What is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive Eating: Create a Healthier Relationship with Food

In a world that promotes diet trends, food restriction, and the relentless pursuit of the "perfect" body, most people would not consider their approach to eating as “intuitive.” Although eating is an innate bodily function that we were literally designed to do, it is something that occupies the minds of so many and seems almost impossible to figure out. Keto, low-carb, paleo, and other diets all promise to turn you into the healthiest version of yourself- but what they are really promoting is control and a lack of trust in your own senses. Every animal on this planet eats, yet the societal pressures that humans face make eating seem complicated and even demonized. Intuitive eating is a compassionate approach to food and self-care. This philosophy rejects the diet mentality and promotes a healthy relationship with food by listening to your body's internal cues. It's not just about what you eat, but how you feel and think about eating and food.

What is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive eating is a concept developed by dietitians that encourages feeling rather than thinking about food. The core idea is to reconnect with your body's natural hunger and fullness signals rather than adhering to external diet rules. It is about listening to your body and trusting it to guide you towards nourishing and satisfying foods without the need for restriction or guilt. This could look like checking in with yourself about what you are actually hungry for, or learning to stop eating when you are full rather than finishing your plate. Intuitive eating involves trusting yourself and letting go of “rules” that society or diets have told you about food.

An Example of Intuitive Eating for a Day

You wake up in the morning and begin to get ready for work. Normally, you would force yourself to scarf down breakfast before going to work even though you tend to not be hungry in the mornings. Eating that early usually makes you nauseous, but breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? An intuitive eater might honor their lack of hunger in the morning and pack their breakfast to eat when they are hungry a little bit later in the morning.

At work, you begin to feel hungry around 9:30 am and heat up your breakfast. You notice you are craving something savory, and are glad the meal you packed is exactly that. You bring attention to how your food tastes and smells. When you are finished eating, you tune into your body and realize that you are still hungry. You are craving something sweet, so you go downstairs to the cafeteria and grab a muffin. You eat a few bites of the muffin before feeling full, and wrap it up to save for later. The old you might have had ideas like “I just ate breakfast, I need to wait until lunch to eat again” or “I started eating this muffin, I should finish it.” The intuitive eater eats according to their hunger and fullness cues, not rules that they have instilled about eating.

Around 2 pm, you start to get hungry again. You did not pack a lunch, so the options of take out food in the cafeteria are endless. You are craving something salty, and the chicken tenders really sound good. You contemplate getting them, but remember how the last time you ate the chicken tenders here, they made you feel groggy. You remember that you felt pretty good after eating the club sandwich, and that sounds appealing to your taste and the way you want to feel after eating. You decide on the club sandwich, and eat until you are full.

When dinner rolls around, you remember that you meal prepped some spaghetti and meatballs, but you are really just craving ice cream. You sit with yourself and think about what you want to eat, and decide to have some ice cream rather than force yourself to eat your spaghetti and meatballs before having ice cream. You let go of the thought “I have to eat my dinner before dessert.” About an hour later, you are hungry again, and the spaghetti and meatballs sounds pretty good. You eat until you are full. Right before bed, you have a craving for more ice cream. You think about the craving: “Do I want some more ice cream right now?” “How will that make me feel?” “Am I actually hungry?” You check in with your body and feel that you are not currently hungry. You realize that you are craving ice cream because you are bored. You honor that emotion and engage in a different distraction of playing a game on your phone. You also remember that sugar before bed usually impacts your sleep, and you decide against the ice cream this time.

Intuitive eating involves developing a trust of yourself, your preferences, and your feelings about eating and certain foods. It involves bringing mindfulness to how certain foods make you feel, whether that is energized, groggy, joyful, nostalgic, or nourished. It involves bringing intention to your eating and letting go of arbitrary rules around food and eating.

Basis of Intuitive Eating:

Reject Diet Mentality: Let go of the notion that there's a perfect diet out there waiting to transform your body. Recognize the harm that chronic dieting and weight cycling can cause.
Honor Your Hunger: Trust your body’s hunger signals and respond to them by eating. Depriving yourself can lead to overeating and a chaotic relationship with food.
Make Peace with Food: Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. When you tell yourself you can't have a particular food, it can lead to intense cravings and overeating.
Challenge the Food Police: Silence the inner critic that labels foods as "good" or "bad" and judges you for your eating habits.
Respect Your Fullness: Pay attention to your body’s signals that indicate you’re no longer hungry. Pause in the middle of eating and ask yourself how the food tastes and how hungry you still are.
Mindfulness: Find joy and pleasure in the eating experience. When you eat what you truly want in a pleasant environment, you will feel more satisfied and content. Be mindful around food by asking yourself questions like “Am I hungry?” “What am I in the mood for?” “What texture or temperature of food sounds good right now?” Then, when it's time to eat, situate yourself in an environment with minimal distractions where you can truly enjoy your food.
Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food: Recognize when emotions like anxiety, boredom, or loneliness are driving you to eat and find alternative ways to address those feelings.
Body Acceptance: Work toward finding peace with your body rather than always being at battle with it. Focus on what your body can do and feel rather than how it looks. Reframe food as nourishment rather than minimizing it to calories.
Body Movement: Shift the focus from burning calories to how it feels to move your body. Find physical activities that you enjoy and that make you feel good.
Nutrition: Make food choices that honor your health and taste buds while making you feel well. Remember, it’s what you eat consistently over time that matters, not one meal or snack. Enjoying your favorite foods is nutrition, too.

The Benefits of Intuitive Eating

Improved Mental Health: By removing the stress and guilt often associated with eating, intuitive eating can improve mental well-being. It reduces anxiety around food choices and promotes a more positive body image.

Improved Physical Health: Research shows that intuitive eating is associated with better blood pressure, cholesterol levels. (find citations/ research to back up)

Better Coping Skills Intuitive eating encourages addressing emotions without using food, leading to healthier coping mechanisms and a better understanding of one’s emotional needs.

Increased Satisfaction: By tuning into your body’s needs and desires, you’re more likely to find satisfaction in your meals, reducing the likelihood of overeating or binging.

Sustainable Relationship with Food Unlike diets that often require strict adherence to rules, intuitive eating is a flexible, sustainable approach that can be maintained for life.

Schedule a Therapy Appointment Now for Intuitive Eating in Philadelphia

Even after reading all of these tips for intuitive eating, you may still feel like your relationship with food and your body is an ongoing struggle. Seeing a therapist might be able to help you. If you would like more support on your path to a healthier relationship with food, please schedule an appointment with one of our trained clinicians. They can help shape and guide your journey with evidence-based approaches. Help is only a phone call away.

You can self schedule an in-person or virtual therapy session at the Center for Growth by calling (215) 922- LOVE (5683) x 100.

Our Guarantee: If after your first session you are not sold that you are working with the right therapist, do not hesitate to call our intake line at 215 922 5683 x 100 or Alex at (267) 324-9564 and ask to be rescheduled with another therapist. The choice of how you want to proceed is yours. Our only goal is to support you in becoming the best you possible.

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