Episode 002 – The Intuitively You Podcast

Getting Started with Intuitive Eating 

“How do I get started with Intuitive Eating?” and “Is Intuitive Eating even right for me?” are two questions I hear so often. I’m here to answer those questions, and more, for you! If you’re someone who’s looking to move away from dieting, feeling out of control around food, or just being disconnected from your body, Intuitive Eating can be a wonderful tool to improve your relationship with food and your body.

There are many benefits to Intuitive Eating for your physical health, mental health, and overall well-being. In this episode, I outline the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating so you can understand what it’s all about and how it could potentially fit into your life. Be sure to tune into the podcast above to listen to the full conversation! 

What is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive Eating was originally created by two Registered Dietitians named Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. This non-diet approach is a framework that places an emphasis on self-care and listening to your body’s natural internal cues. It’s both evidence-based AND practiced-based as well as backed by hundreds of research studies. Bottom line… it truly does work. Intuitive Eating is broken up into 10 principles to improve your relationship with food and overall well-being.

Common Misconceptions

I’m sure you heard that intuitive eating is just “eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full.” Well, this is partially true, but it’s also so much more! Intuitive Eating is about tuning into your intuition by understanding your emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. It’s about so much more than just the food itself!

Another thing I hear a lot is “I tried it and it didn’t work for me.” If you’re feeling that way, question whether you fully understood how to apply Intuitive Eating to your life. Maybe you just need the support of someone like a Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor (like me!) to help guide you in the process.

Benefits of Starting Intuitive Eating

There are so many amazing benefits to starting your Intuitive Eating journey! The first I want to share with you is having more self-compassion and self-esteem. People also experience more optimism, body appreciation, increased satisfaction, improved metabolism… and the list goes on and on. Intuitive Eating is also associated with a decrease in disordered eating, specifically binge eating and emotional eating. 

One other major benefit is higher levels of introspective awareness. What is that, you might ask? It’s the ability to perceive physical sensations that arise in our body (i.e. breathing, hunger, having to go to the bathroom, etc.) Let’s put this into perspective – when you’re underwater for a long time, you’ll come up and begin gasping for air. No one will call you an uncontrollable breather because that is just your body’s way of trying to save itself. The same goes for loss of control when eating. Your body is trying to support you! Remember, that your body is always on your side.

The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating

If you are thinking of getting started with Intuitive Eating, it’s important to understand the 10 principles and how they will apply to your journey. Let’s briefly take a look at each!

Principle 1: Reject the Diet Mentality 

• All about ditching diet culture and cultivating self-compassion
• There is a lot of self-exploration involved while you discover why the diet mentality no longer serves you

Principle 2: Honor Your Hunger

• Honour that your body and brain will let you know when you’re hungry
• Explore your hunger cues, what they feel like to you, and learn to keep your body well-fed

Principle 3: Make Peace with Food

• This will require you to give up the fight against food and accept that ALL foods fit
• Making peace with food is a process and takes time! (aka. be patient with yourself here)

Principle 4: Challenge the Food Police

• Learn to reframe the inner food police negative thoughts about food and yourself
• Food is not a moral decision it’s just food (more on this in my good vs. bad food blog post!)

Principle 5: Feel your Fullness

• To learn what fullness feels like in your body, it may require getting more mindful during the meal experience. Check out my free guide to mindful eating to implement this practice TODAY.
• Overall, learn to stop eating when you’re full!

Principle 6:  Discover the Satisfaction Factor

• Eating is meant to be a pleasurable, satisfying experience 
• You will begin to explore food further to find out what you truly like, without all those diet-y rules anymore!

Principle 7: Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness

• This will require you to connect to your emotions and learn how to truly care for yourself
• Food is an okay coping mechanism, but shouldn’t be your only coping mechanism!

Principle 8: Respect Your Body

• All bodies are good bodies – and yours it too
• Learn how to treat your body with kindness and respect, rather than fighting against it all the time

Principle 9: Movement – Feel the Difference

• Focus on more internal cues of exercise (how it feels, energy, overall well-being, etc.) instead of how your body aesthetically changed or how many calories you burned
• Discover what movements you actually like!

Principle 10: Honour Your Health- Gentle Nutrition 

• Once you’re ready to move onto this final principle, learn to nourish your body with food that makes you feel food.
• My personal fav is in here – nutrition by addition!

Now, this is just scratching the surface of the 10 principles, and truly doesn’t do them justice! If you want to learn a little more about the basics of starting intuitive eating, check out my blog post on Intuitive Eating & What it Is. 

Key Takeaways to Get Started with Intuitive Eating

• Intuitive Eating is coming back to internal cues rather than focusing on external rules (unlearning and relearning)
• There are many benefits of becoming an intuitive eater including your mental, physical, and emotional well-being
• It’s a dynamic process to start eating intuitively and the process may look different for everyone

To get started with intuitive eating, I challenge you today to examine your own beliefs surrounding these food rules and negative body thoughts. And to hear more of my thoughts on this conversation, tune into this episode on your fav podcast player using the links above!