Intuitive Eating by Jenny Northern Nutrition
While studying nutrition a few years ago I stumbled across this novel concept that actually dieting doesn’t work??!!
Say what!!
I found this concept interesting as like most women I have tried a few diets in my time only to crumple pretty early on and not really ever get past a week or two. I always thought I didn’t have enough discipline or I didn’t want it enough LOL.
Turns out it wasn’t me at fault but the stupid bloody diet.
If diets work, we would only need to go on one wouldn’t we and we would lose the weight we wanted to and it would stay off.
There are many reasons why they don’t work and I always am fascinated when a new “diet” comes along to see what they are promising or what you have to cut out of your diet to make it work. Diets are generally too rigid and restrictive so not manageable in the long term.
They disconnect you from being able to trust your internal signals, hunger, fullness and satisfaction. You need to eat to survive and if you don’t eat enough your body throws some pretty hardball hormones your way to encourage you to eat.
Deprivation brings desire. The more someone says that you can’t have something the more you want it. You all know this to be true.
Dieting makes you start obsessing over food, it will taste, smell and look better.
Dieting can sometimes make us gain back the weight once we stop dieting and even leave us heavier Yikes!!
So what is intuitive eating?
It is a process where you learn to trust your body with when, what and how much to eat. It teaches you to tune back into your hunger and fullness signals. No food is off the table, there is no guilt associated with eating food, food is not labeled good or bad it is just food.
There are 10 main principles that teach you how to become an intuitive eater. These are not rules and weight loss is not the focus. It is about beginning to respect your body and nurture it with food that you enjoy eating as opposed to things that you feel you have to be eating or have been told to eat for weight loss!
Principle 1
Reject diet mentality.
This just means stop throwing out diet rules or anything that you do to restrict food.
Principle 2
Honor your hunger.
Acknowledge when you are hungry. Often we override this or miss our cues and then overeat. This principle teaches us to eat in response to our hunger cues.
Principle 3
Make peace with food: call a truce.
Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. The more you deprive yourself of a food the more you will want it and then chances are you will binge on it.
Principle 4
Challenge the food police: Tell that bitch in your head to shut up!! She’s the one who says things like “wow really you’re going back for another piece, do you really need it” etc etc.
Principle 5
Feel your fullness: Listen to your body’s signals that you are no longer hungry.
Using a hunger/fullness scale practice learning to recognise where you sit on that scale.
Principle 6
Cope with your emotions without using food.
We all experience negative emotions be it boredom, anger, anxiety or even loneliness but using food to make ourselves feel better will only last for a short period. And food doesn’t solve the problem.
Principle 7
Discover the satisfaction factor. When you eat what you want, and in an inviting way it becomes a lot easier to feel satisfied and that you have had enough.
Principle 8
Respect your body.
I will never have a booty like Kim Kardashian or be long and lean like a supermodel. My genetics saw to that so I need to accept what I have and respect my genetic blueprint. This is accepting your body warts and all.
Principle 9
Exercise.
Feel the Difference: Shift the focus of your exercise to how it feels to move your body,
rather than how many calories you’ve burned.
Feeling energized and strong is a much more motivating factor than the fact that you have burned off your excesses from the day before.
Principle 10
Honor your health with gentle nutrition: make food choices that honor your health and taste buds.
Remember you will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or gain weight from one snack, one
meal or one day of eating.
Consistency is the key.
If this is something you are interested in looking further into then feel free to fire me an email at jennorthern@yahoo.com
