Imagine a scenario:
You are at the office, and your co-worker brings in a box of cookies. It makes you crave cookies. As soon as you munch on a cookie, your inner food critic dialogue kicks in and says, "There's too much sugar in the cookie," "It's not a cheat day," and worst of all, "I'll gain weight."
Despite the craving, you walk back to your desk and resist eating the cookie. By now, it's 2:15 PM. While making a friendly conversation, you sneak around the corner to your office mate's candy jar trying to pull out a chocolate chip cookie. As soon as 2:25 PM approaches, you've eaten all the cookies, so you're overwhelmed with guilt and shame.
Now reimagine the situation differently. You gaze at your drawer full of delicious baked goods. Chocolate chip cookies seem delicious. You pick up a cookie, take it to a relaxing spot, savor the taste, texture, and flavor, and then head back to your office to finish your work.
Which scenario resonates most with you? You are not alone if you relate to the first scenario. Over half of adults report they are on a diet to lose weight. If you fall into the second group, then maybe intuitive eating is for you.
Check out the 10 basic principles of intuitive eating, and decide if it's for you.
Two registered dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch founded intuitive eating in 1995 as an evidence-based, mind-body health approach. Intuitive diets rely on ten principles designed to enhance interoceptive awareness, which involves recognizing when the body signals what to eat. The practice of intuitive eating is very personal, and no two people will experience it the same way.
In essence, every strategy should aim to fulfill the body's hunger signals at the right time, stop when you are full, eat food that satisfies, make eating a privilege, and find ways to manage emotions without using food. As a result, your body adapts to its intended weight, and when you eat foods that you genuinely enjoy, you have a greater likelihood of eating a diverse and well-balanced diet.
People who oppose intuitive eating claim that if we ate as we pleased, we'd lose all sense of self-control, and nutrition principles would fall by the wayside. Rather than eating whatever we want whenever we want it, intuitive eating is much more nuanced, which is why there are ten principles to guide us.
It is best to remove any rhetoric about unsustainable or restrictive diets or getting rid of weight rapidly. Get rid of the magazine, stop following Instagram, and clear your shelves of diet books. When making decisions about food intake and mealtimes, the most crucial factor to consider is internal cues, compared with external ones. You will never be able to rediscover intuitive eating if you expect to find a new and better diet in the future.
Feeding your hunger is a virtue! Ensure you provide your body with adequate calories and carbohydrates. By ignoring cravings and waiting until you're overly hungry, you may overeat. If you honor your hunger, you will rebuild your relationship with food.
Eat whenever and whatever you want without restriction. If you place food on an off-limits list, you will feel devoid of food and crave it more, leading to bingeing and guilt. Food fights don't serve you well, so stop them.
Stop judging yourself by your calorie intake or chocolate cake consumption. Dieting creates unreasonable and unsustainable "rules" that monitor the "food police" inside your mind. It's the food police that screams condemnations and guilt-inducing comments that make you feel bad about body image, food, and yourself. Evelyn and Elyse state in their book that chasing away the Food Police is the first step toward intuitive eating.
It is essential to pay attention to what your body tells you when it is satiated. Make sure you are satisfied and not stuffed to the brim. If you stop halfway through your meal, you might notice how your food tastes or whether you're still hungry.
We tend to ignore the importance of feeling satisfied and pleased when eating due to our obsession with being thin. According to Evelyn and Elyse, "Eating the food you want and in an environment that helps you feel content and satisfied is a powerful force." Once you give yourself this positive experience, you'll be surprised at how little food you need to feel satisfied. Food indeed nourishes the body, but it can also nurture the soul.
Instead of turning to food to comfort, distract, or resolve your issues, seek nonfood alternatives. Food only offers a short-term fix for anxiety, loneliness, boredom, stress, and anger. Putting your emotions ahead of an overeating problem is a recipe for disaster. Instead, try writing a journal, walking, or lifting weights.
An 8-inch shoe cannot fit into a 6-inch shoe. Evelyn and Elyse add that it is pointless and insatiable to strive for thinner bodies. Feel better about yourself by respecting your genetic blueprint. A false sense of body shape and weight makes it harder to reject the diet mentality.
Stop punishing yourself with calorie-burning exercises to improve your appearance. Concentrate on loving your after-exercise, post-movement feeling. Doesn't it make you happy, stronger, more confident? It will be much harder to stick to your exercise routine if you only exercise to lose weight.
Make sure you choose nutritious, tasty food. Healthy eating doesn't require a perfect diet. One snack won't result in nutrient deficiency or weight gain in one day. As Evelyn and Elyse explain, progress is what counts, not perfection. By honoring your eating preferences, you will be happier. Feeling satisfied reduces your urge to binge.
It is the best gift you can give yourself this season to break the diet cycle and listen to your body. Let go of your yo-yo dieting and food addiction, and embrace the new you!
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