What is intuitive eating?
Trying to explain intuitive eating is like trying to learn carpentry by sitting on a chair. You have to do it to understand it. There are no hard and fast rules here because the entire process is a thoughtful journey that takes into account your emotions too.
Unlike conventional diets, you’re not given a list of foods to avoid or given a specific calorie count to meet. There’s no bodyfat percentage to tell you if you’re obese or just overweight.
There’s no focus on numbers or goals. You let your body tell you how it feels and you plan your meals from there.
That’s why it’s called intuitive eating.
The first step will be to practice mindfulness throughout the day. You’ll be observing how you feel, when you’re hungry, when you crave for food and so on.
There’s no judgment here. It’s just introspection so that you have a better understanding of the link between your thoughts and actions. This is especially helpful for those who have the habit of emotional eating.
Mindfulness will show you that when you’re stressed out or depressed, you tend to reach for the unhealthy foods. You’ll also realise that you might feel guilty and sad after you’ve indulged in the foods you were trying to avoid.
Intuitive eating requires you to pay attention to how your body feels after a meal. Journaling while you’re practicing intuitive eating is very important.
Write down the foods you ate and note how you felt after the meal. The next day, observe if you’re lethargic or energetic. Did you have tummy issues? All these are indicators of the effect the food you’re consuming is having on you.
Most people just endure the discomfort and turn a blind eye to it and carry on with their negative eating habits. Intuitive eating enlightens you by showing you if the food you’re eating is hurting you or helping you.
When you’re eating intuitively, you’ll have to ask yourself, “Am I really hungry?”
Very often, emotional hunger is mistaken for physical hunger. By asking yourself this question, you’re forced to come to terms with why you want to eat. If your stomach is growling and your hunger has been gradually building up, by all means go ahead and eat.
However, if you suddenly crave for chocolates, are you really hungry? Or just looking for a sugar high? – You’ll then need to ask yourself if eating the chocolate is in alignment with your goals and how important is it when compared to your goal.
If you won’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want will become the sacrifice. The goal of intuitive eating is not to control you or guilt you into giving up all comfort foods.
It’s about arresting poor food decisions that are made on the spur of the moment. Control over your eating has been placed back in your hands.
You’re not a mindless food processor.
Intuitive eating also has a scale with different levels of how full your stomach is. This is a concept and different people will feel it differently. But the general idea is that you should stop eating when you’re slightly full because it takes time for the stomach to register that you’re full.
If you don’t take this delay into account, you’ll keep eating. By the time your stomach registers how much you’ve eaten, you could easily be overstuffed.
Intuitive eating is ideal for people who are tired of diets and restriction. It’s for those who want something natural and easy to follow without having to starve yourself or eat foods you dislike.
This way of eating is extremely effective and in the long run, it’s the better approach to keeping the excess pounds off.
It's not the easiest concept to immerse yourself in because it doesn't have the clearly laid out guidelines that most diets have, but if you give it a try it just might be the best thing you’ve done for your health.
