What is intuitive eating?

If you are paying attention to the current discussions on social media, you’ll realize that the diet culture is getting quite a knock by anti-diet advocates. The critique lying in the fact that diets aren’t long term solutions to developing a healthy relationship with food. Intuitive eating introduces a new (or rather natural) way of nurturing yourself and your body.

Intuitive eating relies on a few principles to help you rebuild your relationship with food. Firstly, it’s about rejecting the diet mentality. This means that you won’t be searching for quick fixes to lose weight or restrict yourself according to diet guidelines.

Next, it’s about honoring your hunger and making peace with food. Scratch the idea of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ food and listen to what your body needs. Eating what you want when you want it will prevent you from overeating because of restriction or starvation. It’s about developing and connection between your body and your mind.

Our bodies are trying to communicate with us every day, but we’ve come so accustomed to listening to external sources instead of our internal guide.

Intuitive eating is also about honoring your feelings without food. Instead of eating because you are feeling anxious, lonely or sad - try and sit with these feelings and make sense of them and their triggers. Once you accept your body for what it is and stop comparing it with others, you’ll learn to love and listen to what it wants and needs. Intuitive eating is about reconnecting yourself to that voice that’s always been there - and in the process heal from your past relationships with food.