When I Practice Intuitive Eating I Am...
September 26, 2011 by Hilary Kinavey
A few guidelines for using Intuitive Eating
When I Practice Intuitive Eating I Am…
- Trying to go slow with my thoughts about food and my body. Intuitive Eating is not a “plan” for weight loss. It is a way of being connected with what is really happening in my life and my body today. This connection is what puts an end to the obsessive thinking about food and body image and allows me to live more freely.
- Choosing food based on what I really want. I am taking inventory of the many, many voices and hungers in my body and choosing nourishment that will satisfy my desires but will allow for me to stay connected to my body and myself.
- Working on flexibility. I am recognizing that each day will afford me many opportunities to eat and I will let each meal be separate from the last. My needs and desires for specific foods change as the day goes on. I try to practice openness to this and sit with disappointment about not having what I “thought” I wanted.
- Fighting back against my tricky inner critic. That voice is the ultimate manipulator. It will use any tactic to separate me from my connection with myself and distract from my inner wisdom. I know that I need to repeat my chosen mantra of “Stop it” to get that sucker to back off. When that voice retreats, I seem to have no trouble knowing what I want and what is truly enough.
- Recognizing the distinct voice of deprivation in my head. This one that believes that nothing is ever enough and wants to keep me on the hamster wheel of getting more, more, more. If I try to fill myself with food to quiet deeper sadness, anger or longing, I will only be temporarily numbing myself, and it will not support truly knowing myself.
- Listening to my hunger. I feed myself when I am hungry even though “it’s not time to eat” or “I shouldn’t be hungry yet”. Sometimes it means having to wait for hunger to arrive at all. Hunger changes day to day.
- Keeping food nearby. I am planning for hunger, so it is not a last minute scramble or an inconvenience to feed myself.
- Practicing saying yes and no myself. Intuitive eating is a practice of legalizing food, shutting down the food police and truly eating food you enjoy. Intuitive eating is also knowing when is too much, knowing that honoring my metabolism, and my body’s boundaries will reward me with increasing my trust in my body and myself.
- Reminding myself that it doesn’t have to be perfect to keep doing it. Intuitive eating is a meal by meal practice for me. No problem if I have an eating experience that is less than attuned. Another opportunity is always around the corner. Knowing my true hunger is a practice to be continually explored, not a plan to be mastered.