10 Practical Tips for Starting Your Intuitive Eating Journey
So you’ve heard of Intuitive Eating and want to start. Welcome. But not sure where to? Or even how to? Maybe Google is just information overload. I’m here to help - below are 10 tips to start your Intuitive Eating journey. They’re in no particular order and my tips change weekly so they’re not super serious. Take what serves you, leave what doesn’t. And I look forward to hearing about the journey
Figure out why you’re on this journey
Are you done with diets? Or maybe you’ve seen someone talking about how happy Intuitive Eating and food freedom has made them, and you want that. But figuring out what you’re seeking can help you prevent feeling underwhelmed. Especially as some people start their journey with the pursuit of weight loss (insert nutritionist resource article here) which Intuitive Eating isn’t for, and can’t help with.
What made you interested in Intuitive Eating?
Why do you want to start Intuitive Eating?
What does the “end” of this journey look like (it’s okay if you don’t know) - or maybe what does progress look like to you?
These can be helpful to reflect on periodically when you feel a little overwhelmed.
2. Read the Intuitive Eating Book
I can recommend a range of resources (cough cough I have an e-book - clidk the store button) but they all stem from THE original book by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. If you’re not scientifically minded skip these parts but the authors include a lot of client anecdotes as well. The book gives you an insight into why and how Intuitive Eating as a framework was created. It is comprehensive, and provides an understanding of what Intuitive Eating, and what it is not. Which is super important at a time when the diet industry are trying to use it as a marketing term to promote their not a diet diets.
The book - Intuitive Eating, 4th Edition: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach
3. Reject Diet Culture
I know you’re thinking this is a principle in itself no? What I mean by this is decide that you’re done with dieting. There’s a reason this principle is first. If you are using Intuitive Eating as a diet it will not work. You’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and whatnot.
Not sure where to start - join the ditch the diet 5 days of emails here
4. Assess your support structure
As with any change - and working on your relationship to food / movement might be a complete overhaul or a small adjustment - it can be hard. A support structure can be friends / family or professional help, a social media circle. The list goes on…
If you find yourself struggling, who can you vent to?
Do those around you support your intention to start Intuitive Eating?
5. Know that you’ll mess up, maybe plan for it
If you haven’t gathered from this article / all of mine I often talk about how hard Intuitive Eating is. Because it can be, and I’d rather you go oh this is easier than I thought than feel like you’re swimming against the current. For some it’s a case of dealing with issues they arise - and building a skillset that you feel equipped to do so. Or maybe it’s planning out scenarios you’ve experienced before, how do you deal with it.
An example is - being faced with fear foods around friends - previously you’d eat lots of the “cheat food” and then feel guilty and ashamed after. Maybe you now practice some mindfulness, give yourself unconditional permission to eat and tune in with your fullness cues. You could even ask for some to take away, knowing there’s no restriction. Or maybe you practice tuning in with your senses… the list goes on. But visualising how you’d deal with a scenario can really help you feel prepared if it happens.
6. Find your mentors
Find your people, who when they appear on your feed inspire you, make you laugh, make you cry - but most of all don’t make you feel guilty. Or less than enough. And that’s absolutely no hate on them, sometimes people make you feel less than because of a reason rooted in you, not them. As long as you’re not leaving hate comments or projecting then that’s fine. Just actively choose to not follow them, to follow others instead. Follow inspiration, rather than following to fuel your ‘motivation’
7. Don’t set a deadline
I know SMART goals are important, and I’ve got a whole podcast episode on Goal Setting (nourished practice wherever you podcast) but pressure doesn’t fuel everyone. Diets have a deadline, Intuitive Eating is a long term journey. Although you might have some small goals along the way. We’re moving away from success / failure into we’ve learnt this, this worked today or didn’t, maybe we’ll try this…
8. Find how you work best
No matter how much I can share best practice / what's worked for other clients it has to be what works for you and your life. If you want to focus on one principle first or approach Intuitive Eating a certain way you can.
9. Work out what tools YOU need
Maybe you know you need to work on tuning in to your hunger, or being present. Or your emotional resilience and dealing with your emotions with kindness. By working out what you need you can figure out where to start. There’s no point in focusing on tuning in with your hunger first if you need to work on your relationship to movement.
What are some things that you’ve seen others do in their approach to food / movement that you want to?
What drew you to Intuitive Eating originally?
What are you struggling most with right now?
And this might change often, that’s okay. Throughout the process you’ll find out more about yourself, and what you need.
Maybe a situation highlights what you need, or working on one thing leads to another…
10. Learn to say NO
A sort of general point here but applies throughout Intuitive Eating. Setting boundaries and standing firm in your power is something that will help all aspects of your relationship with food and movement. Do you struggle saying no when someone asks for help? When we’re overwhelmed and feel like we can’t say no it can affect things such as emotional eating and dealing with stress.
Are you taking on too much looking after others but not yourself?
Do you feel guilty if you say no? When standing up for yourself?
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