Episode 056 – The Intuitively You Podcast

Cannabis and Intuitive Eating

If you are someone who uses cannabis in your life and gets the binge eating “munchies” – you’ll want to tune into this episode! Cannabis and intuitive eating are two things that you may not think could possibly go together. Our guest, Leah Kern, RD, is here to tell you otherwise. She’s going to help you navigate cannabis use while on an intuitive eating journey to improve your relationship with food and your body! 

About Our Guest, Leah Kern, RD

Leah Kern is an anti-diet dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor who specializes in helping people heal their relationships with food and body. Her approach to coaching is firmly evidence-based, rooted in the Health At Every Size (HAES®) & Intuitive Eating frameworks. In her private practice, Leah teaches her clients to harness their body’s innate wisdom to govern how they eat and live. Leah believes that the work involved with unraveling years of conditioning in diet culture and learning to come home to one’s body is deeply spiritual work and she treats it as such. It is Leah’s mission to help her clients make peace with food and body so they can unlock their most aligned and fulfilling lives.

In addition to Leah’s love for intuitive eating, she has had her own unique journey to improving her relationship with food that also included learning how to navigate cannabis use and how that was impacting her eating habits. 

Episode Topics We Cover: 

• Leah’s personal intuitive eating journey 
• How cannabis use impacted her eating habits
• The intersection of intuitive eating and cannabis use
• Top reasons for the “munchies” or binge eating when high
• Tangible tips you can use to stop binge eating when high

Tune into the episode to hear the full conversation using the buttons above!

Top Reasons People Get the Binge Eating Munchies

1. Cannabis becomes a “permission slip” to eat certain foods that are otherwise placed off limits
   • This sounds like “I need to eat it all while I’m allowed to before I no longer have this excuse of being high.” These thoughts may even be subconscious, you may not realize you’re thinking about food in this way!
     
2. “Saving up for” the cannabis munchies experience
   • You may realize that you overeat or binge while high, so you could try to compensate by not eating less before your cannabis use experience. 
     
3. Harder to tune into body’s cues of hunger and fullness in a high state
   • It’s more difficult to listen to and honour your body’s cues because they likely feel different or become harder to “hear” while using cannabis. 
     
4. Cannabis leads to heightened sensations
   • Now this is an interesting one! While using cannabis, food can become more pleasurable, stopping eating may bring on emotions of sadness, and to keep the pleasurable sensations going and to avoid sadness… you may just keep eating. 

Tangible Tips to Stop Binge Eating While High: Aka. Using Cannabis and Intuitive Eating! 

1. Make peace with off limits foods
   • Practice making peace with the foods you may binge on when high, while you’re sober. Take these foods off of the pedestal so they become less magnetic.
2. Keep your body well nourished
   • Don’t “save up for” the munchies. Eating consistently and regularly so that you don’t get into an over-hungry state when you are using cannabis. 
3. Bring in an element of mindfulness
   • Practice being intentional about communicating with your body’s cues in this state. Have compassion for yourself, you may also want to take a step back from eating these food while using cannabis for now. 
4. Remember you have other senses other than just taste!
   • To tackle the pleasurable experience of the heightened sensations of eating, tune into your other senses and see how else you can find that pleasure while using cannabis. Maybe this looks like music, dancing, self-massage, hot shower, etc.

A Final Note on Cannabis and Intuitive Eating 

Leah reminds us that reflection is really important on this journey. If bingeing while high happens for you, instead of allowing your harsh inner critic to run rampant, take an exploratory approach of getting curious and not judging yourself. This out look allows you to learn from the experience so you can move forward without guilt.  

If you’re enjoying the Intuitively You Podcast, please be sure to leave a rating or review! This helps us spread these important messages to more lovely humans. Grateful for you, keep on living intuitively you!

This episode is a collaborative conversation with Leah Kern, Registered Dietitian (leahkernrd.com), and Jenn Baswick, RD, MHSc, host of the Intuitively You Podcast.