Intuitive Eating (not the hunger + fullness diet)

Intuitive eating is a hot topic--which overall is a great thing! But like every other food-related fad out there, without wisdom behind it, intuitive eating can just as easily turn into your next restrictive diet and binge cycle.

When most people think about intuitive eating they think of two basic principles:

1. Am I hungry enough to allow myself to eat?

2. If this food isn’t “healthy” is it worth it?

These two principles are hiiiighly problematic, as they essentially throw your brain into “diet mode” and create tension around food (I talk more about why this is an issue in this blog post) 

If you’re not careful, you can easily use intuitive eating as your very own “hunger and fullness diet”, which is a term I first heard about from my mentor Isabel Foxen Duke. 

Remember, if there are rules of any kind associated with your permission to eat, you are creating tension, aka “the wagon”.

When there’s a wagon, there’s an inevitable moment where you will fall off of it. 

Intuitive Eating, in fact, consists of 10 core principles (you can read more in depth about here)

1. Reject the Diet Mentality

2. Honor Your Hunger

3. Make Peace with Food

4. Challenge the Food Police

5. Discover the Satisfaction Factor

6. Feel Your Fullness

7. Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness

8. Respect Your Body

9. Movement

10. Honor Your Health—Gentle Nutrition

At the end of the day, intuitive eating is a tool and guide that you can choose to use during recovery. But (and this is super important!!) it is not THE act or mode of recovery. 

When there still exists fear around making the “right” decision around food, your brain still experiences life on a diet, which means the diet-binge cycle may still (read: will inevitably) be present.

In fact, if you find yourself using intuitive eating to police your food, try on the perspective that intuitive eating is to make sure you are getting enough food. This will help avoid restriction and deprivation (aka diet mentality) and help you tap into your intuition much more.

If you want more support on intuitive eating and ending your bingeing for good, read about my private coaching here.