What is Intuitive Eating?

A Brief Overview

Intuitive Eating is a framework created in 1995 by registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. It promotes an anti-diet approach that helps you reconnect with your body’s internal hunger and fullness cues rather than following rigid food rules.

Instead of Rules, Intuitive Eating is guided by 10 principles:

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 – Feel the Difference

10. Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition

One of the biggest misconceptions about Intuitive Eating is that it means eating whatever you want, whenever you want, without considering your mental, physical, or emotional well-being. In reality, it’s the exact opposite! Intuitive Eating focuses entirely on connecting to your body in a way that honors your hunger and fullness while promoting your mental, physical, and emotional well-being.

Many of my clients feel terrified that if they allow “forbidden” foods (think sugar, high or full fat, or carbs), they’ll gain weight endlessly, lose control, or become “unhealthy”. This fear is so deeply rooted in diet culture messaging that says certain foods can’t be trusted and above all YOU can’t be trusted. These beliefs often keep people stuck in dieting cycles for years which in turn slows down your metabolism, wreaks havoc on your gut health, and continues a cycle of shame.

Practicing Intuitive Eating means healing your relationship with food and your body. It encourages you to honor hunger and choose foods that feel satisfying and pleasurable. Most of us know how unsatisfying a rice cake or low calorie bar tastes when what we truly want is something rich, and smooth, and sweet. When we continually deny satisfaction, cravings tend to just get bigger and bigger and bigger, leading to us eating past fullness and feeling a deep sense of shame afterward.

When we practice intuitive eating together we learn to:

1. Reject diet culture and challenge diet messaging.

2. Reconnect with attuned eating.

3. Replace old patterns fueled by shame and restriction with new, lifegiving ones.

4. Build trust with our whole self again and grow in our self-compassion.

Still have questions? Let's connect and navigate this together!