Intuitive EAting

Intuitive Eating is NOT a weight loss program, but rather, a 10-step pathway out of suffering from diet culture's harm. It is based on reliance on internal hunger and satiety cues, eating for physical rather than emotional reasons, and unconditional permission to eat whatever food is desired when hungry. 

The ten principles described below form the foundation of Intuitive Eating and guide individuals toward a healthier relationship with food, eating, and their bodies. It's important to note that Intuitive Eating is a process and journey, and individuals may move back and forth between these principles as they navigate their own unique path to food freedom and body acceptance.

1. Reject the Diet Mentality: This principle involves letting go of the dieting mindset and its false narrative that smaller bodies are better and/or necessary for achieving health. We don't look down on those who desire a smaller body. If anything, we have great compassion, and we get it. Diet culture is pervasive and ubiquitous. It is also damaging to our mental and physical health, so we get really brave, and put weight on the back burner. 
2. Honor Your Hunger: Intuitive Eating encourages individuals to listen to their body's signals of hunger and respond appropriately by eating when hungry.
3. Make Peace with Food: This principle involves giving oneself unconditional permission to eat all foods without guilt or moral judgment. It involves removing the labeling of foods as "good" or "bad" and allowing oneself to enjoy a wide variety of foods.
4. Challenge the Food Police: Intuitive Eating encourages individuals to challenge the internalized voices and distorted thoughts that dictate food rules or judgments about eating behaviors.
5. Respect Your Fullness: Like honoring hunger, this principle involves paying attention to sensations of fullness and stopping eating when satisfied.
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor: Intuitive Eating emphasizes finding pleasure and satisfaction in eating, rather than focusing solely on the nutritional content of foods. 
7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food: This principle encourages individuals to find alternative coping mechanisms for dealing with emotions with kindness, rather than using food as a primary source of comfort or distraction.
8. Respect Your Body: Intuitive Eating involves accepting and respecting one's body as it is, regardless of its shape or size. It emphasizes self-care and gratitude for body function.
9. Exercise—Feel the Difference: This principle encourages individuals to engage in physical activity for the joy of movement and the benefits it provides to overall well-being, rather than for weight control or as penance for eating "too much".
10. Honor Your Health—Gentle Nutrition: Finally, Intuitive Eating advocates for making food choices that honor health and taste buds while making you feel good. It encourages a flexible and balanced approach to nutrition without rigid rules or restrictions (except for true food allergies/intolerances, of course!) 

Even though I've been living Intuitive Eating myself for decades, that is, after spending my teens and early twenties miserably entrenched in diet culture and weight cycling, I cannot take credit for developing this life-changing approach. 

The principles of Intuitive Eating were developed by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN, and Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, who outlined them in their original book "Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works." The ten principle system was created to allow a standardized way of integrating the concepts and practices, which are based on sound science in the areas of psychology, physiology, and nutrition. This was crucial to enable future research on using a non-diet approach to health and wellbeing. 

To date, over two hundred and twenty peer-reviewed scientific papers have been published, illustrating many benefits of Intuitive Eating, including: 

• Improved Mental Health 
• Reduced Anxiety and Depression
• Reduced Risk for Disordered Eating
• Improved Body Image and Body Satisfaction
• Lower BMI suggesting Sustainable Weight Management (not a weight loss program)
• Improved Blood Pressure
• Improved Blood Glucose
• Improved Cholesterol Levels
• Increased Physical Activity
• Increased Pleasure in Eating
• Reduction in Overeating

Thank you, Evelyn and Elyse. I will always be deeply grateful for your work, the wonderful training you've provided me, and for the honor of teaching Intuitive Eating to others. I love nothing more than getting to make the world better by helping people reclaim the time, money, and energy they once lost to diet culture. 

-Mimi Ellis, RDN

Anti Diet Nutritionist and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor

Intrigued? Ready to shed diet culture's shackles, ditch dieting and banish bingeing for good? Let's chat and see how I can help you do it. Click here to get on my calendar for a free, quick chat!