26 Jun The Gentle Guide to Food and Intuitive Eating Principles
The Gentle Guide to Food and Intuitive Eating Principles
What Intuitive Eating Means
Intuitive Eating is a lifestyle practice that encourages us to trust our internal hunger cues to meet our psychological and physical needs, and restores the balance between our bodies and the food we eat [1].
It is a food journey experience where basic nutritional awareness dances harmoniously with instinct, emotion and self-care. It encompasses more than food and nutrition. This journey builds a relationship of trust with your body, asking you to listen closely and respect the living breathing Being that you are.
It is eating mindfully, and also focuses on physical activity for the sake of feeling good, releasing diet mentality, and welcoming the full-body sensual enjoyment of food. Intuitive Eating is a choice to live with the intention to nurture and honor our bodies’ communication with us. It is a path of deepening our trust in the messages that come from inside of us.
Attuning ourselves to signals will guide us to a deeper knowing, so we organically make and create food choices that are truly good for us. Food choices that enhance our vitality, nourish our entire physiological system of mind and body, and ultimately, ground us into a state of health and wellbeing that is sustainable and freeing. It means, quite simply, listening to these simple subtle messages from our bodies, that carry the healing power of presence. Amazing.
Benefits of Intuitive Eating
Quite simply, walking the path of intuitive eating is truly a single drop in the ocean of your self-connection, self-love and self-care. Well, it’s perhaps an entire sea in itself, since listening to our body is really a major mountain in the sierra of our mindfulness journey. One that will inspire new perspectives and sensitivities as you attune yourself to the messages coming through in the present moment.
This approach to eating is medicine for the mind. It asks of you, with discipline and compassion, to throw away your old belief systems around diet, right eating, what you should weigh, what’s “bad” and simply begin to listen, with care, to what you are needing, right now. Let go of the chasing of the right thing to eat at the right time to look the right way. The purest detox smoothie. The lowest calorie snack. The best weight loss secrets. Throw it away, compost that hogwash next to the rotting iceberg salad you did not enjoy eating. And return to the journey where your own body holds the wisdom that you seek to live by.
Ah yes, let’s welcome a little science into the equation.
Research has shown a smorgasbord of benefits of Intuitive Eating, both psychological and physiological [3]. Here are just a bite-sized handful of positive outcomes to walking this path:
- Leads to more long-term healthful nutrition choices
- Decreases depression
- Improves body satisfaction
- Significantly improves cholesterol levels
- Healthier body mass and weight, that is also shown to be maintained over time
- Decrease of eating disorder behaviors
This is a way of life, and it reveals itself as such as it affects us not only on a physical level, but improves our general behavior around our health and nutrition.
Respecting Your Body
Respecting Your Body
I want to share with you a personal story of my relationship with food, as it is so relevant to why I now teach people how to practice Intuitive Eating.
It began on Earth Day 2010 when I decided to bomb my somewhat ‘healthy’ American diet beliefs around food, and Go Vegan. Since then, it’s been well over a decade of personal evolution, exploration of different types of plant-based diets, transformation, heightened intuition, deepening of mindfulness practices, yoga, Tai Chi, meditation and connection with nature. On the other side of this immense journey, I find myself transformed.
I experienced a raw vegan diet both in a warm tropical forest and in the depths of East Coast winter, a disciplined plant based vegan diet, the relatively pure nutritarian approach, explored long water fasts, dated a very fit man who ate only steak, liver, raw eggs and mangos, created vegan menus and cheffed for several vegan retreats, tried intermittent fasting at length, and ate from the land I lived on for different periods of time.
I had been struggling with feeling dense and heavy in my gut for years, even with lots of physical activity and yoga, combined with high vibe organic plant-based food. Five months into a raw plant-based diet, I experienced terrible hemorrhoids as I left a warm climate and entered a freezing winter. When I ignored what my body was asking for and strictly followed this “right” nutritional path with good intentions, I experienced my body showing me the negative effects of ignoring the messages in place of my beliefs.
When I shifted to hot soups, stews and quinoa, my digestion improved immensely. But the biggest change for me, the most humbling and mind-body opening experience of them all, was the intense instinct that came through when I was pregnant. The very clear messages of what my body wanted to eat changed my mind, and therefore my body, forever
For the love of the tiny baby growing inside of me, I agreed to surrender to listening to what my body was asking for. It was so clear, the strong cravings and the way certain smells affected me, including animal products, the internal sensations I felt from colors and textures of specific fruits and vegetables, and the aversion to other things that I otherwise loved to eat. I listened, and I felt so good. I felt so connected to my body and her messages.The wellness that glowed from me during and after pregnancy was visceral.
My body went through a purification through pregnancy, and the several years of breastfeeding that followed. My body continued to send clearer and clearer messages that I continued to do my best to honor. It is a daily practice of self-love, of self-respect. Perhaps the most simple and minimalistic way to care for ourselves, to listen.
I do believe it’s of great value to have a basic understanding of nutrition (more blog posts to come!*), for example, which oils are nourishing and which create toxicity in the body, what foods are alkalizing or cleansing for the gut or one’s clarity of mind, what supports our gut’s microbiome, and which foods ground us when life is asking for more roots.
Listening to the seasons, the land, what is growing around us, the changes in our world and in our lives. General food ideas to try, and, most importantly, food ideas to experience and feel for yourself.
Ultimately, it is out of respect for our own bodies that we actively choose to listen inwards. It is an act of love for the life that we are, to align our actions with the messages we are receiving from the inside out. To let go of belief systems that no longer serve us, and level up our lifestyles to reflect the conscious intentional beings that we strive to be. Giving ourselves mindful nourishment every day, how and when we need it, and as much as we need, this is self-compassion. This is true health and wellness.
Understanding Hunger and Fullness
Although intuitive eating is in essence a return to the source of our body’s natural communication around hunger and nutritional needs, it is a journey to embark on. One that requires practice and patience.
It begins from a place of self-knowing, of recognizing the negative messages you carry around food, your body, and ideas of right and wrong. When you get really honest with yourself and begin to identify the inner-thoughts and beliefs that guide you, you begin to see, and to question, your own reality. It is here that you have the power. You have the potential for self-awareness to begin re-patterning the way you think about yourself, your body, and the food you eat.
You have the power to choose to ask yourself and to listen, as best you can, and it will only grow. When we say we will listen, and we really try, and we try some more, we enhance our intuition. Intention plus Attention will create immense change in your life. This is a huge secret that I learned several years into my training… Put it in your pocket if you wish.
Ways to align your beliefs and actions to begin eating intuitively are:
- Acknowledge hunger as a good thing, a message your body is telling you
- See your body as the wise present vessel that it is, and honor it by doing your best to ask it what it needs and listen as closely as possible.
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Be gentle with yourself during this process. Your intentions are pure. It is a process, you deserve to love yourself through it.
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Try to differentiate between physical and emotional hunger. If hunger is physical, ask and listen to what you want to eat. You can think of things and feel how your body responds, or look inside your fridge and listen to what you feel called towards. What makes you salivate. What makes your stomach growl in healthy cravings.
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If the hunger seems to be coming from an emotional place, may I suggest first giving yourself a cup of tea or water. Something calming and nourishing. Hydrate. Let your cells fill up with the magical nourishment of water. Have a calm moment to yourself as best you can. Take care of your nervous system. Then check in with yourself a little bit later if you are feeling hungry. Listen from a grounded place.
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As you eat, eat slowly, sensually. Savor your food, each bite, the sensations, textures, layers of flavors. Chew thoroughly. Close your eyes and dive deeper.
How much can you sense? Taste? What do you feel? Allow yourself to enjoy fully. You can moan if you wanna. Take pauses in between to breathe. Sigh. Hum. Yum. Chew. Repeat. And when you feel full, simply stop. Give yourself permission to stop eating when you are full. You’re a big human now, there’s no one to scold you if you didn’t finish your food except for yourself. And now you know that the most loving thing to do, is to simply stop when you feel satiated. Let your food become compost, healthy soil for your favorite tree. It is not wasted.
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If you don’t eat as ‘intuitively’ as you would like to, be kind to yourself. Just notice fully, notice how you are feeling, how it feels as you eat, and how you feel after eating. Simply observe, and continue on your path of being mindful and of self-love. Relax into it. It’s not a mistake, it’s just part of the process. The next time you feel hunger, you have another chance to listen and respond with even more presence and compassion. Give yourself the pleasure of presence with your body and food. Mouthgasms await you.
10 Principles of Intuitive Eating
1. Reject the Diet Mentality
Diet culture is f*&^ed up. Dietitians preaching an ideal body image is sick. You not being beautiful enough is an ugly idea and you are too amazing for that horse-caca. Release self deprivation. Reject the ideas and images of ‘not enough,’ unreasonable rules, the dream to squeeze into a size dress for a 12-year-old. It’s like a big pile of horse poop on your path.
When you see it there, walk around it. It’s gross. You didn’t make it. It’s not your poop. Don’t roll around in it. Just walk around it and head towards clearer pastures where the sun shines and the rain pours and the flowers come in all shapes and sizes. Patriarchal bullshit, I’ll tell ya, horse-caca, that you are not beautiful as you are. You’re a moon in the sky. Glorious in her fullness and dark moments all the same.
2. Honor Your Hunger
Your hunger is an important message sent by a highly complex intelligent system connected to your entire body. Nourish yourself with rich, colorful, delicious, juicy wonderful foods. Give yourself unconditional permission to eat, a healthy relationship with food, and be present for your eating experience. Your body needs the energy, your brain appreciates the regular blood sugar balance, and your inner-child loves to eat yummy things.
Feel yourself deeply, and listen to when you are hungry and enjoy being alive. It’s only temporary. Kindly train yourself to hear and respond to this first biological signal of hunger. This simple act of listening through healthy eating builds trust in ourselves and heals our relationship to food, as well as pleasure and satisfaction.
3. Make Peace With Food
Come to peace with your body and food. There’s no good or bad, but if the food you’re eating makes you feel bad and you know it, take good care of yourself, Queen, and do your best to listen to those feelings. Food itself is just energy. Give thanks for food. It feeds us. It’s food!
Being out of balance with self-control will lead to binge eating, or self-deprivation. Surrendering to what the body is asking for will ultimately lead us to a place of sensual flowing balanced pleasure. Finding your unique balance is a spicy-sweet and savory dance that you have with yourself. Enjoy!
4. Challenge the Food Police
Ah-ha!! Listen to the thoughts that you have inside about what’s good and what’s bad relating to the food you eat. See what happens if you listen instead to the voice of self-love. Get any and all unbalanced shaming authority figures that reign your brain outta there. “No thank you.” Reject diet culture, if you will be so kind.
Replace it with nurturing the most loving grandmother inside of ourselves, that loves to make sure we’ve had lots of fluids, packed a healthy snack, and cooks us up whatever we want to eat with so much love and care that it’s a moment of heaven. Yeah, let your inner-grandma nourish you deeply. You are that sweet lil kid that deserves a nice warm meal in a peaceful environment. Food police, you’re fired. Family vibes only.
5. Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Bring in Beginner’s Mind to this food journey you are embarking on. Create the space, the time, the environment to really relax and enjoy your meal. Discover just how satisfied you can be from feeling your hunger arise, discovering just what you need in this present moment to be deeply satisfied in both mind and body, responding with care, and enjoying fully. Bring it up a notch, let’s call it the Pleasure Factor.
6. Feel Your Fullness
Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are full. The inner voice that communicates fullness is rather subtle. It helps to create outer peace and quiet to hear the voice inside and its important messages. As you eat, take a moment to taste, savor, pause and feel your body. Feel how you are responding to the food. How your hunger has changed. And be honest with yourself if you want more or if you are satiated, content, and comfortably full. Take time to really feel these sensations, know them well, the subtle changes of your body. Listen inwards, and give thanks. This is the practice of mindful eating.
7. Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness
It is very culturally normal to respond to feelings of sadness, anger and anxiety with emotional eating. If you notice any uncomfortable feelings arise inside of you, and you feel a calling to scavenge the fridge, give yourself the gift of a pause without using food. Sit down with yourself. Invite your emotions, whatever they are in the moment, to a cup of metaphorical tea and listen to them. Journaling can be an immensely helpful tool to process and sort through the complex human experience of emotions that we navigate every day.
Explore more ways to cope with uncomfortable emotions that arise coming soon*. The more you slow down and really face your internal world with kindness, the more space you have to respond mindfully rather than react in our pre-programmed patterns. The energy of kindness and self-compassion is the ultimate approach to transforming the way we think, live and act. It’s science.
8. Respect Your Body
This is an enormous journey, Dear One. This incredibly complex, resilient, ever changing living breathing body that we live in for our lives deserves our utmost respect. And yet, we are hardest on ourselves. It is more than simply giving your body the respect it deserves by speaking kindly to yourself and about your body, or nourishing yourself with care, it is the ultimate act of love.
We say we want more love, we want to be loved, to have someone to love, but if we are not looking inwards and actively replacing thoughts and patterns of abuse with love and compassion, we will never find this love on the outside. Your body is truly a sacred temple where your spirit resides. The complexity of our cardiovascular system, the ability to breathe in the gasses that trees exhale, the way we digest and break down food to heal and build our bodies, it is a natural wonder. May we water the seeds of reverence for our own bodies. You beautiful rose, you.
9. Movement—Feel the Difference
This is another part of Intuitive Eating where it really asks of us to live it fully. We are asked to find a form of movement or exercise that we deeply enjoy. Whether you can walk or not, there are ways of moving and flowing, of being alive and awake in our bodies, that allow for our energy to flow in healing and revitalizing ways. Find your way. Find your practice, your moving meditation, your moments where the sun kisses your face and your breathing deepens and fills you up. Find your thing, your activity of emotional and physical recharge, a moving prayer for your body’s wellbeing, whatever makes you feel amazing afterwards.
The most important part is that you feel good. It doesn’t have to look like exercise, it can be dancing in your room, or chasing your kid around laughing before brushing your teeth every morning, or it can be an activity that nourishes your need for community and connection, like a regular dance class, a group meetup along a walking path, or yoga studio that feels really welcoming and open to you. The most important part is that you feel good. Let it be a mantra for your whole life. Then ask yourself, how do I feel? How does this make me feel? What am I needing right now? Let your intuition be your compass.
10. Honor Your Health—Gentle Nutrition
Be gentle with yourself. If you eat ‘imperfectly,’ that’s alright. Perfection is flawed anyways. You don’t have to eat perfectly to be healthy. Release the idea of perfection, perfect body, perfect diet, perfect poops. Just let it go into the compost toilet so you can grow something of real substance from it. You just have to keep listening and loving yourself. You’re doing great. Remember to remember to Thank Yourself for doing your best and continue to put care into yourself. [2]
Being at Peace With Food
Being at Peace With Food
Please remember, Dear One, it is truly a journey. It is a whole life’s work to awaken our intuition, attune to our senses, and release mainstream cultural beliefs so we can follow the path Home to ourselves. Our relationship to food is a reflection of our relationship to ourselves, our bodies, our cycles, our whole lives. The bite-sized morsels of energy that we consume are charged up with the beliefs we have about them. So continue cultivating peace with yourself, peace with food, peace with your body.
When you notice a thought that is waging war on any of these aspects, gently, kindly dismiss it. Like a small child that shouts for a lolly-pop for breakfast because they’re having sugar cravings from yesterday’s birthday party, lovingly say no, that’s not going to feel good for your body, and offer it something really nourishing. Start with a loving thought. Or buckwheat dark chocolate chip spinach pancakes with walnuts inside…
It is a labor of love to listen inwards, to be radically self-honest, radically self-accepting. Be the change you wish to see, and be gentle with yourself as you continue to grow and heal from the inside out. Sometimes it looks like nothing is happening when a whole lot is going on under the surface…
References & Inspiration
- The Original Intuitive Eating Pros. What is intuitive eating?
- The Intuitive Eating Pros. 10 Principles of intuitive eating.
- University of Michigan School of Public Health. Intuitive eating: The non-diet is the best diet.
- Bush HE, Rossy L, Mintz LB, Schopp L. Eat for Life : A Work Site Feasibility Study of a Novel Mindfulness-Based Intuitive Eating Intervention. 2014;28(6):380-389.
9 Master Secrets for Feeling More Intuitive, Inspired and Empowered
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