s hunger and fullness signals. I recall being free, enjoying food, not caring if I gained weight, feeling nourished, and looking forward to beautiful satisfying meals. As I was applying the intuitive eating principles in my life, recounting these experiences with food inspired me to keep moving forward. I wanted that level of freedom and peace again in my life.
I find that many of my clients have similar experiences from childhood or other times in their lives that felt peaceful around food. Draw upon those experiences to give you strength, hope, and motivation. You’re not permanently “broken.” We all have innate hunger and fullness cues and a peaceful relationship with food. You CAN get it back. I promise!
Fill Your Head With Anti-Diet Messaging
We have all been inundated with diet culture! The media and the diet industry want you to distrust yourself around food and to always be searching for the next diet or “healthy lifestyle” to fix you. It takes undoing all this negative messaging at it’s core to truly heal your relationship with food. Un-follow the Instagram accounts that make you feel bad about your body or guilty for eating real, tasty food. Follow accounts that inspire you to be a happy Intuitive Eater that eats all food groups, accepts all bodies, and makes you feel better about who you are and your own food journey.
It’s time to re-brainwash yourself with the good, and ditch the diet mentality. I find that the clients that adopt more body positive social media early on in their journeys have an easier go of it, and the ones that cling to the old messaging have a harder time. Give yourself the gift of finding new folks to follow!
Intuitive Eating is quite a journey. These five tips can make an impact on how it goes for you. As always, if you have questions please reach out. I love to hear from my fellow intuitive eating pals. Sending hugs your way today.
