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Imagine a diet where you can eat anything you want. The catch? You only eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full. It’s intuitive eating-a way of eating that helps people establish a healthy relationship with food and their bodies.
I’d read a lot about intuitive eating from bloggers who’ve embraced the approach after years of dieting and said it had helped them to have a healthier relationship with food-they could eat what they wanted and still maintained a healthy weight. To learn more I interviewed Evelyn Tribole, M.S., R.D., the author ofIntuitive Eatingand one of the thought leaders on the subject for the May/June issue ofEatingWellMagazine.
As a registered dietitian and associate nutrition editor ofEatingWell, intuitive eating makes a lot of sense to me-it’s an inherently healthy way to eat. Rather than focusing on some sort of external sense of what you should and shouldn’t eat (such as in a diet), intuitive eating makes you the expert on how much, when and what you eat. This shift turns eating from a struggle to an enjoyable way to nourish your body.
Here are Tribole’s 10 principles of intuitive eating:
- Reject the Diet Mentality
Diets give you rules about when and what you should eat. Intuitive eating says thatyouare the person best able to tell you that information-unlike diets, no foods are off limits when you eat intuitively. It empowers you to be the expert of your body-but in exchange you have to get rid of the idea that there’s a perfect diet that will bethe onethat finally works for you.
Honor Your Hunger
Make Peace with Food
Challenge the Food Police
On a related note, Tribole says you should stop categorizing food as good or bad (and labeling yourself good or bad for what and how you eat). Getting rid of rules and the judgment calls that accompany them are an important step in eating intuitively.
“Bad” Foods That Are Actually Good for You
Respect Your Fullness
Discover the Satisfaction Factor of Eating
Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food
Although eating should be enjoyable, it shouldn’t be your main source of comfort. Find other ways to deal with your feelings-like anxiety, loneliness, boredom and anger-that are not food-related. Take a walk, call a friend, write down your feelings… If you’ve typically used food to soothe your feelings, explore new ways to deal with feelings that don’t involve eating.
- Respect Your Body
Accept and respect your body as it is now, whatever shape and size you are. As Tribole says, “It’s hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical about your body shape.”
- Exercise-Feel the Difference
If you’re exercising just to burn calories, then it becomes a chore. Exercise is important for your health-and itdoesburn calories-but if you don’t enjoy it, you’re less likely to do it regularly. Tribole recommends tuning in to how exercise feels. I’d add to that experimenting with different forms of exercise and finding things you enjoy-if it’s going to the gym you don’t like, think of walking, dancing, bike riding, rock climbing or playing with your kids instead.
- Honor Your Health
When you start tuning in to how food tastes and how your body feels when you eat, then you’ll also start noticing that some foods make you feel better than others. That doesn’t mean you have to give up bad foods, says Tribole-quite the opposite. You should strive for foods that taste good to you and, in your overall diet, get in foods that are also healthy for you (and therefore make your body feel good).
Must-Read:10 Secrets of Clean Eating
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