It is nearly impossible to go one day without encountering a fervent message on how to approach our relationship with food or our bodies. With an expected growth of $278.95 billion by the year 2023, the global weight-loss industry has proliferated by selling us countless plans, guides, and techniques. This industry tells us how and what to eat, what is healthy and unhealthy, and what is right and wrong with our diets and eating habits. When we allow these external messages to inform how we approach food, we ultimately find ourselves at odds with our own internal needs. We rely on external messages rather than our actual hunger cues to decide when and what to eat. This blog will explore what intuitive eating is and how mindful eating can help improve your relationship with food.
Intuitive eating shows us how to appreciate our own innate ability to be the expert on our bodies. The goal is to cultivate a relationship with food that isn’t based on feelings of shame, guilt, or anxiety. This blog will outline the principles and benefits of adopting an intuitive approach towards eating. With this approach, you can honor your hunger and nourish your body from a place of kindness, warmth, and acceptance.
The principles of intuitive eating
Intuitive eating is an approach that seeks to shift our focus away from the external messages we often use to guide our approach towards food. Instead, we learn to direct our focus and attention on our own internal needs and hunger cues. Our attunement towards these hunger cues is part of our interoceptive awareness – our perception of feeling states in the body. Using the ten principles of intuitive eating, we can improve both our awareness of, and responsiveness towards, these cues. Ultimately, this enables an approach towards food informed by internal rather than external cues.
Guilt, shame, anxiety: emotional cues vs. internal cues
So often we adopt the ideas and principles espoused by the media and diet industry. As a result, we can sometimes find ourselves at odds with what our own bodies really need. This contradiction can result in an endless war between what we’re told is “right” and how we actually feel physically. We internalize these feelings instead of validating our innate hunger cues. Feelings of shame, guilt, and anxiety can gradually impact our relationship with food.
When we dismiss or choose to ignore our hunger cues, we create an imbalance in our bodies. This can also make it difficult to be attuned to cues about satiety or satisfaction from meals. As a result, we can end up in cycles of restricting and overeating. This not only contributes to negative feelings of shame and guilt, but also fuels an ongoing distrust towards our hunger cues. In turn, this can impact our own ability to properly nourish our bodies.
A common concern is that giving into hunger or eating what we crave will inevitably lead to loss of control and overeating. However, overeating is more often due to our hunger and satiety cues being out of balance. When we tune into our bodies and respond to our hunger cues as they arise, we develop an understanding of how much food we need to eat to feel comfortably satisfied. When we approach food through feelings of guilt, shame, or anxiety and allow external messages and cues to dictate how we should approach meals, we dismiss the reality that we are the only ones who can truly know how much food we need to feel satisfied. Satiety cues differ from person-to-person and cannot be imposed or directed by external models. Instead, we discover them internally for ourselves.
Accepting, acknowledging, and understanding hunger
When we impose rigid dietary plans or food rules, we place our trust and focus on external models and universal claims regarding health, weight, and nutrition. Traditional assumption that our health and nutrition should revolve around weight loss often fuel these kinds of models. They discount the reality that healthy bodies come in all different shapes and sizes. With intuitive eating, we can cultivate a healthy relationship with food. We do this through an appreciation and acceptance of our own personal nutritional needs.
Through intuitive eating, each person is capable of being the expert on what their body needs to be healthy. Accepting, acknowledging, and understanding hunger is about fully tuning in to your body. Intuitive eating does not suggest that all foods are created equal in terms of nutritional quality. However, nutrition is about more than just caloric content. When we tune into our bodies, we can become aware of what foods we enjoy and how to satisfy our hunger cues. We also better understand which foods provide adequate fuel for us to have energy and feel our best. What is important is not a focus on “good” versus “bad” foods. Instead, we can learn to appreciate food mindfully as something that can be enjoyed in a variety of different ways.
Being compassionate as you move towards intuitive eating
Divesting yourself from all the external triggers and the toxic messages regarding weight, body image, and nutrition is a challenge in today’s world. What is perhaps most important is to remember to be compassionate and kind to yourself. Concern about weight, size, and shape is not something to feel guilty or badly about. This reaction is completely understandable given the ways our society conceptualizes food culture and body image. It is unfortunate that we still live in a society that may theoretically advocate for “acceptance of all shapes and sizes” but will often still adhere to rigid and narrow standards of what is acceptable and correct.
It is important to make time to appreciate that who you are is so much more than your weight, size, and shape. Your talents, charms, wit, kindness, and other qualities so often get pushed aside when pervasive and stigmatizing standards impact how we feel about ourselves. Take time to appreciate food as something that can nourish all that you have to offer the world. Explore your relationship with food as unique and personal to you. Ridding yourself of our society’s problematic messages about body image and food culture is not easy. However, by tuning into your body and using your internal cues to serve as a guide to intuitive eating, you can better appreciate your own innate ability to be the expert on giving your body what it needs.
Watch: Body Image and Mental Health.
Are you looking to develop a healthier relationship with your body image and eating habits? The psychotherapists at myTherapyNYC can help you navigate these often difficult issues and find a new sense of wellbeing. Reach out to us to find out more!
How were you raised to think about food? Join the conversation in the comments below!
It is nearly impossible to go one day without encountering a fervent message on how to approach our relationship with food or our bodies. With an expected growth of $278.95 billion by the year 2023, the global weight-loss industry has proliferated by selling us countless plans, guides, and techniques. This industry tells us how and what to eat, what is healthy and unhealthy, and what is right and wrong with our diets and eating habits. When we allow these external messages to inform how we approach food, we ultimately find ourselves at odds with our own internal needs. We rely on external messages rather than our actual hunger cues to decide when and what to eat. This blog will explore what intuitive eating is and how mindful eating can help improve your relationship with food.
Intuitive eating shows us how to appreciate our own innate ability to be the expert on our bodies. The goal is to cultivate a relationship with food that isn’t based on feelings of shame, guilt, or anxiety. This blog will outline the principles and benefits of adopting an intuitive approach towards eating. With this approach, you can honor your hunger and nourish your body from a place of kindness, warmth, and acceptance.
The principles of intuitive eating
Intuitive eating is an approach that seeks to shift our focus away from the external messages we often use to guide our approach towards food. Instead, we learn to direct our focus and attention on our own internal needs and hunger cues. Our attunement towards these hunger cues is part of our interoceptive awareness – our perception of feeling states in the body. Using the ten principles of intuitive eating, we can improve both our awareness of, and responsiveness towards, these cues. Ultimately, this enables an approach towards food informed by internal rather than external cues.
Guilt, shame, anxiety: emotional cues vs. internal cues
So often we adopt the ideas and principles espoused by the media and diet industry. As a result, we can sometimes find ourselves at odds with what our own bodies really need. This contradiction can result in an endless war between what we’re told is “right” and how we actually feel physically. We internalize these feelings instead of validating our innate hunger cues. Feelings of shame, guilt, and anxiety can gradually impact our relationship with food.
When we dismiss or choose to ignore our hunger cues, we create an imbalance in our bodies. This can also make it difficult to be attuned to cues about satiety or satisfaction from meals. As a result, we can end up in cycles of restricting and overeating. This not only contributes to negative feelings of shame and guilt, but also fuels an ongoing distrust towards our hunger cues. In turn, this can impact our own ability to properly nourish our bodies.
A common concern is that giving into hunger or eating what we crave will inevitably lead to loss of control and overeating. However, overeating is more often due to our hunger and satiety cues being out of balance. When we tune into our bodies and respond to our hunger cues as they arise, we develop an understanding of how much food we need to eat to feel comfortably satisfied. When we approach food through feelings of guilt, shame, or anxiety and allow external messages and cues to dictate how we should approach meals, we dismiss the reality that we are the only ones who can truly know how much food we need to feel satisfied. Satiety cues differ from person-to-person and cannot be imposed or directed by external models. Instead, we discover them internally for ourselves.
Accepting, acknowledging, and understanding hunger
When we impose rigid dietary plans or food rules, we place our trust and focus on external models and universal claims regarding health, weight, and nutrition. Traditional assumption that our health and nutrition should revolve around weight loss often fuel these kinds of models. They discount the reality that healthy bodies come in all different shapes and sizes. With intuitive eating, we can cultivate a healthy relationship with food. We do this through an appreciation and acceptance of our own personal nutritional needs.
Through intuitive eating, each person is capable of being the expert on what their body needs to be healthy. Accepting, acknowledging, and understanding hunger is about fully tuning in to your body. Intuitive eating does not suggest that all foods are created equal in terms of nutritional quality. However, nutrition is about more than just caloric content. When we tune into our bodies, we can become aware of what foods we enjoy and how to satisfy our hunger cues. We also better understand which foods provide adequate fuel for us to have energy and feel our best. What is important is not a focus on “good” versus “bad” foods. Instead, we can learn to appreciate food mindfully as something that can be enjoyed in a variety of different ways.
Being compassionate as you move towards intuitive eating
Divesting yourself from all the external triggers and the toxic messages regarding weight, body image, and nutrition is a challenge in today’s world. What is perhaps most important is to remember to be compassionate and kind to yourself. Concern about weight, size, and shape is not something to feel guilty or badly about. This reaction is completely understandable given the ways our society conceptualizes food culture and body image. It is unfortunate that we still live in a society that may theoretically advocate for “acceptance of all shapes and sizes” but will often still adhere to rigid and narrow standards of what is acceptable and correct.
It is important to make time to appreciate that who you are is so much more than your weight, size, and shape. Your talents, charms, wit, kindness, and other qualities so often get pushed aside when pervasive and stigmatizing standards impact how we feel about ourselves. Take time to appreciate food as something that can nourish all that you have to offer the world. Explore your relationship with food as unique and personal to you. Ridding yourself of our society’s problematic messages about body image and food culture is not easy. However, by tuning into your body and using your internal cues to serve as a guide to intuitive eating, you can better appreciate your own innate ability to be the expert on giving your body what it needs.
Watch: Body Image and Mental Health.
Are you looking to develop a healthier relationship with your body image and eating habits? The psychotherapists at myTherapyNYC can help you navigate these often difficult issues and find a new sense of wellbeing. Reach out to us to find out more!
How were you raised to think about food? Join the conversation in the comments below!
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5 comments
Johnny, this is wonderful!!! I love, love, love the idea of intuitive eating!!!! Thank you for this compassionate, smart, informative post.
Johnny this is so helpful in parsing out what are the external factors determining how we eat, and what are the internal factors. Loved that differentiation. Thank you for this helpful piece!!
Thank you for this eloquent and poignant piece on intuitive eating, Johnny. So often we are told what we should and should not do or eat, as if all bodies are universally the same. Your blog helps us to remember the impact society, media and outside noise can have on us, and how we can tune into ourselves.
This is an amazing post, Johnny! Intuitive eating is a wonderful model for breaking away from harmful diet culture and getting back in touch with our bodies and our need for nutrients. I appreciate the permission to be your own guide in choosing what you eat and being more cognizant of how emotional eating can be. Thanks for bringing this topic to the blogs!
I LOVE this blog! Intuitive eating is something that I discuss with clients all the time and feel that it is helpful for anyone struggling with their relationship with food. Thank you for providing more insight and information into this important topic!