
We were all born with an innate ability to know when and how much to eat. But as we grow and become influenced by societal norms and external messages, many of us lose touch with this natural instinct. Intuitive Eating is about reconnecting with that ability by giving yourself unconditional permission to eat when you’re hungry and choosing foods that honor both your health and your personal preferences. It’s a practice of listening to your body’s internal cues rather than following restrictive rules and diet culture messages. In a society that often prioritizes appearance over holistic wellness, embracing Intuitive Eating can feel like swimming against the tide. Fortunately, the authors of Intuitive Eating provide a step-by-step framework, with each principle thoughtfully designed to guide you toward success. Trusting your body and improving your relationship with food is a process that takes time, patience, and often the support of a dietitian. If you’re ready to dive into the core principles of this transformative approach, you’re in the right place!
What are the Intuitive Eating Principles?
Principle 1 - Reject the Diet Mentality
“Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you a false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at a diet culture that promotes weight loss and the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet or food plan might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to discover Intuitive Eating” (Tribole & Resch, 2020).
Principle 2 - Honor Your Hunger
“Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning how to honor this first biological signal set the stage for rebuilding trust with yourself and food” Tribole & Resch, 2020).
Principle 3 - Make Peace with Food
“Call a truce, stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can’t or shouldn’t have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that can lead to uncontrollable cravings and often, binging. When you finally “give in” to your forbidden food, eating will be experienced with such intensity, it will usually result in Last Supper overeating, and overwhelming guilt” (Tribole & Resch, 2020).
Principle 4 - Discover the Satisfaction Factor
“The Japanese have the wisdom to promote pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living. In our compulsion to comply with diet culture, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence- the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content” (Tribole & Resch, 2020).
Principle 5 - Feel Your Fullness
“In order to honor your fullness, you need to trust that your body will give yourself the foods you desire. Listen to the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry and observe the signs that you’re comfortably full. Pause in the middle of a meal or food and ask yourself how the food tastes, and what your current fullness levels are” (Tribole & Resch, 2020).
Principle 6 - Challenge the Food Police
“Scream a loud no to the voice in your head that declares you’re “good” for eating minimal calories or “bad” because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The food police monitor the unreasonable rules that diet culture has created. The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loudspeaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the Food Police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating” (Tribole & Resch, 2020).
Principle 7 - Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness
“First, recognizing that food restriction, both physically and mentally, can in and of itself, trigger loss of control, which can feel like emotional eating. Find kind ways to comfort, nurture, distract, and resolve your issues. Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, and anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won’t fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb you into a food hangover. But food won’t solve the problem. You’ll ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion” (Tribole & Resch, 2020).
Principle 8 - Respect Your Body
“Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not realistically expect to squeeze into a size six, it is equally futile (and uncomfortable) to have the same expectation with body size. But mostly, respect your body so you can feel better about who you are. It’s hard to reject diet culture if you are unrealistic and critical about your body shape. All bodies deserve dignity” (Tribole & Resch, 2020).
Principal 9 - Movement - Feel the Difference
“Forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie-burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as being energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm” (Tribole & Resch, 2020).
Principle 10 - Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition
“Make food choices that honor your health and taste buds while making you feel good. Remember that you don’t have to eat perfectly to be healthy. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or become unhealthy from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating. It’s what you eat consistently over time that matters. Progress, not perfection, is what counts” (Tribole & Resch, 2020).
For a complete explanation of these principles, refer to Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach, 4th ed. (New York: St. Martin's Essentials, 2020).
Look for future posts related to common intuitive eating misconceptions and the research behind intuitive eating.
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