Intuitive Eating For Beginners

“I was doing so well on my diet until the weekend hit and I wanted to eat everything in sight!”

“We just don’t have enough self control. We need to try harder and avoid the bad foods”

“My skinny years were wasted thinking I was fat. I would kill to be that size now!”

Do any of these statements sound familiar?

You aren’t alone.

Each year, more than 45 million people in the United States alone sign up for weight loss programs that promise results fast, fueling an industry estimated at 71 billion dollars.

Unfortunately, these diets are largely unsuccessful. Studies show that more than half of the weight lost is regained within two years, and 80% of weight lost is regained by the five year mark.

Studies show that not only do diets not work, but they also lead to increased fat and decreased muscle mass!

Why Do Diets Fail?

The diet industry is one of the only industries that sells you a product they know is faulty by design, but you end up blaming yourself when it doesn’t work.

When you inevitably give in because the diet is too restrictive, you immediately tell yourself it is because you weren’t strong enough to hold out.

Here’s the thing: these companies know that, and are banking on you to fail so that you can buy another program and they can make money off you. Thus begins the yoyo dieter cycle, and they have you as a customer for life.

Diets are made to fail, so stop blaming yourself when you fall off the wagon!

There is a reason dietitians like to say “all foods can fit” and “moderation is key”. If you can remember as a teenager, when your parents forbid you to do something, it only made you want to do it more. This is the same with food: the more you restrict, the more you’ll want. Have you ever noticed that the minute you decide to cut out “all white foods”, you suddenly have an uncontrollable craving for cake and pasta? Even if you do end up restricting for a while, the next time you have the opportunity to eat the forbidden foods, you will find yourself bingeing.

What is Intuitive Eating?

So now you may be asking yourself if there is a way out of this diet cycle. Is there a more permanent solution that will help you restore peace with food? The answer is YES!

Contrary to popular belief, you are not broken. You do not need to be taught how to eat. In fact, we are all born knowing how to eat intuitively.

When we were babies, we would show signs of hunger (crying, putting our hands to our mouths) and fullness (turning your head, no longer showing interest).

Eating with others can play a large role in what you decide to order and how much you eat.

As we get older, we begin to take on external cues from our outside environment. Someone else other than you was dictating how hungry or full you were.

Maybe our parents would tell us to finish our plate. Or, our friends would all order salads because they were on a diet and you go along, even though you wanted a burger and fries.

Either way, at some point you start to rely on these external cues, and not your innate hunger and fullness cues. Intuitive Eating is all about getting back to the basics.

So basically, Intuitive Eating is a free for all. But how can I lose weight?

While some have lost weight, the goal of intuitive eating is not to lose or gain weight. The goal of intuitive eating is to achieve food freedom.

It’s about throwing out our fad diets, rigid food rules and unrealistic expectations.

It’s about healing your relationship with food, eating what sounds good, and eating the amount that feels good for you.

Being at a healthy weight is important. But there are other markers of health that are just as important! Intuitive Eating has been linked with improvements in many biomarkers, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and psychological health.

Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. You’ll be surprised to find out that you won’t always reach for “bad foods”.

Conclusion:

You deserve to be angry at the diet industry for selling you false promises of quick weight loss. You deserve to stop your battles with food, especially because you feel like you’ve been losing every time.

It’s time to take back control, tell the food police within you to take a hike, and work towards food freedom!

There are 10 principles of Intuitive Eating and we will be going in depth on each of them here on the blog. Stay tuned!

If you liked this post, be sure to check out 5 Ways to Help Your Kids Become Intuitive Eaters!