How to start intuitive eating
Written by Delilah Bisase, RD
The popularity of intuitive eating is steadily growing as more and more people have begun to wake up and stop drinking the diet culture kool aid. Intuitive eating (IE) is a non-diet approach to nutrition created by two registered dietitians back in the 90s as a rebuttal to the diet culture of that decade. The 90s were the days of Slim Fast shakes, the Atkins diet, and everything low fat. These RDs recognized that diet culture was destroying people on both a physical and psychological level, and thus the IE program was born.
“Intuitive eating is associated with many psychological benefits such as improved body image, better body acceptance, increased body appreciation, higher self esteem, and less depressive symptoms”
Various studies, with primarily women participants, have discovered that intuitive eating is associated with many psychological benefits such as improved body image, better body acceptance, increased body appreciation, higher self esteem, and less depressive symptoms
So you might be wondering, “how can I get in on this?” As awesome as IE is, I can imagine that jumping into it feels a bit overwhelming, confusing, and unclear because social media outlets are loaded with people posting about their IE journey and IE tips. Before I dive in with my tips, these next lines are probably the most important message of all. Your journey, just like your body, is uniquely yours and designed specifically for you. It will not be a carbon copy of the next person. Therefore, intuitive eating will always look different on every person- and that’s okay!
The 10 Intuitive Eating principles
The IE program has 10 principles, which I’m going to briefly list here. I won’t go deep into detail about them in this post because the explanation for each can be found on their website. Plus my various blog posts, YouTube videos, Instagram and TikTok reels about healing your relationship with food illustrate them in some way. I’ve linked a few that relate to content I’ve previously shared.
2. Honor Your Hunger
5. Discover the Satisfaction Factor
6. Feel Your Fullness
7. Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness
9. Movement—Feel the Difference
Intuitive Eating quick start guide
Use these three check in questions below to help you be more grounded and connected to your body, which is a core tenant of IE. These are questions you would ask yourself before a meal. It may seem tedious at first, but with repetition it almost becomes second nature and happens so quickly you don’t realize it.
Am I physically hungry, emotionally hungry, or both?
If emotional hunger is present in the absence of physical hunger, find a healthy way to address the emotions without food. If both physical and emotional hunger are present, you definitely need to eat some food (slowly and without distractions) AND find a healthy way to address the emotions without food. People slip into emotional eating patterns when they don’t confront the fact that some unpleasant emotion (ex: anger, frustration, anxiety) is affecting their food choices. Emotional eating is a distraction from dealing with these uncomfortable emotions head on.
Is this food something I want to eat or something I think I should eat?
Please don’t “should” on yourself!!! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat foods you enjoy. This type of restriction is problematic, but sadly normalized and often referred to as “discipline” thanks to diet culture. No no no, please don’t restrict because it will only backfire and result in maladaptive behaviors such as overeating, undereating at meals, or skipping meals altogether.
What kind of need is this food meeting- physical nourishment, pleasure or both?
Food is special because it serves a dual purpose of meeting our physiological need to stay alive, but it also has a hedonic element because we experience pleasure when we eat.
It’s important to be aware of which kind of need our meal is meeting. Keep in mind that it’s okay to experience pleasure through food, it’s healthy and normal. Savor the moment, discover the satisfaction factor, and then move on with your day. When you do this, you’ll notice you consume just the right amount to enjoy that food. The root issue of this often lies in self trust. Many folks have been conditioned to not trust themselves with food, and therefore instead of responding to their body’s own cues about hunger, pleasure, and satiety, they follow externally imposed rules hailing from diet culture. In the process of regaining trust in yourself, you’ll find that when you are truly intune and listening to your body you’re not going to eat through a whole bag of [insert whatever food you’re afraid of overeating] because you’ll realize it’s actually not that fun.
If you enjoyed this story, check out my free guide called “How to Eat Spiritually and Gain Food Freedom”. I share tips and insight on how to have a healthy relationship with food and eat in a way that honors your body.