A Guide To Intuitive Eating
I’m sure you’ve heard of the term “intuitive eating,” but you might not entirely understand what that entails. What does it mean to eat intuitively? How do you begin to eat intuitively? How do you begin to shift from food rules to food freedom? Let’s break it down.
As someone who’s tried numerous different ways of eating – low-fat, low-carb, high-protein, no- protein, vegan (if you name it, I’ve probably tried it) – I’ve found that one size does not actually fit all. After years of trials and tribulations with nutrition, I discovered there is no one way. The “best diet” simply doesn’t exist. Why? Because we’re all bio-individuals with our own set of bio- individual needs or, in simpler terms, each and every one of us is so different when it comes to our genetics, body types, health conditions and health goals. Thus, the “nutritional how-to” that so many are looking for will never exist! So let me introduce you to an alternative way of nourishment – intuitive eating.
Intuitive eating is simply the practice of getting in tune with your mind and your body. It’s the act of getting in touch with yourself so deeply that you can hear and understand your body’s innate desires. Intuitive eating is honoring your body’s needs, without any shame or guilt attached, so you are able to nurture and nourish yourself with every meal.
I look at intuitive eating as a roadmap to nourishment minus the judgment that so often comes along with the food we eat. We get so caught up with labeling food as “healthy” or “not healthy” that we subconsciously create a disconnect between our bodies and the way that we nourish them. Maybe we are craving a warm nourish bowl for dinner, but the shame we carry about carbs pushes us to ignore the hunger cues that our body is giving us, so we instead opt for a raw salad. What comes with this? By the time we finish the raw salad we feel dissatisfied because, as we continue to prioritize the narrative that surrounds carbs over our body’s desires and needs, we lack the nourishment that our bodies internally crave.
This is where the practice of intuitiveness comes in. Once we can begin to move away from the “food rules” that we feel we need to follow in order to maintain a certain look or feel a certain way, we are able to lean into how we can best nourish our bodies in each moment. We begin to cultivate a deep sense of self-trust within our bodies, knowing that our bodies always know what we need. This practice of tuning into our bodies and tuning out the narratives around food that we latch onto in order to feel a sense of safety and security, allows us to strengthen the relationship we have with both ourselves and with food.
Another important thing to note is that there are so many narratives about food being shoved in our ears at all times. Here are a few: “you need to eat a big breakfast,” “eat three big meals each day and don’t snack,” “eat six small meals a day,” “eat a light dinner,” “eat a light lunch and a heavy dinner,” “carbs are bad,” “carbs are good.” No wonder we all carry these around with us –nutritional narratives are pushed (against our will) into our heads from a young age, and we’re made to believe them! Inevitably, this creates an internal sense of distrust. We begin to believe we can’t trust our own instincts or our own bodies, so we do what everybody else is doing (or telling us to do). We latch onto these stories as if our lives depend on them, and if we don’t follow them, we panic. We want to follow the rules we’re told we need to follow in order to look and feel a certain way! But here’s the thing, green juice and a bowl of fruit in the morning might work for one person, whereas a protein-rich breakfast of eggs and avocado might work for another. I’ll say it again – there is no one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition. And there never will be!
However, there is the act of leaning into our intuitive instincts. And that, I believe, is where we begin the process of deep healing on a physical (and emotional) level. That is where we begin to remedy the relationship we have with ourselves and food we eat. It’s where we let go of the drama surrounding carbs, for example, and cultivate so much self-trust and self-love that we undoubtedly welcome the carbs onto our plate without a second thought. When we choose nourishment and freedom over false narratives and control, we take our power back and surrender to the mind-body relationship that we all have.
Intuitive eating is simply the act of coming back to ourselves, to trusting our own bodies, and to doing what feels good for us. When we move away from all that we’re told and back into ourselves, we begin to eat in a way that feels good instead of eating in the way that someone else told us to.
This is where the path to food freedom begins. When we develop self-trust to make our own nutritional decisions and honor what we need, we’re able to slowly put down the labels and the rules we hold around food. The stories and beliefs we carry about food go from a shout to a whisper. The outside noises begin to quiet when we come back to ourselves. Intuitive eating brings us back home to our bodies, ourselves, to the practice of self-trust, to surrendering. And when we’re able to surrender, letting go of the idea that we need control in order to be safe, life becomes a lot sweeter.
