Intuitive eating is about developing healthy relationships with food and learning to feed your body what it needs when it's hungry. It is not about weight loss. In fact, focusing on weight loss is the direct antitheses of intuitive eating. Some people who have relearned how to eat intuitively lose weight because they are no longer engaged in a cycle of starving and overfeeding. However, others have not; some have even gained because the ultimate goal is becoming emotionally, mentally and physically healthy in regards to food, regardless of size.
Step 1
Get rid of your diet “tools,” including diet-oriented books and magazines. Give away or throw out calorie, fat and carbohydrate counters. Pack away food scales and bathroom scales. These objects keep you in a dieting mindset, where you focus more on external rules about eating instead of listening to your body’s internal cues.
Step 2
Reject the idea of good and bad foods. When you label a food “bad” or “good,” you assign a value to the food and create negative feelings around eating. It is a vicious cycle.
Step 3
Listen to your body; it will tell you when it needs food and when it is satisfied. Eat when you first realize that you are hungry. If you wait, you train yourself to ignore your hunger signals. Eat slowly and evaluate how full you feel after each bite. Pay attention to how your body feels when you are hungry, famished, satisfied or stuffed to learn the differences.
Step 4
Focus on why you are eating. People eat for a myriad of reasons, including hunger, happiness, anxiety and boredom. If your need to eat is based on emotional factors, find ways to meet that emotional need without food.
Step 5
Accept and respect your body as it is, not as you wish it to be. As stated before, the purpose of intuitive eating is not to lose weight; it's to become healthier regardless of size. You might lose weight by eating intuitively, but you might not. Regardless, your body deserves to be honored and nurtured.
Step 6
Have realistic expectations about your weight. Some people are naturally heavier than others, the same way that some are naturally taller or have darker hair. If you come from a family of heavy people, you are not likely to become a size zero without restrictive, and potentially damaging, eating habits.
References
- “Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight”; pages 193 – 214; Linda Bacon, PhD; 2010
- Intuitiveeating.org: What is Intuitive Eating?
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