Intuitive Eating

The book starts out with some good facts….

DIETS DON’T WORK.

“Diets are a lot like cars. If you take your car into a mechanic for a regular tune-up, and after time and your money spent, the car stops working. Who do you blame? Not yourself! You take that car right back to the mechanic, and demand your money back! The fact of the matter is, diets fail 95% of the time. However, we don’t blame the diet. We blame ourselves! This is why the dieting industry in America is a $60 billion dollar industry, yet 68% of America is still obese or overweight.” –IE book.

This is where Intuitive Eating comes into play! I found this example in the beginning of the book and I thought,

“Oh. Ok. Wow. Huh..True.. Interesting… Dang. We are so dumb.” THIS was my light-bulb-moment-hook to this book.

P.s.- Interesting: Meal Plans & diets are the SAME THING. Anything you’re doing with any sort of restriction = D.I.E.T. (so you could be on a diet and not even know it.)

What exactly is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive Eating vs. Mindful Eating

I’ve heard the phrase mindful eating a lot & you probably have too! Mindful eating is awesome. Intuitive eating is mindful eating, there’s just more to it. Think of it like the Gospel. ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ is a Christian religion. They believe all that Christians do. They don’t take anything away from what people already know, they ADD to what people know. (thanks Sister Olsen) That’s the same with Intuitive Eating!  Think of mindful eating and everything you know about healthy eating, plus more. The plus more stuff, is why I found it to work so well for me. It was like the missing puzzle piece to becoming more in control with my body.

ACTIVITY:

What is the first thought that comes to your mind when you see these donuts? (from my wedding)

First thing that comes to your mind?

Thoughts?

Well- some might think, “YUM.” Some might think, “give me 5 right now” or “dessert.” or “sweets, stay clear” or “wish I was at her wedding.” Ha ha.

Intuitive Eating helps us see food as NEUTRAL. There are no types of food we should obsess over, yet no food you should stay clear from. You know how I said, “A salad is not good, a brownie is not bad.. ect.?” (We’ll get back to that later)

Intuitive Eating helps us see all foods on neutral ground, and get rid of those voices in our head with labels on food! I’ll be getting to the how in these next few posts. Just realizing that diets dont work is the first step!

This is what they call, “cognitive distortions.” (It’s fine. I never heard of it before either.)

WHAT INTUITIVE EATING HELPED ME WITH

1. With Intuitive Eating, I have been able to be pickier with what I put inside my body.

2. I don’t reject sweets at social gatherings or celebrations, nor do I limit myself to just one because of my ‘diet’ to only secretly eat a dozen at 1:00 a.m. a week later or on ‘cheat day’. P.s.- You can’t call me crazy- because more than half of dieters end their diets on a binge! I know I’m not alone here….

3. Another major thing that Intuitive Eating has helped me with, was making working out something I crave! It’s no longer a “chore” or a “task” for me; it’s something I can’t go without because I don’t want to. I do it to feel good now, not look good.

4. Also; Intuitive Eating has stopped me from ever touching foot or even inches from any sort of diet. Literally, anytime I read or hear the words: ‘meal plan’ or ‘diet’ or ‘limit yourself to this’ or ‘cleanse’ or any ‘advice’ or ‘give up this’ or about what ‘to eat and not to eat.’ Literally a red flag goes up. It can kind of bug me now to be honest! Just because I wish so badly everyone would know that a cookie really isn’t what is going to make you gain weight.

(More on this later. I’m just trying to do an introduction and it’s super tricky to not start ranting on everything I’m touching on. Ha ha.)

Don’t get me wrong ladies, I still use all the knowledge I have about nutrition. I love using applesauce instead of oil while cooking. I love adding spinach to my eggs. I love a yummy ‘all natural’ smoothie. I’ll add extra egg whites to my eggs. I’m not saying throw this out the window, it’s important to know how to use this knowledge, without judging!

5. Most importantly, I’ve learned how to truly respect my body. No matter what I look like. This process of Intuitive Eating has made me grow spiritually, that- I can say, is my favorite benefit.
“Changing your relationship with your body, is a requirement for changing your relationship with food.”

SPOTLIGHT:

A LITTLE BIT ON THE BRAINS BEHIND INTUITIVE EATING:

I wish I could have been the smarty pants of this discovery. However, Tribole and Resch, have been professional nutritionists for 30 years, written 8 books, and now train health professionals. After years of working with their patients they noticed that their patients kept coming back diet after diet, regaining back their weight, and sometimes more. They decided to try a different approach——.> “Meal Plans.” She talks about how they let the patients choose chicken, turkey, fish or whichever meat they would like to have ect. They were allowed to have sweets, but just one a day. They were allowed to have carbs, but only WHOLE GRAIN. Eventually they did meet their goals, but all of their patients came back to them. They had gained back their weight eventually, and sometimes more.

So run away from the diet! Run run run.
Google “Biggest Loser.” for another great example.

Contestants on the Biggest Loser, and several other Americans trying a ‘diet”, are given lifestyles that are nearly impossible to keep for the rest their lives! Your brain simply doesn’t know how to comprehend restrictions and diets. (I can’t wait to touch on this more later. Super interesting!)  My teacher described a diet as, “anything that you’re doing right now, that you can’t keep life long.”

“Intuitive Eating shuns dieting and hails body acceptance.” -IE

I’m not kidding y’all! I kicked my diet (whatever I was doing) to the curb, and it was so worth it.

To wrap things up:

If you want to keep dieting (or meal planning, or restricting whichever you want to call it) because you fear it’s the only thing that will work… I promise you- that it will work… short term! I don’t deny that! If you want to hit a life time goal of body satisfaction and a healthier self- I promise this works, longterm! Hey- You guys should buy this book and follow along with me : )

THIS POST SUMMED UP: As soon as I stopped dieting, I started loving myself more.

NEXT: “But I really do think dieting works… so now what?”

Til next time!!

A note to my younger self:

“You are beautiful. Stop your cleanse, diet, meal plan, or your sugar-free-challenge that you’re on. Use your knowledge for something better. Let’s start something lifelong.”