How To Explain Intuitive Eating to Loved Ones

If you’re just starting out on an Intuitive Eating journey, first things first, GOOD FOR YOU! Perhaps you’ve been dabbling in the principles a bit and you’re wanting to share what you’re doing with your partner, parents, friends etc. Maybe they’re asking questions about Intuitive Eating and you’re realizing….I don’t really know what to say….

If you’re just starting out, you may feel like you don’t quite have the words to articulate what is it this process is about. I put together this blog post for you to send right to your loved ones so they can better understand what you’re doing and how to best support you. I’ll be writing this blog post as if I’m talking right to your partner, friend, parent etc.

Dear Loved One,

Thank you so much taking the time to read this article. It means so much to the person who sent it and really shows that you care about their well-being. By reading post, I know they will feel loved, supported and seen. Perhaps they told you that they’ve recently embarked on what they’re calling an “Intuitive Eating Journey”. This might leave you scratching your head wondering, “Is this another diet program?”

In this post, I’m going to explain what Intuitive Eating is, what it’s not and what the benefits are. If you’re wondering who I am, my name is Lauren Cadillac. I’m a Registered Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. I own a virtual private practice, helping thousands of individuals all over the world heal their relationship with food using the Intuitive Eating framework (check me out on IG). In the past, I struggled with anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and orthorexia and at one point in time, I was a competitive bodybuilder. As you can probably imagine, I was not healthy physically or mentally. Intuitive Eating completely transformed my relationship with food and really, my life, which is why I’m so passionate about helping others do the same.

What you may or may not realize, depending on your own experiences and relationship with food, is that food can be deeply distressing. Some believe that the only people struggling, are the folks with a diagnosed eating disorder. In reality, you don’t need to meet the criteria for an eating disorder to struggle. In fact, a large majority of people have disordered eating patterns (this is because our culture tends to recommend fairly disordered behaviors as “healthy”). According to this survey, 3 out of 4 American women have disordered eating. “Eating habits that women think are normal – such as banishing carbohydrates, skipping meals and in some cases extreme dieting – may actually be symptoms of disordered eating.” All this to say, there are a lot of people out there struggling with food.

Disordered eating and eating disorders take over your life. Your mental real estate becomes completely preoccupied by food. Some folks restrict their intakes and do not meet their body’s biological need for food. Others find themselves bingeing on large amounts of food that far exceed what feels good in their body. Many vacillate between restricting and bingeing. Not only can this cause physical harm and discomfort, but it can create immense mental stress as well. Guilt and shame often accompany these behaviors and can leave individuals feeling trapped on a hamster wheel. This hamster wheel is also known as “yo-yo dieting” which increases the risk of heart disease and premature death. Yo-yo dieting slows the metabolism, increases binges and cravings and actually teaches the body to make and store more fat (pg. 72-74 of Intuitive Eating book). It’s linked to eating disorders and for many can lead to fatigue, hair loss, headaches, menstrual irregularities and more.

Your loved one is sick and tired of counting points, calories or macros, depriving themselves, feeling guilty for eating, and missing out on being present for life’s special moments. They’ve likely realized the harm that dieting has caused physically and mentally. Your loved one has most likely decided to explore Intuitive Eating because they want to get off the dieting hamster wheel, start respecting their body and learn to eat “normally”. If you’d like to read more about what it means to “eat normally”, click here.

This work is really important to them and their healing journey, so the fact that they are sharing this blog post with you, means you must be really important to them. We both thank you for taking the time to read this. So let’s get into it….

What is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive Eating is a self-care eating framework that integrates emotion, instinct and rational thought. This evidenced-based approach to eating was developed by two dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resche, back in 1995. The weight-neutral framework is based on 10 principles and is backed by over 150 studies to date. Intuitive Eating teaches the individual how to honor their health by tuning back into the body and responding to the messages it gives them.

We are all born into this world as Intuitive Eaters. If you think about a very young baby, they cry when they are hungry, they eat until they are full and then push away when they are done. They don’t keep eating because they had a rough day or restrict eating because they feel guilty for “eating too much earlier”. They are still very much connected to their innate wisdom. It’s through the process of dieting, living in diet culture and often times conditioning by well-meaning family members, that someone becomes disconnected from their body. Being forced to finish your food (clean plate club) when your body tells you it’s full, disconnects you from your hunger and fullness cues. Eating only X amount of calories because a random trainer told you to, even though you’re still hungry, disconnects you from your hunger and fullness cues. Intuitive Eating helps you reconnect to the wisdom that lies within all of us.

As I mentioned, this framework is made up of 10 principles. These principles are not hard and fast rules to follow or break. In fact “all-or-nothing thinking” (also known as “black-and-white” or “dichotomous thinking”) is what we are actively trying to get away from throughout this process. These principles are gentle suggestions to help the individual experiment and see what feels good to them physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

What Are The 10 Principles?

1. Reject the Diet Mentality - This first principle is about examining the harm that dieting can cause, and learn about how diets don’t actually work in the long-run. Upwards of 95% of people that go on an intentional weight loss diet will regain the weight they lose within 2-5 years. Not only that, up to 2/3 of people regain MORE WEIGHT THAN THEY INITIALLY LOST, which sets the individual up for that yo-yo dieting we spoke of earlier. So not only do diets not work, but more often than not, they lead to weight gain (which is usually the opposite of what someone is going for when they embark on a diet).

2. Honor Your Hunger - Food is a basic, biological need. Just like we experience thirst when we need hydration, or the urge to urinate when we need to empty our bladder, hunger is our body’s way of communicating to us that we need food. Hunger is not something you can use motivation or willpower to wrestle with. You cannot '“motivate yourself” out of a basic human need (without there being dire consequences). This principle is about getting back in touch with hunger cues and honoring them instead of basing when, what, and how much to eat, off of external things - like time of day, or a calorie/macro allotment.

3. Make Peace with Food - We’ve been taught that some foods are “good” and some are '“bad” and while some foods are more nutrient-dense than others, it doesn’t make them “good”. Using those words introduces morality, which leads to guilt and shame. These two emotions almost always drive unwanted or unhealthy behavior (restricting/bingeing etc.) which keeps a person stuck in a vicious cycle. Not only that, but what one person thinks is “good” (tofu for example), might be “bad” for another person (who has a soy allergy). This principle is also all about giving oneself unconditional permission to eat - which I know sounds SO SCARY and like a terrible idea. Heck my first reaction to this suggestion was, “So we should just tell people to eat french fries all day?! How is that healthy?” What I didn’t realize at the time though was just how powerful deprivation is. When you tell yourself you can’t have something, you want it that much more. When you give yourself permission to eat something unconditionally, it’s suddenly not as big of a deal. By allowing yourself to have all foods, it gives you the opportunity to learn first hand how different types/amounts of food FEEL in your body. Eating nothing but french fries probably won’t leave you feeling very good, just like eating nothing but brussels sprouts won’t leave you feeling very good either. We need variety.
   

4. Challenge the Food Police - Most people have an inner critic that they believe “keeps them in check”. In reality, this critic often brings up feelings of guilt and shame, neither of which are positive motivators. As it relates to food and body, we refer to this inner critic as the “food police”. The food police says things like “Are you really going to eat all of that?!” “Omg that is so high in fat and sugar!” “You are such a pig, you better not eat anything for dinner tonight!” Can you see how harsh these phrases are? Can you see how saying those things might make someone feel guilt, shame or unworthiness? Your loved one is learning to challenge this negative inner voice and talk to themselves with more compassion. I say this with lots of love….It’s really hard to challenge the inner food police, if they are around real life food police. In order to support your loved one on this journey, they’re going to need you to keep your food and body comments to yourself. We all want to support the people we love right? But sometimes we don’t know the right things to say and wind up saying nothing for fear of saying the wrong thing. Not to worry…..At the end of this post I’ll include some ways you can support someone on an Intuitive Eating journey.

5. Discover the Satisfaction Factor - A lot of people, immediately choose the lowest calories or “healthiest” option without any consideration for how their body feels or what it’s asking for. There’s nothing inherently wrong with choosing a salad for example, but when we choose a salad when we actually really want a sandwich, we miss out on satisfaction. Ironically when we miss out on satisfaction, it can lead to us eating more because we aren’t…..SATISFIED. Your loved one is exploring what foods they ACTUALLY LIKE. They’ve likely been told what they should or shouldn’t eat for a really long time, so now they are exploring. They’re also working on increasing satisfaction around the eating experience which may look like: eating at the kitchen table instead of standing, turning off the TV while eating, playing some nice music, lighting some candles and making mealtimes an “argument-free zone”.

6. Feel Your Fullness - This principle is all about learning to connect with fullness cues. Just like we have an “on” signal (our hunger cues) to eat, our body has an “off” signal to stop eating, our fullness cues. Our culture likes to tell us that our body can’t be trusted (in lots of different ways) but when we remove distractions, increase mindfulness, eat consistently and when we’re comfortably hungry, quiet the food police and choose foods that are satisfying, we can hear and honor our fullness cues. Instead of needing to rely on “portion control”, our body does it for us.

7. Cope With Your Emotions With Kindness - In this principle we explore what things in life impact one’s relationship with food. As you can imagine, if someone feels deeply stressed, unsupported, anxious or depressed, they will look to cope with these emotions one way or another. Some people turn to food while others turn away from it. This principle helps your loved one do two things: #1 Identify what areas of their life are in balance and which are not. They can then set boundaries, ask for help/support, schedule in more fun etc. Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase “You can’t pour from an empty cup”….this helps them “fill their cup”. #2 It increases their emotional awareness allowing them to better identify how they’re feeling and what it is they truly need. It then provides them with various coping mechanisms outside of food to get their needs met. If they’re sending you this, they may need your support and I know it means SO much to them that you took the time to read this.

8. Respect Your Body - Most dieters have, for years, engaged in behaviors that are deeply disrespectful to their body such as: restricting food, denying it rest, wearing too tight of clothes, criticizing and picking it apart, punishing it with exercise, laxatives, or purging. Many people, women especially, are taught to hate their body (usually so a company can sell them the solution to their insecurity). While most on this journey want to eventually learn to love their body and how it looks, it’s not where we start. It’s also not realistic to expect someone that has hated their body for years and years, to start loving how it looks. In this principle your loved one is learning to show their body respect, regardless of how they feel about their body. This means eating consistently and adequately, talking kindly to themselves, no longer weighing themselves and basing their worth off a number, wearing clothes that fit their here-and-now body, not comparing their body to someone else’s, engaging in movement that feels good to them (see next principle) and doing nice things for themselves.

9. Movement—Feel the Difference - Rather than engaging in exercise for the sake of burning calories, this principle is all about engaging in exercise, or “movement” because it brings them joy, feels good and comes with a whole bunch of health benefits. Exercise is supposed to leave us feeling energized and strong, but more often than not, people push themselves too hard and burn out or get injured. When people workout to punish themselves for what they ate, or exercise in ways they hate, just because they think they “should”, it’s usually not sustainable. Movement is good for the body regardless of weight changes. Movement reduces stress, strengthens the heart, lungs and bones. It positively impacts the gut microbiome, memory and mood. Your loved one is exploring various types of movement to figure out what they enjoy and feels good in their body. While there are positive benefits to exercise, too much of a good thing is….not good. Many people engage in exercise in an obsessive way and may need to take a break from structured movement for some time. Your loved one may actually need to do less exercise in order to give themselves the space they need to create a healthy relationship with it.

10. Gentle Nutrition - The last and final principle is Gentle Nutrition. Many fear that Intuitive Eating is just about eating cakes and cookies all day and that nutrition doesn’t matter. That couldn’t be further from the truth! I like to use the example of building a house to describe this framework. If you try to build a house on a shaky foundation, the house will eventually fall. If we want a sturdy house that we can happily live in, we need to have a sturdy and solid foundation. Principles 1-9 are laying down a new, solid foundation upon which we can layer the house. If you try to give nutrition recommendations to someone that has a disordered relationship with food, they will be applied through an all-or-nothing lens and may be used to that individuals’ detriment. After we’ve excavated harmful rules and beliefs around food and body, and challenged the black-and-white thinking, we can then go in and layer on the nutrition recommendations (aka, build the house). In this principle, we talk about the importance of the three macronutrients and the role they play in the body. We talk about fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and more. We talk about nutrition as a way to support, nourish and take care of the body. Good nutrition is a matter of addition, not subtraction. Instead of saying “stop eating ___, you can’t have ___” (deprivation backfires remember?), we focus on what you can ADD to a meal to increase the fiber, protein or whatever it is that person needs to support their body. Intuitive Eating can also be used if the individual is looking to manage cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease etc. Check out this link to learn more.

As you can see, this process is all about reconnecting to the body, developing self-trust, self-compassion and treating the body with respect. This framework is designed to help heal a person’s relationship with food.

So What is Intuitive Eating NOT?

It is NOT about weight loss (it’s not a diet). In fact, this is a weight-neutral approach, meaning that weight loss is not the goal. We allow the body to do what it’s going to do. I know that may sound scary because we’ve been taught certain body sizes are “unhealthy” but you can’t assess a person’s health by looking at their body or their weight. To learn more about why I, and other Intuitive Eating dietitians don’t focus on weight loss, click here. The goal of this process isn’t to eat less or to only eat when “perfectly hungry”. The goal is to help the individual experiment, observe non-judgmentally, and learn what feels best in their body.

Is Intuitive Eating Healthy?

I’m sure you care very much about the person who sent you this blog post, and you just want them to be healthy and happy. It’s natural and normal if you’re wondering “Is Intuitive Eating really healthy?”

YES! Intuitive Eating has been associated with improved physical and mental health outcomes such as:

• Higher self-esteem

• Improved body-trust

• Increased satisfaction with life

• Improved body image

• Optimism and well-being

• Reduced guilt/shame around eating

• Proactive coping skills

• Lower rates of emotional eating

• Lower rates of disordered eating

• Lower body mass indexes

• Higher HDL (good) cholesterol levels

• Lower Triglyceride levels

How Can I Support This Person?

So now that you have a better understand of the framework itself, you may be wondering, “How can I best support this person on their journey?”. Well, you can check one box - by taking the time to read this article, you’re showing whoever sent it to you, that they matter to you! Here are some really great questions to ask your loved one on this journey:

“How can I best support you on this journey?”

“How is the Intuitive Eating process going?”

“I’d love to hear more about what you are learning.”

“Is there anything about your Intuitive Eating journey you’d like to share with me or talk to me about?”

“What do you need from me?”

“Where can I learn more?”

“I’m so proud of you and all of the work that you are doing!”

Everyone needs a different type of support which is why I think the first question is so important. Unless they’ve stated otherwise that they do not want to talk to you about this topic, asking questions about it shows you care. Telling this person that you are proud of their growth and progress will mean far more than you could ever realize.

I hope you found this to be helpful. If you still have questions about this process, check out some of my other blog posts or to get started on your own IE journey, click here.

How to Let Go of the Fear of Weight Gain when Starting Intuitive Eating

You’ve realized that dieting doesn’t work and it’s time to relearn how to trust your body. You’re ready to jump in and relearn how to eat intuitively, but your fear of weight gain is holding you back. 

It’s too scary to give up control of my weight.

What if I hate my body even MORE after I start intuitive eating?

I’d rather lose weight first and then I’ll heal my relationship with food.

The fear of weight gain is a common barrier to starting intuitive eating and it makes sense. You’ve likely devoted a lot of time and energy to changing or manipulating your body for the sake of weight loss. Finally releasing control over what happens to your weight with intuitive eating can feel like you’re throwing in the towel or “letting yourself go.” You’re not alone. In fact, if these feelings and worries are coming up for you, you’re right on track. We’re going to talk about how to actually deal with the fear of weight gain, where these thoughts and feelings might be coming from, and ways for you to continue moving forward in your journey toward food and body freedom. 

Question Why You Fear Weight Gain

The desire to be thin and have a body that’s deemed “worthy” in our society is deeply ingrained in us. We’re infiltrated in our everyday life with weight-centric and fatphobic messages.  Weight bias and weight stigma are very real and can lead to an internalized weight stigma that you might not even be aware of. This is where you self-direct the stigmatizing negative attitudes and beliefs people have based on social stereotypes of body weight.

Diet culture sells you lies telling you that you can control your weight and you should. Any different and you’re made to believe that you’re lazy or a failure.  Maybe you had a parent put you on a diet as a child, a doctor prescribed you weight loss advice, the clothing store didn’t carry your size, or a negative comment was expressed about your body weight. 

Navigating this world in a larger body IS often more challenging. Airplanes require an additional charge for an accommodating seat or a seat belt extender. Roller coasters, dining at restaurants, massage tables, and theater seats are often size-specific areas that make it uncomfortable for people in larger bodies to enjoy their experience. These are all a result of the way society has been trained to fear weight gain, and when these instances occur, usually daily for those in larger bodies, it sends the message that only certain people get to participate in our world. This results in really questioning whether you deserve to belong. Everyone wants to be accepted by others and this includes physically fitting in too. 

I want to take a moment to validate your own experiences and acknowledge the reality that my thin privilege has allowed me to be protected from certain stigmatizing experiences those in larger bodies face. I can’t speak directly to the experiences of those in a larger body and being mistreated because of body size, but I know that I can continue to work to bring attention to these injustices.

We have pressure and a standard put on us that makes us feel like it’s our human duty to make sure we have aesthetically pleasing bodies. It’s time to question WHY you fear weight gain and once you do, you’ll realize it’s because you were told to.  Personal experiences, trauma, and a society that values thinness can make it extremely difficult for you to let go of the fear of weight gain. It’s hard to do, but unlearning and dismantling what you’ve been previously taught IS possible.

Trust the Science 

Understanding that your body has a predetermined set point weight and that you have very little control over your genetics can be a relief and the catalyst for ending the constant fight with your body.  Just like you have a unique shoe size, eye color, and height, you have an individual size, shape, and weight too. Your body has already CHOSEN a weight range (not a fixed number, but a range) that it has decided is the healthiest and most optimal for you. 

Your body will do whatever it can to keep you at your set point weight. That’s why 95% of diets and weight loss efforts fail! Your body is smart and it doesn’t care what body type is currently trendy right now. Innate physiological mechanisms work hard to keep your body at its most desired size so that your body can thrive! What you can do is embrace and trust that your body has your back and knows what’s best for you. When you release control and eat intuitively, your body will settle where it needs to on its own. 

Detach Your Worth from Your Body

For many people, the desire to be thin is really a desire to be worthy, loved, and respected. You might feel that if you’re thin you’ll be seen as successful and people will take you more seriously because you “have your life together.” You fear weight gain because maybe you worry that people will make assumptions about you and the thought of that is petrifying. Releasing control of your weight when eating intuitively can feel like you’re not in control anymore, and it’s difficult when you’re used to having that comforting illusion of control.

Looking through the lens of the Health at Every Size approach can really be helpful. You’ll start to grasp the truth that body diversity is real and that all bodies are deserving of respect and dignity.  Bodies are ever-changing and they’re supposed to change. We ebb and flow through life and our bodies carry us throughout so many different stages, seasons, and experiences. Work to develop a neutral view of your body where you don’t need to use so much mental energy geared toward hating your body OR loving your body - allow your body to just BE. You can exist in your here-and-now body and know that you’re worthy as a person regardless of if or when it changes.

Focus on What You Value

Food and body thoughts can take over our lives and we can lose sight of what’s really important to us. It’s easy to forget how much mental space and energy we give to what we eat and how we look.  When you start to pour your energy into what you value, there’s less time to focus on your physical appearance. Within your relationships, connections, conversations, and experiences, try to stay mindful and present. What can you invest in that truly matters? Family and friends? Your career? Being out in nature? Discovering new hobbies?

You don’t want to look back and realize you missed out on important things in life. The people that love you and truly care about you, only want to be with YOU, not your body. 

Questions to personally reflect on:

Where did I learn that weight gain was “bad?”

Why do I care so much about thinness?

How do I treat and see those in larger bodies?

Does my worth really change if my body grows?

Do these beliefs line up with my values?

Letting go of the fear of weight gain when starting intuitive eating is all about working on the mindset behind the fear. Once you really dig in, you’ll see a shift in perspective. Sometimes you simply have to continue to take action in your intuitive eating journey and walk through the fear of weight gain to conclude for yourself that life is about more than your body!

Are you ready to step in and take the leap toward living a life without food and your body holding you back? I offer 1-on-1 virtual intuitive eating coaching and as a Registered Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, I’ve seen first hand that it IS possible to let go of the fear of weight gain with intuitive eating! Let’s get started!

True Health Benefits of Intuitive Eating

The process of learning to eat intuitively can be confusing and scary at times. It’s intimidating to take the leap and fully trust that the benefits of intuitive eating will prove to be worth fighting through all the fears you’ll confront along your journey.

The science, studies, research, and testimonies of others reveal that intuitive eating does improve authentic health, but the hardest part is pushing through until YOU can actually experience the benefits of intuitive eating yourself. 

Sometimes you just need encouragement and solid reminders that learning to eat intuitively is worth the hard work! 

That’s why we’re going to walk through the science behind intuitive eating that demonstrates intuitive eating improves true health. 

Our bodies and minds were never meant to endure self-imposed dieting and rules. There’s total freedom and peace in eating the way we were innately created to - what could be healthier than that?!

Intuitive Eating Research

There are nearly 150 research studies on intuitive eating and a validated intuitive eating assessment scale that measures and identifies key features of intuitive eaters. 

Intuitive eating was around before diets busted their way into our culture. Intuitive eating is wired into our biology and the research studies simply prove that we are in fact meant to eat based on our own body’s cues. If it wasn’t for diet culture, intuitive eating would just be eating.

What are the Benefits of Intuitive Eating? 

Intuitive eating has been shown to significantly improve health both physically and mentally. Unlike dieting, intuitive eating does not measure progress or results based on pounds or outward appearance. 

As you continue in your intuitive eating journey, you’ll notice areas of your life that are gradually improving. Freedom and a peaceful relationship with food are the most clear-cut benefits of intuitive eating, but given time ALL areas of your life change for the better!  

Physical Benefits of Intuitive Eating

Dieting creates health problems as it puts pressure and stress on the body. When you eat intuitively the body does a good job of healing and settling into its preferred healthy state. 

Health from intuitive eating considers so much more than a diet that fixates solely on a number on a scale, including:

• Improved cholesterol and blood pressure

• Reduced risk for heart disease

• Repaired and increased metabolism - no, your metabolism is not doomed!

• Weight stabilization, instead of weight cycling up and down - yo-yo dieting has been associated with heart disease and premature death 

Psychological and Mental Benefits of Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating studies show that self-esteem improves, satisfaction with life increases, overall psychological well-being is greater, and your mood is positively affected. There’s less depression, anxiety, and stress - likely because you're not caught up in the vicious dieting cycle jumping on and off the wagon!

Intuitive eating is associated with lowered self-silencing, which is the suppression of your thoughts, feelings, or needs. Your confidence heightens as you become more comfortable with recognizing your mental and physical needs. 

You gain interoceptive awareness (body awareness) as you become more in tune with your mind and your body. Identifying physical sensations and the ability to detect and attend to your emotions is a natural outcome of listening and responding to your body when you eat intuitively. 

Intuitive eating helps nurture and cultivate body appreciation and body acceptance. You learn how your body works to communicate with you, and that your body has your best interest in mind. 

Your awareness of your hunger and fullness cues and the act of responding to them, working with your body, develop body trust. You’re able to release your attempts at control as body trust increases. If your body is telling you to grab a midnight snack, you’re able to trust your hunger sensation.

Intuitive eating helps to diminish an internalized culturally thin ideal, which means you’re less likely to determine your self-worth based on your body size. Body image improves as you unlearn all the dieting beliefs and cultural messages, and you realize there’s so much more to life than your body! 

There’s so much mental space recovered with intuitive eating. Food thoughts lessen and you no longer spend time on dieting behaviors, which leaves room for what you value in life! You’re able to invest more in relationships with friends and family, and you can even pursue and discover interests you’ve missed out on.

Positive Behavioral Changes and Benefits of Intuitive Eating

A reduction in dieting and disordered eating behaviors result from eating intuitively. You eat based on physical reasons, with less of an emotional reliance on food. However, contrary to popular belief, emotional eating does have its place in intuitive eating.

Intuitive eaters may eat for many reasons other than just physical hunger. You get to enjoy spontaneous dinner dates, thoughtful cookies from coworkers, and popcorn at the movies, all because food is a part of life!

You can also keep trigger foods in the house because you’re no longer restricting them or bingeing on them. You eat the ice cream in the freezer when you feel like it, and sometimes you even forget that it’s there. 

When you give yourself permission to eat all foods as an intuitive eater, you end up eating a diverse diet with a variety of foods, giving you a more pleasurable experience from eating. You truly learn what foods make you feel good and what foods don’t. 

You also have more energy and a desire to engage in physical activity for enjoyment. As you break away from the diet mentality, you end up choosing physical movement because you want to move. You might skip your planned solo jog for a nice evening walk with your partner simply because it makes your soul happy.

Intuitive eaters have higher proactive coping, psychological hardiness, resilience, unconditional self-regard, and a greater ability to recover from adversity. Intuitive eaters embrace flexibility and live in the grey rather than an “all or nothing” mindset. When your eating can ebb and flow with life, it’s such a better experience! 

Do You Want to Experience the True Health Benefits of Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive eating is so much more than simply the absence of dieting or disordered eating, it’s the path to flourishing and thriving in all areas of life. Ultimately, with intuitive eating, you discover how to tap into your own self-empowerment and internal wisdom that you’ve had all along.

If you’re ready to leave dieting behind and personally experience the benefits of intuitive eating, let’s chat and get you started with 1-on-1 virtual intuitive eating coaching! As a Registered Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, I love watching people like you heal their relationship with food and achieve authentic health! 

Can You Be Addicted to Food?

When you feel like you can’t keep your hands off sweets or potato chips, it’s understandable that you might find yourself asking the question, Can you be addicted to food? 

If you have intense cravings, feel a loss of control, or binge on certain foods, your experience is very real and it can very much feel like you have an addiction to food.

Given the fact that food addiction is a hot topic debated among scientists and health professionals, it can be difficult to uncover the truth, especially when our society is polluted by diet culture. 

Although there are internet articles pushing the narrative of food addiction and treatment centers “specialize” in this area, the truth is that food addiction isn’t real. 

Let’s break down what science and literature say. The facts will make it clear that the answer to your question, Can you be addicted to food? is a resounding NO.

Food Psychology and the Factors Influencing Eating Behavior

Food psychology and the factors influencing our eating behaviors are highly complex. Food is subjective, meaning that you cannot objectively measure a person’s experience with food. 

Many factors, influences, perspectives, and opinions affect food’s place in your life. The way you interact with food and the daily choices you make regarding food can depend on:

• The day or time of eating

• Your current environment, circumstances, or situation

• Your emotions and mental state

• Your hormones and energy levels 

Each person is unique and each BODY is unique.

Food is not black and white. There’s simply no way to determine whether food can be addictive when it looks so different for everybody.

What Does the Food Addiction Research Say? 

There’s no formal clinical definition of food addiction that’s universally accepted, meaning that professionals are left to their own discretion to define it. Red flag.

When tested whether food or a specific macronutrient like carbohydrates/sugar is addictive on a physiological level, studies found zero evidence to support this. 

Most of the food addiction research performs studies on rats whereas human studies are minimal. A rat’s experience with food can’t directly reflect a human’s experience. Rats don’t deal with peer pressure, emotions, or complicated dynamics that can affect their choices.

Sugar Addiction Studies Are Taken Out of Context

The sugar addiction studies that many people refer to when speaking on this topic fail to consider the entire context.

Within the studies, rats adhered to a feeding schedule in which they were given intermittent access to sugar. The rats were forced to fast for 12 hours and then following the fasting, they were given free access to sugar for the next 12 hours. 

Separate rats were given a feeding environment where sugar was continually available to the rats at all times, with no period of fasting. 

After the four-week study, the results revealed that addiction-like behaviors ONLY occurred when the rats were given intermittent access to sugar. The rats who had sugar available at all times did NOT show addiction-like behaviors. 

Consider the context! Rather than a physical addiction, these studies demonstrate that out of control eating behaviors occur under food deprivation. 

When the rats were uncertain of when they would receive food again, food was seen as unpredictable and scarce, so they desperately overate for survival purposes.

Doesn’t this sound like dieting and restriction followed by rebound overeating?

The Yale Food Addiction Scale Ignores Diet History

The Yale Food Addiction Scale is a questionnaire that clinicians use to determine if a person has a food addiction (even though there’s no clinical definition?). 

This screening tool is purely based on the individual's feelings and experiences with food and self-assessment alone cannot determine whether a substance (food) is truly addictive. 

The main issue is that chronic dieting and restriction aren't taken into account by the Yale Food Addiction Scale. The questions resemble classic thoughts and behaviors associated with disordered eating.

Just like the rat studies’ claims of sugar addiction ignore the circumstances, so does the Yale Food Addiction Scale. Shouldn’t dieting history be considered when we KNOW that restriction causes addiction-like behaviors?!

What About the Effects of Sugar on the Brain?

We’ve all heard the concern, sugar lights up the same brain pathways as drugs. 

Yes, brain imaging does show the effects of sugar on the brain are similar to cocaine. Sugar and cocaine light up the same reward center, producing dopamine, making us “feel good.” 

Do you know what else produces dopamine? Music, laughing, exercising, and being in love. Food is a natural reward and we’re wired to experience pleasure from eating because it’s one of our basic needs.

Drugs hijack the natural reward pathway with an exaggerated pleasure response. Neuroimaging shows us that the exaggerated pleasure response we see from sugar that matches drug addiction is only seen in the context of food restriction. When there’s unconditional access to food, neuroimaging depicts the brain’s response to sugar as similar to any other natural reward. 

We’re designed to depend on food and therefore a physiological addiction can’t occur from something we can’t live without. 

You can feel addicted to food when you’re chaotically eating, bingeing, or out of control around food. It’s a biological survival mechanism your body uses as a response to any form of mental or physical restriction. Even if it feels real, that does NOT mean food addiction is real.

Do You Want to Stop Feeling Out of Control with Food?

After breaking down the studies and understanding the research, we know that dieting and restriction induce compulsive eating tendencies. 

If you want to stop feeling like you’re addicted to food, the key is to incorporate ALL foods into your life, giving yourself unconditional permission to eat. This way your body and your mind can understand that food is available and there’s no need to jump into survival mode. 

As a Registered Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, I offer 1-on-1 virtual intuitive eating coaching where you can learn to make peace with food and free yourself from the pull that food has on you. Let’s get in touch so that you can start healing your relationship with food!

Conquer Body Image Anxiety and Take Back Your Summer

Maybe you’re excited for the warmer weather with fun trips to the beach, backyard grill outs, hiking outside, and lots of sunshine. But maybe you’re also dreading summer.

Pulling out the swimsuits, shorts, and tank tops from the back of your closet can feel intimidating. Lighter clothing can often highlight more of our personal insecurities.

Have you ever missed out on summer activities because you didn’t think that your body was “good enough”? 

The shame we feel about our bodies can ruin our summer plans, and we end up making sacrifices like passing on swimming at the beach or skipping the tank top even when the heat calls for it.

You DESERVE to enjoy summertime without your body image anxiety stealing all of its potential. 

Let’s get into what got our society started with the pressure we feel to attain a “summer body” and tips for you to navigate this.

*Please note that I’m aware it may be easier for me to speak about this topic because of my thin privilege, living in a straight size, able-bodied body. Not everyone has the same experience because people get treated differently based on their body size. My hope is that regardless of the body you occupy, you know that you’re worthy of a fun summer just as you are. 

The “Bikini Body” Is a Marketing Tactic

Summer is another chance for the $72 billion dieting industry to maximize profits. We’ve all seen the advertisements and commercials bombarding us with juice cleanses and “swimsuit ready diet plans.”

Here’s the deal. The term “bikini body” is only a marketing scheme. 

• A new weight loss company called Slenderella developed the term “bikini body” in the 1960s to use in their campaign tagline.

• Marketers wanted to amplify women’s insecurities during the summer months as a fast and easy way to increase sales. 

• Magazines and newspapers gave priority to showcasing unrealistic and fabricated “bikini bodies” on their covers to attract women’s attention.

The pressure we feel to meet society’s standards of an “ideal body type” is a result of marketing tactics like this one, which are STILL used today.

If you’re feeling insecure about your body this summer, try asking “Who is profiting from this insecurity?”

Are You Self-Conscious Around People You Haven’t Seen in a While?

It can be difficult to face seeing people after it’s been a while, especially if you know that your body looks different than the last time they saw you. Here are some thoughts about this. 

• If someone is judging your body, it says a lot more about who they are as a person rather than who you are.

• Those who are genuine and care about you, don’t worry about what your body looks like, they just want to be with YOU!

• People are usually too busy worrying about how their OWN bodies look instead of worrying about yours. 

Tips for Conquering Body Image Anxiety

Prioritize Your Here-and-Now Body

No matter what your body looked like in the past or how it might look different in the future (because hello, our bodies will change throughout life) the key is to honor your CURRENT body with clothes that fit. 

If you’re finding that your summer clothes feel too tight or you simply don’t feel good in them, they need to go! Negative body image thoughts tend to increase when our clothing distracts us. 

Wearing your appropriate size that feels comfortable and suits your style helps you think about your body a lot LESS and allows you to be MORE present in your life!

Thrift stores are awesome for donating old clothing and finding a variety of new clothes on a budget too! Remember, steer away from the mirror and avoid looking at the tag too much, focus on what feels best. 

Choose Your Own Pace

If you would prefer not to wear certain summer clothing, there’s no need to force yourself. But if you’d like to incorporate summer clothes that feel challenging to you, you can always ease into it. 

Small actions like these can help manage your body image anxiety while also pushing yourself towards your long term goals regarding summer clothing.

• A coverup over your swimsuit can help you get used to wearing a swimsuit if you don’t want to make the full leap yet. The fact that you put a swimsuit on and went to the pool could be a win in itself! Focus on the victories!

• If you’re wanting to wear a pair of shorts, but showing your legs feels overwhelming, a light sweater tied around your waist can help you become more familiar with wearing shorts.

• Take advantage of comfortable settings where you can practice wearing clothes you’d like to get accustomed to. Wear your tank top around your house or on some errands that you need to run. Practice helps!

This is your journey and YOU get to decide how it goes and what works for you! Whatever type of summer clothing you choose, you deserve to rock it. 

Pay Attention to Body Diversity

Sometimes we need to take the focus off ourselves and notice all the shapes and sizes around us. You’ll see that there’s tons of different people in tons of different bodies doing summer activities!

The people lounging at the pool, walking in the park, eating yummy food, and enjoying summer gatherings with friends ALL have diverse bodies! 

Let go of the belief that you have to have a “perfect summer body” in order to participate in the fun. A certain body type is NOT a prerequisite to enjoy yourself. 

Summertime can also be a great opportunity to clean out and diversify your social media feed. Becoming aware of the body diversity around you as well as online can make a BIG difference in helping you rewire any beliefs that you might have about bodies. 

Practice Body Acceptance for a Life that You Value

If you’re consumed with body thoughts, you’re going to miss out on all the good things that summer has to offer!

Letting your body simply BE, without scrutinizing it or judging it, will free up your thought space for things that you value like people, experiences, conversations, and making memories.

Rather than thinking about what your body looks like at the beach, think about how your body allows you to float in the salty water and feel the ocean breeze. 

You don’t have to love your body, but you can choose to accept it right now, regardless of its shape or size, and give your attention to what’s important to you. 

Do You Feel Stuck with Body Image Anxiety this Summer?

As a registered dietitian, I often see that a complicated relationship with food goes hand in hand with body image struggles.

My virtual 1-on-1 coaching will give you the tools you need to develop into an intuitive eater as well as support for improving your body image. Apply here to get started, I’d love to start this journey to healing with you!

Is This Holding You Back on Your Intuitive Eating Journey?

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The Intuitive Eating framework itself is rather simple. The implementation of it however, is certainly not easy. The majority of people exploring Intuitive Eating come from a background of dieting, food rules and restriction (myself included hiii). Diet culture teaches us to think in extremes. You are either on the diet, or off it. Working out a ton or not exercising at all. Eating clean or eating dirty. It teaches us that you have to do A, then B, then C and if you mess up C, you start back at A. It also teaches us that we are to blame for any type of “slip up” and that it all comes down to willpower and motivation.

Spoiler alert - that is b*llshit - our bodies are incredibly resistant to dieting because they see a diet as a famine. Your body is trying to protect you from said famine - aw thanks body :)

When it comes to Intuitive Eating, that black and white thinking (aka all-or-nothing thinking) might be holding you back. The fourth principle of the framework is Challenging the Food Police and a CRITICAL step to the process. First things first…..who the heck are the food police? Oh you know….that voice in your head that says things like:

“Should you really be eating that?”

“OMG that’s so high in ___!”

“I can’t believe you ate that! You just ruined your entire day!”

This voice can police us about food but can also police us about our bodies. It often develops overtime with influences coming from loved ones, friends, trainers, nutritionists, coworkers, celebrities and the media. This voice tends to be very “all-or-nothing” and catastrophic. How might that voice show up on your IE journey? Well it might say things like:

“You’re failing at this intuitive eating thing!”

“You’re not doing it right!”

“You’re not doing enough so why even bother?”

“It’s been 2 weeks and I’m not an Intuitive Eater yet. I’ll never figure this out!”

Intuitive Eating is a process and each part of the process is an opportunity to learn about you, your body and your relationship with food. Even the parts of the journey that feel uncomfortable provide you with useful data. When we challenge the food police, we step away from that catastrophic, all-or-nothing thinking. We strive to foster compassion and understanding for ourselves (and others). We look for the grey, between the black-and-white. Here’s an example of how we can do that:

Black-and-white thinking: “I didn’t honor my fullness at all! I’m totally failing at Intuitive Eating. I should just go back to dieting!”

Grey thinking: “I definitely ate past comfortable fullness. Did I start the meal out way too hungry? Was I distracted while I ate? Did I eat enough this morning? Was there some other need I was possibly trying to fill? How am I feeling? What can I learn from this experience?”

You can probably FEEL the difference between those two statements. The first may make you feel tense, hopeless and filled with shame. The second is filled with curiosity and compassion. It feels like a breath of fresh air and like things are going to be okay.

The grey thinking allows you to get curious about your behaviors and experiences. This helps you LEARN from them instead of just making you feel terrible. Challenging the food police and getting away from black-and-white thinking can take time and lots of practice. If you’re looking for a supportive environment to help you do so check out my small group coaching program.

"If I Ate Intuitively, I'd Never Stop Eating"

“If I ate intuitively, I would never stop eating” - This is one of the most common fears I hear and is completely valid. If you come from a background of dieting, restriction or food rules, when you allow yourself to have those “bad” or off-limit foods, it is likely you feel out of control around them. Many people seem to think they have a problem with control or that they lack willpower; that somehow this type of food holds power over them.

I remember feeling this way too. For me, peanut butter would set me off into a spiral. One bite of the nutty deliciousness would spiral into eating half the jar or more. It felt like I was under a peanut butter spell. What many (and what I didn’t) don’t realize is that deprivation is often the biggest driver for this out-of-control eating. I had been dieting for years and competing in the bodybuilding industry - I was extremely undernourished. Cravings, binges and excessive food thoughts are all side effects of starvation (which is what your body sees dieting as). The Minnesota Starvation Study (CW: calories) shows how dieting impacts our drive to eat and is often responsible for that “out of control” feeling around food.

Many people also have rules around food or label it as good or bad. Perhaps in an effort to lose weight or "be healthy” one might swear off sugar or dessert; they may cut out carbs; or they promise they’ll be “better” tomorrow. When we think this way, not only do we feel guilt and shame around our choices, but we approach food with a “last supper mentality” aka “better eat it all now, because this is the last time I’ll have it.” Perhaps you get (as my client would call them) the “F*ck It’s!” Due to labeling certain foods as “bad”, perhaps you feel guilty for “blowing your diet” for eating, let’s say, a cookie. At this point you might think to yourself, “F*ck it! I already messed up, might as well keep eating!” and you continue to eat the remainder of the box, the whole time promising to be better tomorrow.

Do you see how deprivation and food rules set us up for feeling out of control around food? Here’s what really happens as you go through the intuitive Eating process. As you give yourself unconditional permission to eat you will likely initially see an uptick in your consumption of previously off-limit foods. You may also see an increase in the volume of food you are consuming. This is completely normal and an important part of the process. By giving yourself this permission, you are able to learn first hand what feels good in your body. You’ll learn what amounts of food feel good in your body and what amount may feel a bit uncomfortable. Soon you will be able to trust that your body will tell you what it needs - it craves variety from all types of foods.

You go through a process known as habituation which is essentially ‘exposure therapy’. You expose yourself to the food until it is eventually not a big deal (note: the point is not to burn out on the food). You have permission to eat it whenever you want, so you can choose to eat that food in a way that brings you satisfaction and feels good in your body. By going through this process you learn to trust your body, rather than trusting external rules or suggestions.

As you contemplate giving Intuitive Eating a shot, many fears may come up for you and this is normal. I promise this process is 1000x easier though with support. If you are looking to start your own Intuitive Eating journey, click here to apply for 1-on-1 coaching.

**If you experience depression, have a mood disorder or any other mental illness, I would highly recommend working with a mental health professional. Mental illness will directly impact our eating behaviors and Intuitive Eating and habituation alone will likely not be enough to change your eating behaviors. If you are actively struggling with an eating disorder, please reach out to a qualified professional to get individualized help.

Defining "Diet Culture" "Weight Stigma" & "Fatphobia"

You have probably heard the terms diet culture, weight stigma or fat phobia before. I get a lot of questions about those terms and what exactly they mean. It seems as if they are often used on social media channels without much explaining. I think it is very important to fully understand what they mean and why they are so harmful to our physical and mental health. 

Diet Culture

You might think diet culture only applies to those who are currently on a diet. However, diet culture is a whole system of beliefs that a lot of us carry because we grew up being taught certain things about food and weight. Christy Harrison, author of the book Anti-Diet, and host of the podcast Food Psych (if you don’t already, go listen to it!) breaks diet culture down as follows:

• A system that worships thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue. This can lead you to spend your whole life thinking you’re broken just because you don’t look like the thin “ideal”.

• Promoting weight loss as a means of attaining higher status. This can make you feel compelled to spend a large amount of time, energy, and money trying to shrink your body. 

• The demonization of certain ways of eating and glorifying others. This belief forces you to become highly aware of what you’re eating, ashamed of making certain food choices, and distracted from your intuitive pleasure.

• A system that oppresses people who don't match up with its supposed picture of “health,” which disproportionately harms certain groups (such as people in larger bodies or people of color). The oppression can damage both their mental and physical health.

You don’t have to be dieting and weight loss does not have to be in the center of attention to be stuck in diet culture. There are a lot of people who firmly believe they are not on a diet; they just “eat clean” or “value their health” but their behaviors quickly slip into the culture of dieting. Demonizing one food, while believing other foods are superior is exactly where diet culture sneaks into our life. The dieting industry is working very hard to keep us in the mindset that “food is medicine” and keeps adjusting the messaging according to trends. In order to move away from diet culture and heal our relationship with food, we need to understand that all foods fit into a healthy lifestyle and there is no food that can replace rest, mental health, or social support. 

Weight Stigma

Also referred to as weight-based discrimination or weight-bias, weight stigma is a form of discrimination based on a person’s weight. It can be extremely damaging to one’s physical and mental health. Continuous stigmatization increases the risk for psychological issues, such as depression or poor body image. This ultimately leads to increased risk for eating disorders. 

Weight stigma happens in all areas of life: at work, school, in the media, and even in healthcare settings. Research shows that physicians and other medical staff are very likely to express weight-bias. Healthcare providers have less respect for patients in bigger bodies and are likely to spend less time with them because they report it to be a “waste of time”. Additionally, heavier people get worse care: they are often ignored or advised to simply lose weight for each health problem they experience. The same study found that people with a higher BMI are three times more likely than people in a “normal” BMI range to be denied appropriate medical care. As a result, people tend to avoid seeking medical care and feel bad about themselves, almost feeling like a failure. This is very damaging to both mental and physical health. Stigmatized patients may get stuck in a vicious cycle of dieting and binge eating. Increased cortisol levels (a hormone that gets released when we are stressed) are believed to play a large role in weight gain.

This bias we have is rooted in diet culture and the belief that only the “ideal” body can be healthy. To change this, we need to understand that health can exist at every size and that every person has the right to equal and fair treatment. 

Fatphobia

Fatphobia is the fear of fat bodies and causes us to cultivate the negative stereotypes against people living in larger bodies (or hatred towards ourselves). It is deeply rooted in diet culture and leads us to express high levels of weight-bias. Fat phobia also goes hand in hand with class privilege, thin privilege, or the idealization of white bodies which are all problematic aspects of our society (check out the book Fearing The Black Body by Sabrina Strings to learn more about the racist roots of diet culture). Many larger bodied folks are just as healthy as people who have a BMI within the “normal” range. It is harmful to assume that just because a person looks different than our ideal, they must be unhealthy. 

To measure the prevalence of fat phobic behaviors, researchers have created a Fat Phobia Scale. When this scale was used in a group of people, it turned out that young, average weight females are much more likely to be fat phobic than males or people in larger bodies. Another research article found that those who were fat phobic are likely to describe bigger people with "likes food", "overeats, "inactive", or "no will power" which highlights the extreme biases society holds against bigger bodies. 

Fat phobia is rooted in the irrational belief that being bigger means being unhealthy. It is irrational because weight does not determine health and we cannot tell someone's health simply by looking at their body. There are many people who are actually unhealthy but live in thin bodies and yet still get better treatment than healthy “overweight” people. Do you see how this is problematic? To dismantle the fatphobic beliefs we have, we need to emphasize that it is impossible to know anything about a person’s health based on how they look.

If I Stop Dieting, How Will I Know How Much to Eat?

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Many clients ask me this question when they start intuitive eating. People generally worry that without restriction they will just start eating all the foods they tried to avoid and eventually gain weight. However, when we start honoring our hunger and listening to our inner cues, we regain the natural ability to self-regulate eating behavior. 

Self-regulation is essential for survival. We are all born with the ability to know exactly what we need to eat. As infants, we cry to signal hunger and understand satiety by stopping the feeding when full. The ability to self-regulate slowly decreases with age and depending on how many outside influences we experience might diminish completely. It starts with our parent’s feeding practices that might not be in tune with the natural hunger and fullness signals, the urge to clean the plate, or social norms that we start learning as we grow older. 

Dieting is one of those outside influences. It forces us to eat less than the body is asking for over a very long period of time. This is counter intuitive for our bodies which leads to compensatory behaviors such as chronic hunger or an inability to understand satiety signals. The body has a defense mechanism against starvation that is activated whenever we try to deprive it of energy. These mechanisms include lowering the metabolic rate, increasing the craving for calorie dense foods, or fatigue which reduces the motivation to stay active. In short, we might completely lose the ability to self-regulate eating when we try to control it.

Once we get back in tune with our bodies by listening to hunger and satiety cues, we might regain the ability to self-regulate. When we allow the body to feel safe by making sure to always deliver the energy it needs, the defense mechanisms are turned off. The chronic hunger, cravings, and fatigue will decrease as we learn to honor our hunger. Once the body knows that there is no starvation coming anytime soon, it will relax, increase the metabolic rate, and support all your daily activities. Simply, if you want your body to trust you, you need to trust it as well. As a team, you can achieve health with no restriction or anxiety. 

This new trust is the foundation for eating the right amount for your body. Re-learning this doesn’t happen overnight, but the process is worth it! On the path to rediscovering your ability to self-regulate, you will probably experience some bumps in the road. Just know that this is normal! If you’re looking to get back in touch with the cues of your body, apply for 1-on-1 coaching today!

What is the Difference Between Hunger and Appetite?

Honor your Hunger is the second principle of Intuitive Eating. It can often be confusing to people as many argue they will “eat all the time” if they honor their hunger. Some believe honoring their hunger means they can only eat if ravenously hungry. Others are guilty if they have a bite of food just because they aren’t physically hungry. But hunger and appetite are not one and the same. To better understand this, let’s break down what they are.

Hunger is a physiological response signaling the need for food. You might start feeling uncomfortable and or physically weak if the hunger gets intense. Hunger is primarily experienced in the body (low energy, rumbling stomach, shaky, although feelings of irritability may arise).

Appetite is a desire to eat, and is often experienced in the mind (although we can also experience physical sensations such as increase salivation). It often comes on suddenly and can be stimulated by the sight or smell of food. It is possible to be physically hungry and have no appetite. It is also possible to have an appetite, but not be physically hungry (we call this taste hunger in Intuitive Eating). The latter is very common for individuals who have been dieting or restricting for some time. Our desire for certain foods heighten as we make them off limits and restrict our consumption of them.

In the simplest models, the intake of food is stimulated by hunger cues. These hunger cues are initiated by hormones that signal a need for energy to the brain. Then the process of eating takes place and is eventually terminated with satiety or a feeling of fullness. When food is digested, those hormones are lowered and the brain signals that it is time to stop eating.

However, sometimes we eat in response to different cues such as the smell or sight of food. Appetite is a combination of learned eating behavior and genetics. Our environments often shape how we respond to food. Children have the inborn ability to self-regulate their intake of food but once they are exposed to different feeding practices (whether thats a diet, a parent instructing the child to finish their food, restricting intake of ___), they slowly lose this ability and their eating becomes controlled by external rather than internal (hunger cues) factors. 

Our eating behavior begins to be shaped from the time we are breast/bottle-fed, and this is where we learn how to respond to our hunger and satiety cues. It is known for example that modifying a child’s internal cues reduces their ability to respond to inborn signals which makes them less of an intuitive eater. The caretaker’s eating behavior and attitudes towards food can also have a significant influence on children’s eating behavior. Unfortunately, as children we are often powerless when it comes to food choices, placing the responsibility on to the caretaker. This is why it’s so important for the adult to have a healthy relationship with food, as these early experiences shape how that child will respond to both hunger and appetite later in life. Essentially, every experience that interferes with our internal signals leads us astray from the intuitive eater within.

An interaction of hunger and appetite satisfaction is needed to achieve a balance in eating. In fact, in Intuitive Eating, we spend an entire principle discussing the importance of satisfaction! Eating is motivated by far more than just hunger. We eat for social reasons, for pleasure, for cultural reasons, or emotional reasons. All of these are valid. The ability to eat for health and pleasure is what makes for an intuitive eater.

The bottom line is that there is a difference between hunger and appetite. However, both are appropriate cues to start eating, as long as you understand how you feel and what your body needs. If we consistently eat only for pleasure with no regard for physical hunger, we may feel sluggish, experience digestive issues or just feel physically uncomfortable. If we consistently eat only in response to physical hunger with no regard for appetite and satisfaction, we miss out on the pleasure we can derive from eating, along with many of the social connections and memories that come from eating.

If you’re ready to start your own Intuitive Eating journey, click here to apply for 1-on-1 coaching.

Are Some Professions More at Risk for Eating Disorders?

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There is a group of professions that emphasize a certain body ideal. Research shows that athletes for example are at higher risk for developing eating disorders. Especially those in sports such as gymnastics, wrestling, or bodybuilding, where a certain body type is perceived as “ideal”. However, athletes are not the only at-risk profession. 

Models or dancers share the same risk factors, even if they are presenting in slightly different ways. This is not surprising as both dancers and models spend a lot of time looking at their own bodies. They also start their careers early and are very susceptible to opinions of those around them. One study for example found that dancers had a three-time higher risk for suffering from some sort of disordered eating. This could be partially attributed to a high degree of perfectionism and discipline which is also high among professional dancers. Those personality traits are often associated with a high risk for eating disorders. Nevertheless, the environment young dancers find themselves in surely enforces unhealthy eating behaviors.

The same is true for fashion models, who suffer from a disordered relationship with food for multiple reasons. Unfortunately there is not a lot of research being done on fashion models and eating disorders, however some smaller studies are consistently finding a link between the profession and the risk for EDs. Models do have a lower BMI than the general population and it is often well below the “normal” range. This might not be attributable to just genetics.

The reason behind this is simple: models are often pressured to restrict their eating as a means to control their weight. Food is given a moral value and dieting is glorified within the fashion industry. Many models report being pressured into diets by their agents from an early age. Modeling is a career that starts early. Some models are scouted as young as 13 years old and the average model starts their career at 15 or 16. At this age, women are very susceptible to the influence of others and have a desire to be liked. If an unhealthy relationship with food starts developing this early, it might be hard to change it later in life. 

When a young female’s body becomes a work tool it is hard to resist the pressure to slim down. Often, agents are recommending diets that are not age-appropriate and restrict nutrients needed for proper development. Internalizing the belief that they will only be successful if they are extremely slim, young women can develop very unhealthy behaviors. While the fashion industry often claims that there is a change, there still is a large emphasis on how models look. This fuels the obsession with the body and how it looks. An unhealthy occupation with the body in general will lead to unhealthy behaviors. 

Between 1959 and 1999 there was a dramatic increase in full body images of women in the media. In the same time, the size of the models decreased. This shows how much we as a society have changed in the expectations we have towards young females. While it certainly is triggering to look at photos of slim women, the slim women themselves suffer from the pressure they are under. And many are still being photoshopped in the final picture despite trying hard to fit into the industry’s idea of perfect. This puts them into a vicious cycle that almost seems to have no end.

Being among the professions that emphasize a certain body type can be challenging for young people, who feel the pressure to be successful and liked. Using food to control one’s life is the only way some people know how to deal with stressful situations. This is why I teach intuitive eating, which helps clients stop restricting and discover what their body truly needs. If you are struggling with body image issues and disordered eating, check out the other resources on this site or click here to apply for 1-on-1 coaching!

Researched and written by Paula Szwedowski specifically for www.LaurenCadillac.com/CadillacKitchen

Are Emotional Eating & Healthy Diets Mutually Exclusive?

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In our culture, reaching for your comfort food when you’re stressed ⁠— and then complaining that you've eaten too much afterward ⁠— is not uncommon. In fact, APA’s Stress In America Survey determines that at least a third of Americans are taking out their feelings on “overeating” or binge eating. Moreover, experts have zeroed in on less nutritionally dense food and alcohol as the common comfort cravings of most Americans, raising the question: Can emotional eating and a healthy lifestyle coincide?

There's something to be said about our dichotomy of good food versus bad food — a mentality that can be harmful and, ironically, drive us towards unsupportive behaviors.

Does emotional eating actually work?

Let’s face it, burying yourself in food when you’re stressed can be truly consoling even on the worst of days. But, how does it work? Professors from the University of California have found the relationship of comfort food with stress — in rodents, no less. The researchers found that when you provide rodents with comfort food and you make them go through stressful situations, the comfort food can affect how their brains respond to stress and eventually reduces their stress hormones. They’ve cross-tested their rodent findings on human respondents and discovered that it works the same way. Furthermore, participants who’ve had long-term exposure to stress and subsequently responded by consuming more calories can actually slow down their production of cortisol ⁠— also known as the primary stress hormone.

To add, University of Cincinnati researchers have observed that food products with high sugar content can halt the body’s production of glucocorticoid, another stress hormone. Glucocorticoids have a direct relationship with obesity and immunodeficiency, so there's a slight health benefit to indulging yourself with some sweet snacks. But just a reminder, over consuming sugar-rich foods can still increase your risk for heart disease and diabetes, so it's important to think about your point of diminishing returns when eating.

By now, the supporting studies have proven that emotional eating actually does its job and takes out the stress in our daily lives. However, how can you actually maintain healthy eating habits while not giving up stress eating?

Adopting healthier eating habits

First of all, it will do you well to change your perspective on consuming food. Instead of strictly categorizing food between what's healthy and what isn't, imagine all food as items that have energy, nutrients, and compounds that can sustain you. Feel free to consume whatever food you desire, as long as it makes you feel good and it meets your body's needs. This way, you don't deprive yourself the pleasure that comes from eating.

Secondly, you can also alleviate your anxiety and stress by making a few adjustments to what you eat. My post “Easing Anxiety With Nutrition” details how you can improve your mood by making mindful changes to your diet, such as drinking more water, eating antioxidant-rich foods, and consuming probiotics for gut health.

Lastly, and more importantly, you have to find other ways to truly accommodate your emotional needs. Once you identify that you're feeling stressed or emotional, maybe you can release it by sweating it out in a yoga sesh or investing time into hobbies like tending to ornamental plants. But if you find yourself being so overwhelmed with stress that you can’t seem to get on your yoga mat or in your garden, then it’s best to start by trying out some tried-and-tested breathing techniques that can help lessen anxiety first. Pain Free Working highlights how these can release tension and improve your mood, helping you realign and find your center. One example of a breathing technique is the 4-7-8 method, which involves standing straight, inhaling through your nose for 4 seconds, holding it for 7 seconds, and then forcefully exhaling it for 8 seconds.

To sum it up, it’s totally possible to marry emotional eating and healthy food habits. But, in order to do this, you must first learn to recognize the situations that trigger your emotional eating. This way, you can think of different ways to relieve your emotional stress before your cravings hit. For example, if you find yourself craving a bag of sweets when you're not hungry, think about the emotions behind the craving. Perhaps you're overwhelmed with work, and the better first step would be to delegate tasks better or even take a break to organize your thoughts. The more mindful we are of our body and eating habits, the better we can honor ourselves and meet our needs in healthy ways. 

Written by Hazel Riggs

Exclusively submitted to laurencadillac.com

What To Expect When You Start Intuitive Eating

Starting an Intuitive Eating practice can be an exciting thing, but it can also feel REALLY REALLY SCARY! The fear of the unknown might even hold you back from getting started. I want to calm those fears and manage your expectations. If you are starting an Intuitive Eating journey without the support of a professional, some of the following may occur and leave you wondering, “Oh no I am doing this wrong?!” I’ve compiled this list so that you can know what to expect as you go through this process. This list was compiled based off of both personal experience and feedback from clients. You may experience some or all of the following:

1) You will probably still hope it will result in weight loss

Intuitive Eating (IE) is a weight neutral model - meaning weight is not the focus. Your weight could go up, down or stay the same, and it’s all morally neutral. Even if you know this, there is likely a part of you that secretly hopes it results in weight loss. That’s totally normal - I initially hoped it would too! You're probably starting IE because you’ve dieted for a while, which means you’ve likely been trying to lose weight for a long time. Our culture teaches us that losing weight is good and gaining weight is bad. So it’s normal to hope that this will help you achieve that. Don’t feel guilty if you have that desire.

Photo by Jennie Brown on Unsplash

2) You’ll fear you’ll never stop eating and will continue to gain weight forever

Everyone has the following fear: “If I listen to my body/give myself permission to eat, I’ll just eat cupcakes all day long and never stop”. Valid, considering something similar may have happened in the past. But with this process we are losing food rules (and therefore guilt), as well as changing the way we take care of ourselves. This process is about tuning in to the body and figuring out what feels good. You have to go through a “honeymoon phase” (as you’ll see next) and although initially there may be an uptick in your food consumption, as you start to get back in touch with your hunger/fullness cues, and figure out how food feels in your body, this tends to balance out.

3) You’ll probably go through a “honeymoon phase”

The third principle of IE is making peace with food. In this principle we get rid of the good food/bad food labels and work to put all foods on the same playing field. It’s likely you’ve had a bunch of off-limit foods for a while. Now, you are being told you have unconditional permission to eat whatever you want. With this new found freedom, you’ll probably go through a phase where you are eating a lot of the foods you used to restrict. You might also eat a larger quantity than you are used to. This is totally NORMAL. You have to go through this experimentation phase. First of all, it helps to build trust in your body. Your body will no longer fear a famine is around the corner which helps to diminish the mental preoccupation with food. Secondly, it allows you to go through a process known as “habituation” which is basically exposure therapy. The more we allow ourselves to have certain foods, the less of a big deal they are. Lastly, you’ll learn how different foods feel in your body and start to make your food choices with that in mind.

4) You will feel like you’ve got numerous voices in your head

As you start to reject the diet mentality and challenge the food police, you are going to feel like you have two different voices in your head. The new IE voice will say something like “It’s okay to eat this” and then that food police voice will pop up and be like “No it’s not - it’s so high in __” . You will feel like you are arguing with yourself in your head. Prior to starting IE, most people only have a food police voice, which is strong from years of dieting. Then suddenly we awaken the IE voice and it’s super weak because it’s never been used. You’ll start to feel like you have two voices in your head for a while, but the more you practice strengthening your IE voice, and challenging the food police voice, over time the latter will weaken and fade away (for the most part).

5) You feel like you’re on a kiddie rollercoaster

As you start to learn and implement the principles of IE, you are going to go through different phases. Some days you’ll feel like you’re crushing it, other days you’ll feel like you’re doing it wrong. Remember though, there is no doing it wrong! Every single eating experience is an opportunity to learn something about yourself. I say it’ll be like a kiddie rollercoaster because, hopefully, you won’t experience the intense HIGHS and LOWS that comes with dieting, restricting and living by the scale.

Photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash

6) You might feel hyper-focused on food and your body

For so long, you relied on rules of your diet to tell you when, what and how much to eat. It’s going to take some time to hear and respond to the cues of your body. You might feel like you are always questioning “How do I feel?” “Am I actually hungry?” “What the heck does comfortable fullness feel like?” Eventually you’ll do most of this pretty effortlessly, but in the beginning, you’ll have to give it a lot of conscious attention and thought.

7) You will have a bunch of “Aha!” moments

As you explore your beliefs around food and your body, you’ll likely have a few have “Aha!” moments. Maybe you realize that you always finish all of your food because growing up you were forced to finish your everything on your plate, regardless of your fullness. Or perhaps you realize a loved ones’ criticisms have had a bigger impact on your behaviors than you previously realized. Further along in the process you’ll also have “Aha!” moments where you realize “Wow I’m not thinking about food as often” or “I finally know what comfortable fullness feels like”.

8) You will want to expedite the process

You will feel like you’ve made progress but you’ll likely want to be further along than you are. If you follow IE accounts on social media, you might have moments where you think “Why am I not like that yet?”. Many of us have dieted for YEARS and regardless of if you’ve dieted or not, we live in a society where disordered eating is quite normalized, so it’s GOING TO TAKE SOME TIME. Be patient with the process and trust that it will all fall into place.

Photo by i yunmai on Unsplash

9) You’ll have the urge to check the scale

It’s so important to put weight loss on the back burner during this process. You will probably step away from your scale for a few weeks or so. Then you’ll start feeling really good and suddenly you’ll just want to “check” on the scale…..you know…….just to see if it’s moved at all. A few things can happen. Obviously the number will go up, down or stay the same. Depending on which happens, you may be excited, or bummed, which may lead to celebratory eating or further restriction. This keeps you externally regulated (basing how you eat off of external cues). Either way, you are giving your power to a piece of plastic and metal. That scale does not determine your worth or decide how much you're allowed to eat.

10) You’ll struggle to explain what it is to people

People might ask what you’re doing and you’ll realize you don’t have the language to articulate exactly what it is. “You know it’s like listening to your body……or something…….” Intuitive Eating is a complete paradigm shift in how we think and most people just don’t “get it.” So until you have the personal experience to combat skepticism, it’s best to just say something like “It’s a framework for eating that teaches you to heal your relationship with food and build trust in your body. I’ll let you know how it goes”. If they want to know more about it, feel free to send them here.

11) You’ll have moments where diet culture tempts you

Diet culture is super pervasive and there will be moments when it pulls you back in. Perhaps you see a weight loss transformation photo on Instagram. Or maybe a family member tells you how much weight they’ve lost with ____ . Diet culture will tempt you, especially as you are just starting the strengthen your amor. Reflecting back on all of the ways diet culture has impacted your life and how the weight loss was never long term, can keep you focused. If and when diet culture tempts you, it’s ok!! Acknowledge what is happening and get back to your IE practice.

12) You’ll realize a large majority of the population has an unhealthy relationship with food

As you start to heal your relationship with food, you’ll come to realize that almost everyone around you kindaaaaaa has an unhealthy one. You’ll start to see how it is most “lifestyle changes” are just another fancy way to diet.

Photo by Lesly Juarez on Unsplash

13) You’ll realize it’s about addressing self-care, boundaries, and bringing more presence to your life

Intuitive Eating gets to the core of what is going on. Unlike a diet that just tells you what to eat, IE dives into WHY you eat. You will learn how to set boundaries, address your self-care and bring more mindfulness into your life. You’ll realize that it usually isn’t about the food and that whenever we feel like there is something we need to “fix” with our eating, that it’s usually an indication of something else going unaddressed.

14) You’ll wonder where intuitive eating has been your whole life!

As you start to see how life-changing IE is, you’ll wonder why no one ever told you about it! You may feel mad or frustrated that you spent so much time, effort and energy on diet culture, but you’ll be relieved to know you will never have to diet or worry about food ever again. You’ll realize you finally found something that you can sustain for the rest of your diet-free life!

I hope this helps to clear up any confusion or worries around Intuitive Eating. If you only take one thing away from this long post, it is that YOU CANNOT DO INTUITIVE EATING WRONG. It is ALL AN OPPORTUNITY FOR LEARNING AND GROWTH! Be curious and compassionate with yourself.

If you are ready to start your own Intuitive Eating practice and would like additional professional support, you can click here to apply for 1-on-1 coaching. Not sure if you’re ready to dive in just yet? Want to get your toes wet first? Check out The Feel Good Mentality Workbook. For $16, this introductory workbook will help ease you in to the Intuitive Eating process by shifting the way you think about food and your body.

Negative Body Talk

Whether it’s in that dressing room with the horrible lighting, or when we catch a glimpse of our reflection in a store window, we’ve all had that little voice pop up and criticize some or all of our body shape or size. Even when we are working hard towards self-acceptance and appreciation, it’s normal for those negative thoughts about our body to pop up.

Think about how many messages you receive every single day from the media:

Tighten this

Tone that

Lift your breasts

Whittle your waist

Diminish your wrinkles

Grow your booty!!!!!!

How many times a day do you hear (or read) something like that? 5? 10? 20? 50? Now multiply that by 365 and then again by your age. That’s a big number huh??

If you have a lot of negative body image thoughts, know that this is not your fault and it is the fault of diet culture. We’ve been taught our ENTIRE LIVES that our bodies are flawed. We’ve been convinced by an industry that profits from these insecurities, selling us the solution to our made up problems. We don’t come out of the womb hating our thighs. We learn these messages. But the cool thing is, we can start to unlearn them and learn new more helpful ones.

So again, if those negative body thoughts pop up, it is NORMAL! But we want to do something about it right? Because hating our body definitely does not feel good. There are a few ways we can address negative body thoughts.

Photo by Luca Upper on Unsplash

Let Them Go

Often times we believe we are our thoughts. When we can start to observe our thoughts for what they are, it is easier to let them pass. It can be helpful to observe your thoughts as if they exist outside of your body. You can visualize them as separate from you by imaging your thoughts:

• drifting by overhead like clouds

• attached to a balloon and floating away

• floating by like a leaf in a stream

Observe Without Judgement

It can also be helpful to label different thoughts into categories. It is important to do this without judgement. You could label a thought saying:

• That's the future

• That's a judgment

• That's false

• That's the past

When we identify a thought in this way, we are able to let the thought exist without acting on it. It allows the thought to pass which will be replaced by a new thought. If the same thought pops back up, simply observe it again and let it pass. 

Photo by Lesly Juarez on Unsplash

Mindfulness

Another way to deal with thoughts is to bring your attention to the here-and-now. Rather than focusing on the thought, and potentially creating a storyline around it, try to ground yourself and stay present in the moment.  You can do this by bringing your attention to your different senses. See if you can notice:

• the sound of a ceiling fan

• the sight of a car passing by

• the scent of the room

This practice allows you to use your senses to bring you "out of your thoughts" and back into your body. 

Reframe Your Thoughts

We can use negative emotion as feedback. It’s almost our bodies “check engine light” to signal to us that something is going on under the hood (in your head). When we experience negative emotion there is usually a thought or belief that precedes it. What thought triggered that negative emotion? Ex. You may find yourself feeling ashamed or worthless. Perhaps you had just thought “I’ve gained so much weight. I’m such a failure”

Try reframing this thought to something that “feels” a bit better. “Dieting doesn’t work in the long run and is a set up for weight gain. I didn’t fail, the diet did. My body was trying to protect me. How can I honor it right now?”

Does that thought “feel better” than the first?

Practice Gratitude

Practicing gratitude and optimism is associated with decreased depression and anxiety in some populations and has been shown in studies to improve body image. In fact, one study looked at how a gratitude practice would “buffer the adverse effects of exposure to thin-ideal media” in 67 undergraduate females. “The conditions were specifically designed to isolate (a) the effects of viewing thin models on body dissatisfaction and (b) the moderating effect of grateful contemplation. Results showed that body dissatisfaction scores were lower for women who engaged in a brief period of grateful contemplation before viewing photographs of thin models than for women who reflected upon life hassles before viewing the same photographs. The magnitude of this decrease depended on BMI. Gratitude offers an innovative direction for future research directed toward helping women to accept their bodies.”

How can you show your body appreciation and gratitude? Ex. "I am grateful for my legs that help me get from place to place". "This amazing body carries me through life". "I'm thankful for the ability to see" etc.

Can you think of 3-4 things to be grateful for? Write them down! Create a gratitude journal! Spend some time daily reflecting on all the things you are grateful for about your body. Don’t limit your gratitude list to things just about your body though. Come up with other things in your life you are grateful for. Access to food? A roof over your head? Great friends? WRITE IT DOWN!

I hope this post gives you some actionable step to take the next time those pesky thoughts pop up. The more you practice reframing your thoughts, breaking down old beliefs and expressing gratitude, the easier it will be to let those negative thoughts go. For more support with your body image and your relationship with food, check out my 1-on-1 and self-guided programs.

Exploring Emotional Eating

Let’s be honest. Food IS emotional. We celebrate with food. We express love with food. Food is weaved into the fabric of our culture. Food is a wonderful part of the human experience.

There is so much guilt and shame around eating in general in our society. Then add in emotional eating?!?! Boy does that get a bad rap! What we need to remember though is that every single one of us is doing the best we can with the tools we’ve been given. For many people, food is the one thing that has been there for them during challenging times. It can be a friend, it can be a distraction, it can soothe painful emotions. For some, it very well could have saved their lives. When we can start to see how our emotional eating has served us in the past, we are able to make peace with it.

While there are pros to emotional eating, there are cons as well. Physical discomfort, isolation, or even numbing of POSITIVE emotions. You have to ask yourself. Do the pros outweigh the con?? I’m assuming since you are reading this post, they do not. So how can we address this?

In moments you find yourself eating in the absence of hunger (again, this is FINE, there are times we want to eat for taste hunger - ex. you’re at a super fancy restaurant you’ll probably never visit again and they bring over an incredible chocolate lava cake, it’s perfectly okay to try the cake for the sake of taste hunger) ask yourself the following question:

How Am I Feeling?

Check in with your body. Are you physically hungry? No? What are you feeling? Use this wheel to help you identify the emotion. If you can’t pinpoint exactly how you feel, sometimes the word “uncomfortable” is helpful. Once you’ve identified the emotion, ask yourself:

What Do I Need?

If you are not hungry it is likely you are trying to meet a need using food. How can you meet your TRUE need? Do you need support, self-care, a helpful distraction or perhaps to deal with your feeling directly?

• Support : call a friend or family member; chat with a therapist etc.

• Self-care: take a nap, go for a walk, journal, set boundaries

• Helpful distraction: change your environment, play with your pet, listen to some music

• Deal with your feeling directly: chat with therapist, journal, reframe your thoughts

Perhaps you are sleepy or unfocused. What do you REALLY need to meet that need? A nap? A 5-minute time out? A breathing exercise? Or let’s say you feel disrespected or betrayed. Maybe you need to set some boundaries, or have a conversation with the person you feel disrespected/betrayed by.

The more awareness we can bring to our emotions and feelings, the better we become at meeting our true needs.

For more help with emotional eating and ways to cope with your emotions with kindness, apply for 1-on-1 coaching.