Intuitive eating, although a term being used a lot recently, has been around since the early 1970s since experts realised that the diet culture didn’t work and we should return to trusting our emotional and physical hunger signs to know when and what to eat. So what does intuitive eating mean and can you lose weight?
What does intuitive eating mean?
Intuitive eating is exactly that. Trusting your intuition to understand your physical and emotional hunger signs and knowing what foods to eat, the correct amount and knowing when to stop when you’re full.
Basically, eating should satisfy physical hunger without causing guilt. Long before the diet culture we ate at regular times and we at food that was naturally grown or less tampered with, unlike it is today.
The human body is well equipped to know when it needs refuelling but with so much outside influence like the diet culture and confusion about what is actually healthy food over the last 50 years, we’ve lost the ability to be in tune with regulating when we eat, how much we eat, the types of food we eat and restricting ourselves of much needed nutrients our bodies need.
Look at any food type on the supermarket shelf and you’ll see low fat, sugar free, diet, no fat, etc etc and never before have people all over the world been obese.
This combined with a more sedentary lifestyle has contributed to people eating more ready made, processed food and relying on unhealthy food choices to ease emotional pain.
Intuitive eating means returning to a more natural way of understanding our own body’s hunger cues. It means not missing out on those foods that offer no nutritional value but learning to control just how much we eat of them and not relying on these foods to satisfy our emotional needs.
can you lose weight with intuitive eating
The whole point of intuitive eating is the complete opposite of being on a diet. Understanding your hunger cues, learning to love food that is good for you, enjoying to eat your meal while sitting down and recognising when you’re full are all signs that intuitive eating is right for you for an overall healthy eating plan.
Intuitive eating also takes into account learning to love our body in it’s current state, learning to love gentle exercise and movement and that food is not good or bad and you are not good or bad for what you eat or don’t eat.
Being in tune with how your body works, what foods are good for you at this stage of your life and treating food as a fuel that will nurture your body are all contributing factors to living a healthy life at a weight range that is right for your age. You will find you are in the best possible shape, size and weight for your age.
The best way to get started with intuitive eating is to start to keep track of your hunger cues. My Self Awareness Tool has been created with intuitive and emotional eating in mind. You can download it here for free.
Scheduling a free 30 minute call with me is also another way to find out how to incorporate an intuitive eating mindset when it comes to improving your overall health.
What are the benefits of intuitive eating
Some of the benefits of intuitive eating include better overall mental health and a genuine desire to improve your love/hate relationship with food and losing/putting on weight.
Your self esteem, body image and long term health goals will improve decreasing the need for any weight loss or diet regimes.
It will also help you avoid emotional eating, binge eating or other eating disorders.
As a registered dietitian, I am trained to help you:
- learn what foods to eat for your body
- teach you how to love all food and not have good foods or bad foods
- teach you how to love your body at this stage in your life
- learn to love the whole process of eating, savoring every bite, and
- to move your body, love your body and respect your body by fueling it with nutritious and good food.
Conclusion
Intuitive eating is a term coined as early as the 1970’s and is becoming more popular as an alternative way of eating compared to being on a diet. In fact, it goes against all that diets claim to be. You will learn to love eating foods that are good for you, foods without guilt and in moderation, while learning to love your body by fueling it with nutritious food and moving more. Please feel free to contact me to learn exactly how to return to intuitive eating.
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