Intuitive eating encourages people to forgo restrictive dieting rules and honor their hunger and fullness cues while enjoying foods that make them happy. But for those who have relied on food as a comfort mechanism for years, intuitive eating may prove challenging.
Challenge the “Food Police”, whether these be internal or external rules and beliefs which moralize food consumption, is key to intuitive eating.
1. Honor Your Hunger
Intuitive Eating offers an alternative to diet-driven eating patterns and provides alternative strategies for dealing with food and body concerns. It starts by listening to hunger signals and eating accordingly.
Respecting biological hunger is crucial in breaking free of the food police mindset – the internal voice that tells you which foods are “good” or “bad.” To do this effectively requires giving yourself unconditional permission to eat; though this process may take time. Furthermore, initially it may be hard to identify what feeling full means.
2. Give Yourself Unconditional Permission to Eat
Intuitive eating is grounded on 10 principles, including forgoing dieting mentality and honoring hunger and fullness signals, practicing compassion if you overeat, and supporting body acceptance.
Allowing yourself unconditional permission to eat can help decouple food from guilt and shame and help you learn how to eat for pleasure again. Furthermore, giving yourself permission can also help identify whether food is being used to cover up feelings that should be addressed directly instead. For instance, when feeling overwhelmed take some time out for breathing exercises and reflection.
3. Challenge the Food Police Mindset
Rejecting diet mentality is key to intuitive eating. Push back against that inner voice that labels foods as either “good” or “bad”.
Focus instead on honoring your hunger cues and discovering which foods provide satisfaction.
One snack, meal, or day of indulgence won’t derail your healthy eating plan with Intuitive Eating; it’s an approach to healthy eating that can be practiced over a lifetime and has been shown to enhance body image, reduce disordered eating behaviors, improve physical and mental wellbeing (1) (2) (3) 4.
4. Appreciate Your Body
Intuitive eating teaches people to recognize and appreciate their bodies even when they don’t reach the goals they set. Instead of looking solely at calories burned while exercising as their motivation, intuitive eaters can focus on how exercise makes them feel instead.
Honoring your hunger, challenging the food police mindset and respecting your body are all strategies that can help break free from diet culture. But intuitive eating may not be right for everyone – or those recovering from an eating disorder.
5. Practice Self-Compassion
Embarking on an act of self-compassion can help you break free from diet culture and reconnect with the natural hunger signals of your body, as well as alleviate worries over losing too much weight or gaining a “flabby” belly.
Chase away the Food Police: An integral component of intuitive eating involves learning how to navigate away from internal critics who tell you you’re eating too many cookies or too many fattening meals, and practising with this process until it becomes second nature. Though difficult, this goal can be accomplished with practice!
6. Practice Mindfulness
Intuitive eating teaches people to become aware of themselves and the food they eat, helping them break free of restrictive dieting and develop an enjoyable relationship with food that meets all their needs.
This includes moving away from a diet mentality and honoring hunger and fullness cues while making food pleasurable; not moralizing food choices or punishing oneself for having eaten something “bad.” If this approach to eating is unfamiliar to you, finding an advisor specializing in intuitive eating could be very useful for learning the 10 principles safely and sustainably.
7. Let Go of Self-Criticism
Intelligent eating involves setting aside self-criticism. That means rejecting diet mentalities that lead to deprivation, uncontrollable cravings and binging behaviors as well as an adverse body image.
Evans cautions that intuitive eating may not be suitable for everyone, particularly those struggling with mental health or neurodivergent processes around food and movement. She advises seeking professional assistance for personalized support. Yet intuitive eating research does demonstrate positive correlations with greater body image satisfaction and healthier eating habits.
8. Don’t Forget to Move
Instead of exercising to burn calories, intuitive eaters emphasize movement that brings them pleasure – whether that means walking, dancing, taking yoga classes or playing with their children.
Studies have consistently demonstrated the beneficial associations between intuitive eating and increased body image satisfaction and better relationships with food, and decoupling weight from worth. Although Evans recognizes this framework isn’t right for everyone, for those struggling to follow it she suggests finding an experienced intuitive eating counselor as support (14)
9. Practice Self-Care
Attuned eating means developing a peaceful relationship with all foods, and relinquishing any associated guilt. Eliminating stigmas for “forbidden” foods may help minimize binge eating and feelings of being powerless over eating.
Intuitive eating can help you reconnect with your body and break free of diet culture, but working with a registered dietician or trained health professional who understands intuitive eating principles is vital for successful implementation. This is especially important if you have medical conditions or sensitivities to take into account when adopting this lifestyle change.
10. Be Kind to Yourself
Being kind to yourself is vitally important for both physical and mental wellbeing, helping reduce critical self-judgments while strengthening feelings of self-worth and respect for oneself.
Nothing could be more unkind than to compare yourself with others or criticise yourself when making mistakes, or holding onto grudges from the past. Instead, focus on what you are accomplishing well, while trying to forgive and forget where possible.
Practice self-kindness by doing things you enjoy, such as listening to music, taking a bubble bath, reading or spending time with loved ones.
