Today I want to spend some time discussing what intuitive eating is, as this framework of eating underlies much of what I believe and talk about when it comes to food. When I first learned about intuitive eating towards the end of high school, it greatly helped me in my recovery from an eating disorder and in improving my relationship with food.

The intuitive eating framework was developed by two dietitians, Eveyln Tribole, M.S., R.D.N., and Elyse Resch, M.S., R.D.N. The first edition of the book, Intuitive Eating, was published in 1995, and the fourth (and most recent) edition was published just this past June. The book goes into depth on the ten principles of intuitive eating (which I will describe more below) and is a resource I would HIGHLY recommend if you are interested in learning more! (*There is also a workbook that you can get to go along with the book that is also really helpful!) Since the publication of the book, there have been over 100 studies on intuitive eating, validating its effectiveness when it comes to improving one’s overall health (both physical and mental), including one’s relationship with food.

Intuitive eating is a way of eating that focuses on tuning into your own internal bodily cues, mind, emotions, and overall intuition. It places emphasis on the reality that our bodies know best what/when/how much to eat – better than an app or calorie tracker, a meal plan, or a diet (or “lifestyle/wellness plan”) – YOU yourself innately have the ability to eat in a way that cares for YOUR body and YOUR specific needs at any given point in time.

When I think of intuitive eating, I think about how it’s not really that we are learning something new. We are re-learning to eat in a way that we are innately born knowing. When we are born, we innately know how much nourishment (in the form of milk) we need – obviously this is not something we were consciously thinking about or “monitoring”! Yet, our bodies knew what we needed to grow and develop. As kids, most of us continued to have this carefree, intuitive relationship when it came to food. We likely ate when we were hungry and stopped when we were full. We likely ate a variety of foods without giving it too much thought, and didn’t feel guilty when it came to enjoying certain foods.

Sadly, as we get older, many of us lose this intuitive way of eating. A lot of this has to do with becoming more aware of and influenced by “diet culture.” Diet culture is basically the messages that we hear and see (and come to believe) telling us things like: thin = better/healthier, you need to be on a diet, you need to monitor your food intake to make sure you’re not eating too much, certain foods are good/bad, you need to workout more to burn more calories, and much more. Diet culture is incredibly pervasive throughout social media, magazines, movies and TV shows, lots of the nutrition/dietetics world, and even conversations with friends and family. It ultimately disconnects us from our bodies and our ability to intuitively care for ourselves.

So, enter intuitive eating – a breakthrough paradigm in a world obsessed with dieting and thinness. Re-learning to eat intuitively is a journey involving many layers. It’s totally okay and normal (and encouraged) to take it one small step at a time. I feel as though intuitive eating is not a destination we can perfectly arrive at, but that as humans we are constantly evolving and uncovering deeper layers when it comes to having a healthier, more intuitive relationship with food. Below I have briefly described the 10 principles of the intuitive eating framework – I will continue to go into these in greater detail in future blog posts!

The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating: 

1. Reject the Diet Mentality: Reject the idea that there is any sort of diet out there that will work for you, waiting just around the corner – this includes any form of food tracking or “lifestyle/wellness plan,” which are really just diets in disguise. Any form of dieting disconnects us from our own internal cues, which know infinitely better what we need than any external plan ever could. You must fully and forever reject the diet mentality before you will be able to incorporate the other principles of intuitive eating in a meaningful and lasting way.

2. Honor Your Hunger: When we are feeling hungry, it is as sign from our bodies that we need to eat! Becoming more in-tune with and responsive to our hungers signals is an important part of becoming an intuitive eater. Ignoring your hunger signals is not healthy and not a “badge of honor” to be proud of. Our hunger signals are not to be feared, but something to be listened to and respected.

3. Make Peace with Food: Give yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods – yes, you read that right. No foods are not allowed or off the table, so to speak. Restricting certain foods is not good for our mental or physical health – we end up obsessing about food and thinking about it constantly, and/or eating well past comfortable fullness when we do finally end up eating these “off-limits” foods. All foods (unless you have an allergy or specific medical condition, of course) can regularly be eaten and enjoyed as part of a healthy diet!

4. Challenge the Food Police: The Food Police is the voice in your head that tells you certain foods are good or bad, that you shouldn’t have eaten so much, that all the carbs you ate today are going to make you fat, that you need to go workout to compensate for what you ate, and so on. It is important to challenge these thoughts and replace them with thoughts that are true, from a place of self-care, and life-giving.

5. Discover the Satisfaction Factor: Satisfaction is the “hub” or central principle of intuitive eating – for example, if we aren’t honoring our hunger  or if we aren’t allowing ourselves to eat certain foods we won’t be satisfied. This principle is about regularly experiencing joy and pleasure in our eating, which, in my opinion, is a key element of truly healthy eating!

6. Respect Your Fullness: Just like we need to honor our hunger, it is also important to respect our fullness. This means learning to recognize and respond to your body’s signals for fullness, which can be trickier than it sounds. It’s also important to note that it’s totally okay and normal to at times go beyond comfortable fullness (think Thanksgiving Dinner or a fun night out to dinner with friends) and it’s important to show ourselves kindness and compassion in regards to fullness.

7. Cope with your Emotions with Kindness: While food can certainly be one way to cope with your emotions at times, it is important that it isn’t the only way. Occasionally using food, and other “tools” (like watching a movie or playing with a pet) can be helpful if we need to temporarily distract or calm ourselves down when we are experiencing challenging emotions, and at the same time we need to use wisdom and discernment to know when we still need to make the space to really process certain difficult emotions (rather than distract/avoid) by ourselves or with a trusted friend/therapist.

8. Movement – Feel the Difference: How do you truly enjoy moving your body? Do you love to dance? Hike? Run outside? Practice yoga? Do yard work? Exercise/movement doesn’t need to look the same for everyone, or based on whatever the culture says is the “right” way to be exercising. Move your body regularly in a way you enjoy and that feels good to you.

9. Respect Your Body: Just like we all have different eye colors and shoe sizes, our bodies also come in different shapes, frames, and sizes. While the culture likes to tell us that thin = healthier/better, the reality is that this is often not the case and our bodies have a range of weights at which they can be healthy – and this set point weight/range is different for everyone. Seek to respect your body’s natural size and honor your body by caring for its needs – such as eating and sleeping enough. Seek to focus on life-giving healthy behaviors (something we can control) rather than fixating on being a certain weight/size (something we cannot directly control).

10. Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition: Focusing on nutrition is the last principle of intuitive eating because we can’t incorporate nutrition in a healthy way if we haven’t first done the work to heal our relationship with food. “Gentle” nutrition means incorporating nutrition in a non-obsessive way – a way that doesn’t detract from the previous 9 principles. Our bodies naturally crave a variety of nutritious foods, and we can trust that if we are listening to our bodies, eating foods that taste good/satisfy, and going for variety that we will be getting what our bodies need the vast majority of the time.

I truly believe that intuitive eating is the most life-giving, healthy, and freeing way to eat – it is how we are meant to eat! Our bodies are so wise and it’s fascinating to me how well we can take care of ourselves (nutritionally speaking) if we trust ourselves, tuning in rather than to all the external voices surrounding us. I hope you join me on the journey of re-learning to become a more intuitive eater!