My experience with intuitive eating
One of the books that revolutionised my perspective about nutrition is the very popular Intuitive Eating by registered dietitians Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole. I’d highly recommend reading it, especially if you have ever struggled with the idea of ‘eating normally’ (as I did).
By ‘normally’, I mean not overthinking every single eating choice, not consulting an app or a Google search to see how ‘bad’ something is, or not eating one biscuit to then consume a whole packet. You know, like a normal person should.
When I read Intuitive Eating, I was at first shocked at the recommendations of these so-called ‘dietitians’ as they encouraged readers to ‘abandon food rules’. Surely, I thought, we need to have some boundaries with food? If people don’t have any concept of what’s good for them and what isn’t, that will only make our eating habits even worse - won’t it?
The authors understand this reaction, but hypothesise that perhaps it might be because so many of us have spent our lives trying to control our food choices based on beliefs we’ve formed about what’s good or bad, that we end up giving up entirely, until we decide it’s time to start a diet.
We can behave like rebellious children, tired of being told what to do and having our freedom taken away from us. We might be able to eat according to how we think we’re supposed to temporarily, but give it one bad day, and watch your willpower crumble more than a Nature Valley oat bar.
The authors explain that when you first abandon food rules, it is likely that you will go through a period where you do overeat. You may gravitate towards foods you’ve restricted in the past, or foods you haven’t eaten a lot of because you’ve always thought they were ‘bad’. You might have whole days of only eating ‘beige’ foods with no vegetables. You might have cake and ice cream for breakfast. And yes, you might gain weight.
I know it sounds like the total opposite of healthy eating, but stay with me.
I tested this myself once I learned about it. After years of being quite rigid with my eating habits, I decided to give in to every craving I had, eat for pleasure, not worry so much about ingredients or calories or macros, and not attempt to mitigate any weight gain.
It was glorious, but also very uncomfortable in a lot of ways. I wouldn’t recommend this process to everybody. However, nothing else I’ve ever tried has had as positive an effect on my relationship with food as ‘abandoning food rules’ has.
Currently, cravings don’t really have a grip on me. I enjoy eating foods like chocolate or getting takeaways occasionally, but for the most part, I just eat in a way that makes me feel good. And that typically looks like gravitating towards lots of fruit and vegetables, protein at every meal, and mostly eating food that I prepare myself. I also eat mindfully. I try to savour the food I eat and stop eating when I feel like I’m getting full.
You could say that whilst I don’t necessarily advocate for or follow any ‘food rules’, I still loosely stick to food guidelines when I’m thinking about what to eat. Though I’d consider it unhelpful to think of foods with a black and white approach, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care at all about what we eat.
Food rules can get in the way of being able to listen to your body and make choices based on how you’re feeling, and often backfire, leaving you feeling out of control around food and then ashamed of yourself.
If you relate to this common conundrum, I invite you to view your cravings as an opportunity to break this cycle.
Next time you have a craving, instead of pushing it down with a ‘healthier’ alternative, distracting yourself or slapping yourself on the hand -
Try this:
Eating mindfully. Portion out a normal, human-sized serving of whatever it is you’re craving. If it’s chips, put them in a bowl. If it’s biscuits, put them on a plate. Then, sit down somewhere, check in with your body and eat the food without rushing, noticing how it tastes and how it’s making you feel.
Or,
Pairing it with a protein and a fibre source (fruit or veg), to make it more satiating. Sometimes I’ll make myself a snack plate with cut-up apples, carrots, nuts and chocolate. Yes, like a small child’s lunchbox. I still get to eat chocolate, but I also feel fuller for much longer than I would if I just had the chocolate on its own. I’m also less prone to go back and want more chocolate. Plus, it’s just fun to eat food that way.
If you try this out, I’d love to hear about it.
Or let me know your experience about whether you’ve tried ‘abandoning food rules’, and whether that worked for you.
That’s it from me!
Bye for now,
Lx
