Your Intuitive Eating Questions Answered

In our recent blogs, we’ve looked at the power of Intuitive Eating when it comes to making peace with food once and for all as well as the ways you can get started on your journey to building back body trust and eating intuitively.

Read below as we dive into some of the most common concerns we hear when it comes to getting started with Intuitive Eating and debunk some of the myths that may be holding you back from a healthy relationship with all foods.

“If I eat intuitively, I might lose control around food entirely”

This is one of the biggest misconceptions around Intuitive Eating - that we’ll just end up eating everything in sight if we don’t have diet rules.

But what if we were to tell you that more often than not, the cause of the constant cravings for *bad* food has nothing to do with the food itself, but not trusting our body around them. When we label these foods as off-limits, this naturally leads to increased thoughts around them.

Intuitive Eating is not just about eating everything we want, whenever the craving pops into our brains, it’s about tuning into our bodies in order to listen and honour what they need - both physically and mentally. 

When we first start to eat intuitively, it’s common to experience more frequent cravings for those previously forbidden foods (I’m looking at you chocolate). However, this honeymoon period usually doesn’t last too long. 

When we give ourselves unconditional permission to enjoy our food and let go of the all-or-nothing mindset, the novelty of these foods that have previously been on a pedestal wears off - this is something called habituation. Think of a song that you’ve discovered in the past and how much you initially listen to it over and over again. Chances are over time, you grew pretty sick of the song and sure, still might listen to it every now and then but it no longer has that hold over you like it once did.

Eventually, when we release the physical and mental barriers to these foods, they become just some of the many things that we want to eat and enjoy from time to time. 

“Intuitive Eating takes too long to learn - is it actually worth it?”

Just like any skill, learning to eat intuitively does require some practice and patience. The great thing is however that you don’t have to perfect it to see some significant positive changes in your attitudes towards food and eating! 

Intuitive Eating is more like a journey rather than a destination - the more we practice and learn, the stronger our skills get, but the goal is not to be perfect, it's ultimately to improve our relationship with food.

If you’re struggling with your relationship with food but aren’t *exactly* sure if intuitive eating is right for you, take a moment to reverse this thought and look at the alternate situation, what could happen if nothing changes? 

Truth is, without taking the leap to try a new way of doing things and saying goodbye to food rules and the endless pursuit of weight loss, in 20 years, you might still be stuck in the same overeat-restrict cycle, and have lost so many years living with guilt, shame and embarrassment.

There’s a good saying that goes: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” We might not be able to fix our 15 year old selves’ body image struggles, but we can make sure that our 75 year old self has a good relationship with food and with themselves. 

“Once I lose weight I’ll finally be happy”

You don’t have to look far these days to find claims about weight loss and how much happier it can make you. However, most of the time the problem isn’t *actually* our weight, but using our bodies as a focal point to deeper-rooted problems, leading us to feel uncomfortable in our own skin.

The reality is, weight loss can exacerbate unhappiness in ourselves and heighten negative emotions such as anxiety and depression. Not only is this because our bodies aren’t receiving the nutrients they need to thrive, but with weight loss goals often comes social isolation leading to missed parties, catch ups and connections with others that only worsens the way we feel.

The one thing that is heard from most if not all of our clients and something that Maddi can personally attest to, is that the immediate happiness that comes with weight loss quickly fades and in the long-term things often get harder.⁠ Being tired all of the time, feeling irritable often, having lower energy levels as well as a further disconnect from your body, the list goes on and on…

Think of the *weight loss equals happiness* mindset like a band-aid approach. Even though we think it’ll fix everything, the reality is that it only makes things harder in the long run. You can read more about how your weight-loss goals might be holding you back here.

Waiting for weight loss to have a good relationship with food is like waiting for the sun to stop shining. Intuitive Eating focuses on improving our relationship with food through tuning in and learning to respect our bodies rather than focusing on external things like weight. Learning to form an appreciation for all that your body allows you to do, irrespective of weight, shape and size is a much more accurate way of measuring health and wellbeing, and a really important part of improving how we think about ourselves! 

“If I put trust into my body and eat intuitively does that mean there’s no structure?”

From the outside, Intuitive Eating can look a bit chaotic - how am I meant to plan my week if I’m just eating whatever I feel like at the time?

However, when we look at all the principles of Intuitive Eating together, we can see that it’s a blend of listening to what our bodies need (physical and mental) but also thinking practically and adopting gentle nutrition. 

This might look like buying ingredients for the week’s meals but mixing things up if you’re not feeling it, or having some spare snacks in the car in case what you’ve packed for the day doesn’t turn out to be quite enough or what you feel like.

When we break free from the all-or-nothing mindset, we learn to balance being prepared and being flexible if things don’t turn out the way we expect them to.

Intuitive Eating is not just a tool for healing our relationship with food, but it’s also about learning to trust our bodies and feel comfortable in our own skin. Feeling in control around food isn’t about labelling or cutting out foods - it’s about learning to work with our body instead of against it. 

Deciding to improve your relationship with food and with your body can be hard, but with the right tools and support, you can become a master of Intuitive Eating and heal your relationship with food.

Get started by downloading our free Making Peace with Food Kickstart Kit here.  

This blog was written by Melissa Joannou, a Nutrition & Dietetic Student and newest addition to the Maddi Parsons Nutrition team. You can follow Melissa through her Instagram page.