What Is Intuitive Eating?

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Intuitive Eating is an evidenced-based approach to eating that integrates emotion, instinct and rational thought. The eating framework is based on 10 principles and was created in 1995 by two dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. Intuitive Eating is a weight-neutral model and is backed by over 125 studies to date. This approach teaches you how to honor your health by tuning back into the body and responding to the messages it gives you in order to meet your needs.

The 10 Principles

This dynamic and personal process includes the following principles:

  1. Reject the Diet Mentality

  2. Honor Your Hunger

  3. Make Peace with Food

  4. Challenge the Food Police

  5. Discover the Satisfaction Factor

  6. Feel Your Fullness

  7. Cope With Your Emotions With Kindness

  8. Respect Your Body

  9. Movement—Feel the Difference

  10. Gentle Nutrition

These principles work together to help you break down rules and old beliefs that you may have picked up from the media, a well-meaning family member, or through years of dieting. Instead it teaches you how to cultivate a more supportive inner dialogue and build trust in the body to provide the necessary feedback to meet your biological and psychological needs.

Will Intuitive Eating Improve My Health?

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 Do I Define Intuitive Eating?

Now that you know the official definition of intuitive eating, I thought I might share with you my personal definition of it. This definition is much shorter and can be summarized into one word.

FREEDOM

Intuitive Eating gave me back my freedom - the freedom dieting had stolen from me for more than half my life. The freedom to go out to dinner with friends without checking the calorie count ahead of time. The freedom to enjoy a meal without doing extensive math in my head to calculate the macronutrients. The freedom to go to the beach and travel without packing my food or fearing weight gain. The freedom to eat my favorite foods without guilt, shame, a sense of urgency or the need to burn it off the next day.

Intuitive Eating helped me overcome years of binge eating and bulimia. It not only gave me back my freedom but it gave me the life I had always hoped for. It taught me how to respect and honor my body; how to stop tearing myself down and criticizing every inch of flesh. It taught me compassion, self-care, appreciation and body-trust. It gave me back my physical and mental health and has positively impacted every single arena of my life from health, to family, relationships and career.

Are You Interested in Becoming an Intuitive Eater?

I work with clients virtually across the U.S., helping people who are frustrated with dieting and want to change their relationship with food. Learn more about my Intuitive Eating programs to see how you can give up dieting for good, eat the foods you love, and achieve authentic health.