5 Tips for Intuitive Eating

This is a post I’ve wanted to make for about a year now like everyone else who was in lockdown the way I ate had a shift. No longer was I eating out as much, lunches out most days or dinner with friends. Don’t get me wrong I missed it so much and am so excited to have it back in my life. However, having it taken away did impact the way I ate. Having to make all my own meals minus the odd takeaway here and there I began an unconscious journey into intuitive eating.

For many years I based my food choices on diet culture, emotions or circumstances out of my control. It’s interesting how still to this day I have thoughts like I would have pre-pandemic. Examples are; ‘no I can’t have those chips with the burger I’d better have the side salad’ or ‘I had pizza and cake yesterday so today I need to eat perfectly healthy’. This is just 2 of many thoughts I’ve had over the years.

I feel I should also mention intuitive eating is not a weight loss tool. I think for the first time in since being a teenager I’m not eating for weight loss. That is an entirely different blog post on shifting your mindset about food away from weight loss ideas. Intuitive eating has helped me break away from always wanting to be on some sort of weight loss diet. They never stick! Some may look at me and think I should lose weight but I’m happy with where I am in my body and that’s all that matters. I don’t know about any of you but I’m tired of always looking at my body and thinking it needs changing.

On that note I’m happy to say, for the most part I am honouring my food cravings, hunger and fullness queues. Eating foods that make me happy. I’ve always enjoyed fruits and vegetables – salad is actually my favourite meal to have. The difference now is I’m eating salad for fun because I want too not because it’s the healthier option. I’m also having indulgent less nutrient dense foods when I want with no guilt.

Intuitive eating is a journey, which I believe I will be on forever I don’t think I will ever be perfect at it but I hope to continue so that I can understand my body more through practicing it. I’m sharing 5 tips that I think have helped me continue on this journey of intuitive eating.

I heard someone say the other day that intuitive eating is just eating normally. Isn’t that crazy that we need a specific term to just eat whatever feels good for you.

1. Honouring your cravings

This has been a lovely change in the way I eat. Eating the foods my body wants with no guilt or finding a ‘healthier’ version of it. I had a Mars bar the other day at 11am. I would have never let myself do that before. I’m not having a Mars bar every morning so I honoured that craving and wow I love Mars bars!

2. Viewing all foods equally

In diet culture it can easily become second nature to deem different food in some sort of hierarchy. Cucumber is above pizza or burgers bun should be replaced with lettuce. I had to shift my thinking that all foods serve a purpose, no one food is better than the other. By doing this you eat what you want and move on. You don’t have to force yourself to eat anything giving yourself the freedom to eat intuitively. I naturally like to eat salads and vegetables but I see them equally to pasta or burgers. Say I want pasta I have the pasta not zoodles (can’t stand zoodles!) but I add roasted courgettes because I love pasta AND roasted courgettes. Also cheese of course!

3. Removing ‘diet’ language internally

Removing ‘diet’ language is so important – the way we speak to ourselves is such an important part of our lives. If you wouldn’t say it to someone else why are you saying it yourself? This really plays into the second point of viewing foods as ‘good’ or ’bad’, even just calling a day where you eat “less nutrient dense foods” as a cheat day. I’ve found it really helpful to remove these words when I describe or about food. This also includes how you speak to yourself about your body but in this case I am referring to food specifically.

4. Recognising hunger and full queues

This came quite easily to me as I’ve always been in tune with my hunger and full queues. Especially my hunger queues, I’m that hangry girl! Is anyone else like that? I go from not that a little bit hungry to starving in 30 seconds or less! And yes, I am very dramatic about it! It’s important to note that your hunger and fullness queues could change from day to day depending on your hormones, even what you eat day to day etc. A large part of intuitive eating is finding flexibility in your diet, some days I’m hungry when I wake up and some days I’m not hungry until lunch.

5. Stop reading the nutrition information

A tip I don’t hear many other people mention is to not read the nutrition label on packets of food. Before I would instantly turn the packet around and read the nutrition label. Depending on the calorie count of the food I’d want to eat I’d then analyse if I need to cut on some other food or have more of something else. Now I don’t read any nutritional information and I have as much or as little of whatever else I’m pairing it with. It has been so freeing and I highly recommend trying this.

Some of you may think these points are obvious but I know when I started to hear about intuitive eating I had no idea where to start. I hope these small tips can help you start your journey or give you more tips to continue on your journey.

Lots of love

Pascalle