Why Do People Start Intuitive Eating?
Why do people embark on something that seems so counter to all that they have learned about food, eating and how their body works?
Often times we grow up thinking the only option to interact with food and our bodies is from a place of control. We need to watch our Calories, we need to make sure we’re eating the right portion sizes, we need to monitor our weight. Control, control, control. When the idea of not monitoring and counting things it is often equated to “giving up” it then seems like it is inevitable that then our eating and weight will spiral out of control. Intuitive eating is the alternative to this binary that you’re looking for, even if it doesn’t seem like it.
Have you ever asked any of these questions?
• I want to stop dieting, but what do I do?
• I don’t want to count Calories anymore, but how else will I not eat everything in sight?
• I’m so tired of trying so hard to “eat healthy” but if I just let myself eat whatever I want won’t I just be eating junk food all day?
• I’m so exhausted by the “food noise” but how else am I going to get rid of that besides not being hungry all the time?
• How do I get myself not to be so obsessed with food?
• How can I stop being hungry all the time?
• How do I get myself to crave healthy foods?
If you have asked yourself any of these questions or something similar, then the answers are going to be counter-intuitive, which is why I think something like intuitive eating is not more mainstream.
Why IE feels so radical
When our default ways of managing our food and bodies comes from the idea that you need to have the most control in order to get what you want, something like intuitive eating seems like the last thing that will work for you. The idea is that intuitive eating is just “eating whatever you want, whenever you want, is not untrue. However, the key point that is missing from that is the body trust.
When we come from a place of needing to control our food and body it is because we are made to believe it is because we cannot trust our body’s innate wisdom. There are a thousand and one arguments that in this modern day and age we aren’t used to having such easy access to food, therefore our bodies will constantly want to eat and only eat the “highly palatable” foods - ie. foods that are high in sugar, salt and fat. However, I know it is absolutely possible to live in this modern world and not feel like you have to control you food intake and weight to live in balance with food.
how do i know if i would be ready for intuitive eating?
Some signs that you might be ready to start with intuitive eating are:
• you feel out of control with food but all of your attempts to increase this control haven’t worked
• you feel lost, confused and frustrated with your current eating patterns
• you feel like you have tried every diet but none of them last
• you feel like health has always been just out of your reach
• you feel like there are so many mixed messages on what the healthiest thing to eat is and so you’re tired
• you relate to people describing “food noise”
• you get into decision paralysis when you’re trying to figure out what to eat
• you have a feeling deep down that this might be something you would want to try but you’re scared
• you think intuitive eating sounds all well and good in theory, but that for you it wouldn’t work
These are just some of the things that I have heard when clients come to me for my counseling sessions and I know that when this is happening, that intuitive eating is the “answer” that they have been searching for. This is by no means a complete list so I would say whatever brought you to reading this blog is probably a sign that you should look more into it!
When it feels like Intuitive Eating isn’t working
A lot of people come to me either having tried IE and felt like “it didn’t work” or they are afraid that having learned what it was that it “wouldn’t work” for them.
The most common scenario that happens in these two instances are that someone feels “out of control” with their eating, usually meaning overeating or eating foods they don’t want to be. They enter intuitive eating via trying to give themselves the food freedom and break from the food rules, only to have their eating feel more chaotic, out of control, and feeling worse.
This is a very common and valid experience and I can see why people would then feel about intuitive eating the way that they do. I do think that the food freedom initial chaos is in an important part of the process, and then even more important that you don’t stop the process there. I do think that people can do intuitive eating on their own or via reading one of the books. However, I do think it can be a really helpful thing to have someone who is trained in intuitive eating to guide you through the process, especially in the initial messy part where a lot of people stop because it is too scary to be that out of control. I can promise that it gets better from there and that the goal of intuitive eating is not to continue in that uncomfortable chaos. It is about having that food freedom but in a way that feels peaceful, gently structured and with you in the driver’s seat.
conclusion
I often say that intuitive eating can feel like the complete opposite of what would help people who are feeling out of control with food. However that is why I enjoy this work so much is because once people start having those “ah-ha” moments and things start clicking, they feel so empowered unlike any amount of strict control ever gave them.
If this blog resonated with you and you would like to learn more about working with me, give my counseling services page a look through, and I also have free 20 minute consults to talk through more of what it would like like to do this work!