Trigger warning for anyone who has suffered from disordered eating.
Intuitive eating sounds so simple. When you’re hungry, you honor your hunger by eating what your body is asking for at that moment. Something I heard in the magnificent podcast How To Love Your Body (which I highly recommend if you are starting your IE journey) was-when we’re cold, we don’t tell ourselves not to put on a sweater. So why do we tell ourselves not to eat when we’re hungry? It’s the same thing. Your body gives you signals that it needs something, and therefore you honor it. However, when you live in a world where you are constantly bombarded with messages contaminated with diet culture, starting intuitive eating takes a lot of unlearning and patience as you connect back with your body’s natural signals. But it is so worth it. Here are some of the ways intuitive eating has given me my life back where it was once stolen by diet culture.
First-I don’t constantly think about food anymore. I used to plan out what I should eat now if I’m going to eat this thing later. Now, I have the freedom to listen to my hunger, see what my body wants to eat at that very moment, eat it, and carry on. Regardless of what I might be eating later. It has taken time, and I’m definitely still working on it, but it was like: “wow, I can really eat a bagel right now? Even if I ate an hour ago?” yes! You can! And then you can move on with your day without it lingering in the back of your mind. When you restrict, you end up feeling even more hungry and obsessed with food, leading to guilt and shame when you do eat. This ultimately causes more pain than the temporary discomfort of eating what you want in the moment, which can feel really hard when you are first starting. Because then you can move on, feeling full and satisfied.
With eating not consuming my thoughts, and an improved relationship with myself, I can now experience life with freedom. I think about the lost moments that my disordered brain and diet culture took from me. The late summer night ice cream trips with best friends where I didn’t get anything because I “didn’t want ice cream.” Or the brunches where I got the eggs because it was the lowest calorie item on the menu when I was really eyeing the french toast (also eggs literally make me nauseous, so wtf). Intuitive eating has given me these moments back.
