10 Principles of Intuitive Eating: How to Get Started
What is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive eating (IE) is a body-positive, anti-dieting approach to eating created by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. The theory emphasizes the importance of listening to your body and trusting its hunger cues. Your body knows when you are hungry and when you are full. However, external influences like diet culture have disconnected us from our internal cues. Intuitive eating is learning to listen again.
This may sound simple in principle… because it is! It’s easy to comprehend. But, putting it into practice may be more challenging. Luckily, IE is broken down into 10 principles so you can learn to implement it in your own life.
Principle 1: Reject the Diet Mentality
If you want to eat intuitively, you gotta ditch the diet. Eating intuitively means eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full. Dieting inherently goes against this due to its restrictive nature. Instead of eating when hungry, a dieter may put off eating or try to ignore hunger pangs. On the other hand, a dieter may eat just enough to stave off the feeling of hunger, but not enough to feel comfortably full.
While you may be sick of dieting, the idea of rejecting them all together might seem scary. To help you feel more comfortable rejecting the diet mentality, let’s explore the negative consequences of dieting.
Dieting increases binges and cravings
Dieting increases the risk of premature death and heart disease
Dieting is linked to eating disorders
Chronic dieting teaches the body to retain more fat when you start eating again
Dieting decreases metabolism
Dieting may cause stress or make the dieter more vulnerable to its effects
Now that you know why dieting is bad for you, let’s discuss the steps you can take to begin rejecting the diet mentality.
1. Recognize and acknowledge the damage that dieting causes
2. Be aware of diet-mentality traits and thinking
3. Get rid of the dieter’s tools (ditch the scale!)
4. Be compassionate toward yourself
Principle 2: Honor Your Hunger
This principle is about learning and understanding your body’s hunger signals. Due to diet culture, many of us learned to ignore and deny our hunger cues. So, how do we now become re-attuned to our body? Here are some tips for recognizing and honoring your hunger. Any of these sensations may be your body telling you that you’re hungry.
gurgling or gnawing in your stomach
stomach growling noises
lightheadedness
difficulty concentrating
stomach pain
irritability
feeling faint
headache
For some, we have become so out of sync with our bodies that we can no longer identify our hunger cues. This may be due to medications, anxiety, or an eating disorder. If this is you, a general guideline to follow is to “go no longer than five waking hours without eating” (Resch &Tribole, 2020).
Remember that the longer we go without eating, the more likely we are to overeat or binge eat. So, dieting is actually likely to trigger overeating. The more you honor your hunger, the more you can truly enjoy your next meal and give your body the nutrients it wants.
Principle 3: Make Peace with Food
Making peace with food ties into rejecting the diet mentality. The idea behind this principle is that we cannot have any forbidden foods. In fact, we should practice giving ourselves unconditional permission to eat. What does it mean to give yourself unconditional permission to eat?
Get rid of the idea that some foods are “good” and others are “bad”
Eat what you actually want to eat
Eat without guilt or compensatory behaviors. Compensating for eating certain foods is not unconditional permission to eat.
This is a scary concept for some. You may think, “If I give myself unconditional permission to eat, I might never stop.”
When you first give yourself permission to eat, you may find that you’re eating more than you usually do, or that you’re eating more unhealthy foods than you usually do. This is normal since you likely have been depriving yourself from having those foods for so long. However, thanks to the habituation effect, “the more a person is exposed to a particular food the less appealing it becomes” (Resch &Tribole, 2020). Dieting, on the other hand, impedes habituation. It makes certain foods that much more appealing since you’re “not allowed” to have it. Imagine a world where you allow yourself to eat ice cream every single day. After a while, you would start to get tired of ice cream. Or, maybe you still like it, but you don’t need to eat that much of it because you know you can have it again whenever you want.
Now that we have this new information, how do we actually make peace with food?
Pay attention to foods that appeal to you, and then put together a list of those foods.
Mark the foods you currently eat with a check, and then circle the left over foods that you have been avoiding.
Allow yourself to eat one food that you have been avoiding on your list. Buy this food at the supermarket or order it at a restaurant.
While eating the food, ask yourself if the food tastes as good as you imagined. If you really like it, allow yourself unconditional permission to buy or order it.
From now on, make sure you have that food available in your home, so you know you can have it when you want it. If keeping it at home seems too scary, order that food at a restaurant as much as you want!
Principle 4: Challenge the Food Police
Who, or what, is the food police? The food police is the rules in our mind that influence what and how much we eat. We aren’t born with these rules. When we are babies, we eat when we are hungry and stop eating when we are full. Somewhere along the line, we learned that some foods are not okay to eat and that we must be careful not to eat too much. We live in a nation riddled with guilt about eating. In fact, “in a random study of 2,075 adults, 45 percent said they feel guilty after eating foods they like” (Resch &Tribole, 2020)! Here are examples of negative food talk you may engage in:
Sweets are bad for you
I shouldn’t eat anything after 6 P.M.
You should take in zero grams of fat
You should avoid carbs
Bread will make me gain weight
Now that we know what the food police is, how do we change that negative self-talk? We first must learn to identify irrational thinking. You can do this by asking yourself the following questions:
Am I basing these thoughts on facts or on feelings?
Where did I get this thought from? Is this something that I truly believe, or is it a maladaptive thought that was passed down to me?
What about this thought is true? What is false? (examine and confront the distorted beliefs that support this thinking.)
Once you are able to identify your irrational thinking, the next step is to replace your thoughts with ones that are more rational. This can be challenging to do on your own. If you’d like to learn more about challenging or reframing your thoughts, engaging in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with a therapist will teach you the necessary skills.
Principle 5: Discover the Satisfaction Factor
This principle is all about eating foods that taste good. If we only eat bland foods, we will find that we still want to eat, even though we might not actually be hungry. Through dieting, we may have lost our ability to even know what we want to eat. So, here are some tips to help you regain your pleasure in eating.
1. Ask yourself what you really want to eat. Discover all the pleasures that different foods have to offer. Do this by focusing on the sensory aspects of food, such as…
Taste (how will the food taste in my mouth? Do I want something sweet, salty, savory sour, or bitter?)
Texture (Do I want something crunchy, smooth, creamy, soft, lumpy, or fluid?)
Aroma (what food smell might appeal to me?)
Appearance (How will the food look to my eye?)
Temperature (Do I want something hot, cold, or moderate?)
Volume or filling capacity (Do I want something light, airy, heavy, filling, or in between?)
2. Make your eating experience more enjoyable…
Set time aside so you can actually appreciate your meal. Even 15 minutes is better than nothing.
Try to sit down at the table or counter (standing while eating decreases attention and satisfaction.
Focus on the sensory experiences of eating
Savor each bite of food that you put in your mouth
Remember the three S’s of satisfying eating (Eat Slowly, Eat Sensually, Savor every bite)
3. Aim higher than “just good enough”. “If you don’t love it, don’t eat it, and if you love it, savor it” (Resch &Tribole, 2020)
4. Check in with yourself: does it still taste good?
Principle 6: Feel Your Fullness
Once you can listen to your hunger cues, the next step is to listen for when your body is full. In our fast-paced, busy world, it’s easy to be distracted while we’re eating. Who hasn’t eaten lunch at their desk? However, feeling your fullness when you are busy or distracted is challenging. If you want to learn to feel your fullness, turn off your electronics, eat while sitting down, and create a pleasant eating environment. The next time you sit down to a meal, try engaging in conscious-awareness eating. This is a type of active meditation practice. Here’s how you can do this:
Pause in the middle of a meal or snack for a time-out. During this time out, do a taste check. Ask yourself, “How does the food taste? Are you enjoying your food? Or are you just eating it because it’s there?” Next, do a satiety check. Ask yourself what your hunger or fullness level is. Ask yourself, “Am I still hungry, do I feel unsatisfied, or is my hunger going away” (Resch &Tribole, 2020)?
When you finish eating, ask yourself where your fullness level is now.
Principle 7: Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness
In just about every culture, food is used as a source of celebration and comfort. You and your new spouse have your ceremonial wedding cake when you get married. And after the death of a loved one, people may drop off casserole after casserole to offer support and love. Whether we are celebrating something positive or wanting comfort, this is called emotional eating. While emotional eating isn’t inherently “bad,” it can become maladaptive if you use it to numb or avoid your feelings by either restricting or overeating.
If you want to stop your emotional eating, you can start by identifying your emotional triggers. For example:
Anxiety (you may use food to calm yourself)
Boredom (using food as something to do)
Angry (using food to stifle your anger)
Bribery (thinking, “I’ll finish my work and then I can have a treat)
Feeling Lonely (using food as a friend)
When you know what it is you’re feeling, you can find other ways to manage your emotions that don’t involve food. The next time you find yourself overeating or eating when you’re not hungry, ask yourself, “What is it that I really need?” “What am I feeling?” Then, take five minutes to sit with yourself and answer those questions. Maybe you need to take a walk outside or connect with a friend. Or maybe you need to take a hot shower and breathe.
Principle 8: Respect Your Body
Respecting your body means making it comfortable and responsive to its basic needs. Trying to squeeze into a pair of too-tight jeans is not treating your body with respect. You are saying to your body, “You’re not acceptable the way you are. I’ll only accept you if you fit into a particular clothing size.” “Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally futile (and uncomfortable) to have the same expectation about body size” (Resch &Tribole, 2020). It’s possible to respect your body without loving it. I don’t expect you to start loving your body just because I tell you to. However, by following these tips, you can respect and appreciate your here-and-now body.
Wear comfortable clothing!
You are worthy of buying new clothing at your current body weight. What’s worse than wearing something tight and uncomfortable? Never mind the physical discomfort, but it’s a constant reminder that you’re not the size you want to be.
Get rid of body-assessment tools
Ditch the scale! Why put yourself through the emotional ups and downs of daily weight checks? Nothing should have the power to determine your mood for the rest of the day.
Get rid of that old, tight pair of jeans that you use to assess your current body size.
“Regardless of body size, anyone will feel uncomfortable in a piece of clothing that feels too tight” (Resch &Tribole, 2020).
Quit body checking
Have you ever walked into a room and literally sized everyone up and compared how your body looks to everyone else? Remember that we have no idea what someone else’s relationship to food or their body is like. Maybe the person whose body you envy isn’t eating; maybe they’ve had surgery; or maybe they are sick with a physical illness.
Stop body bashing
How can you respect your body when you are chastising yourself for looking the wrong way (Resch &Tribole, 2020)? How many times a day do you think you degrade yourself about your body? Instead of focusing on everything you don’t like about your body, acknowledge why you are grateful for your body. For instance, “I love that my hand can hold the hand of my lover or a child”, or “I’m grateful that my feet allow me to walk” (Resch &Tribole, 2020).
Be realistic
If the only way to achieve your ideal body is by exercising for hours and only eating almonds and water, your goal probably isn’t realistic. Also, remember that genetics play an important role. If your parents are in larger bodies, it’s unlikely that you will ever be model-thin.
Do nice things for your body
Schedule a massage, take a long shower, deep condition your hair, moisturize your body, try a sauna or hot tub, and take a bubble bath with oils and salts.
Principle 9: Movement – Feel the Difference
Intuitive eating emphasizes the difference between movement and exercise. For many, exercise feels like a chore or a means to lose weight. Movement, on the other hand, has to do with simply moving your body and treating yourself healthfully! Forget about militant exercise schedules or HIIT classes. You can get all the physical benefits of exercise from activities you enjoy, such as gardening, dancing, walking, or other recreational activities. There are many enjoyable activities that you can engage in that are beneficial for your health. And yes, moving your body is extremely beneficial to your physical and mental health. “The CDC and ACSM concluded that simply moving for thirty minutes over the course of most days of the week could reduce the risk of heart disease by half” (Resch &Tribole, 2020)! Keep in mind that the 30 minutes don’t need to be all at once. Maybe you spend 15 minutes gardening and then take your dog on a 15-minute walk later in the day.
If you’re unsure where to start with your movement journey, consider these tips. Engage in movement that:
Rejuvenates, rather than exhausts or depletes
Enhances the mind-body connection
Alleviates stress, rather than amplifying it
Provides genuine enjoyment and pleasure
Principle 10: Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition
Intuitive eating isn’t just about eating what you want whenever you want. Nutrition and health should also be a part of our food choices. This principle can be challenging for some since many of us associate healthy eating with dieting or boring foods. This is why we call it “gentle nutrition”. Eating healthfully is just one factor when choosing what to eat. Other important factors include how hungry we are, what types of food we are craving, and our emotional state. Tribole and Resch, “define healthy eating as having a healthy balance of foods and having a healthy relationship with food”. This principle is about making “food choices that honor your health and taste buds while making you feel good” (Resch &Tribole, 2020). And remember that we are not looking for perfection! “You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or become unhealthy from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating” (Resch &Tribole, 2020)..
So, what are the guidelines for eating healthy?
Eat enough – not too little
By feeding your body, you are feeding your metabolism. And the lower your metabolic rate, the more muscle you will lose from undereating.
Eat enough fruits and vegetables
“People who eat higher amounts of fruits and vegetables have lower risks of many chronic diseases, especially cancer” (Resch &Tribole, 2020).
Eat enough grains
“Grains are a rich source of carbohydrates, fiber, and B vitamins” (Resch &Tribole, 2020).
Drink enough fluids – primarily water
Water is both a beverage and a nutrient.
Processed foods?
The more processed a food is, the more nutrient loss, sodium, and sugars are added. But who doesn’t love an Oreo cookie, right? Rather than cutting out all processed foods (a restrictive idea), try to choose the following types of foods to eat more often:
Nutrient-dense foods
Protein-rich foods
Quality fats
Whole foods
Conclusion
There’s no such thing as perfect eating. There is simply eating what feels good to you in regards to your tastes, hunger, health, and more. Intuitive eating may be difficult in the beginning stages because it goes against almost all we have been taught in our society regarding body weight, health, and eating. If you are at the beginning of your intuitive eating journey, be compassionate with yourself. We didn’t develop the voice of the food police in one day, so we can’t expect to drop that voice in one day either. If this is something you are interested in trying, there are multiple resources available to you. First, you can begin working with a professional who is certified in Intuitive Eating. I, Kendall B, am a certified intuitive eating counselor, and I would be honored to guide you through these principles. You may also use resources that are available to you online and printed. Links to these incredible resources can be found below.
RESOURCES:
Website for the original intuitive eating pros: https://www.intuitiveeating.org/
The intuitive eating book: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/intuitive-eating-4th-edition/
REFERENCES:
Resch & Tribole. (2020). Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach.