Before I go into my spill on myths about intuitive eating, I’m going to define it first.

So WHAT IS intuitive eating, and why should you do it?

The short answer is listening to your body and knowing what it needs. Low energy? You know what to eat. Hungry? You know what to eat. It’s all about intuition and knowing how to listen to it. It’s also about how you feel towards your body, working out to feel good (not to lose weight), etc. There’s so much more too it.

We’re born natural intuitive eaters. We know when we’re hungry and when to stop eating. We know HOW to listen to our bodies. But as we get older our beliefs around food change. Whether that be our mom and dad talking about how ice cream is “bad” and broccoli is “good,” the society telling us we should diet to be a certain size or look a certain way, etc. We also don’t care if our belly is sticking out. You know how kids will walk around with their cute belly sticking out? That’s part of being an intuitive eater. It’s not just about eating.

Disclaimer: There are going to be times where you aren’ hungry, and you’ve hardly eating 500 calories. Sometimes you’ll have to force feed yourself to get the nutrients you need.

Check out this blog to read more about what it really is and come back to this one!

Now that you know what it is, let’s debunk some myths.

1. You eat whatever you want all day

When you have a healthy relationship with food, you don’t feel the need to eat “fun food” (also known as junk food), all day. Research has shown that when you aren’t denying yourself of “fun food,” your desire for that food is less. This is because your brain won’t let you stop thinking about it when you keep denying yourself of your cravings.

With that being said, you eat a variety of foods: “healthy foods” and “fun foods.”

2. It’s a diet

Farrrr from the truth. It’s nowhere near a diet because you aren’t denying yourself “fun food,” you aren’t necessarily doing it to lose weight, you have (or working on) having a healthy relationship with food, etc. There’s no counting calories, macros, points, or meal plans. It’s simply eating foods within moderation while having a healthy relationship with food.

3. You’ll never learn how to do it because it’s complex

This is FALSE! When you learn something new, is it always easy? My guess is probably no? It feels overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s like second nature. Afterall, it’s in our nature. We just have to uncover those unwanted and unwarranted feelings from the media and society.

4. You don’t need food based knowledge

It’s important to having a good understanding of food. For example: you know how to read a food label, you know what macros (protein, carbs, fats) are, and you know what macros do for your body. I like to explain is as it’s apart of the ladder. The top is intuitive eating (your end goal). Each step is a step towards intuitive eating. One of those steps is understanding what macros is.

5. It’s easy

I’m not going to sugar coat it and say it’s easy. Especially when you first start out, it’s hard. But if it’s truly your end goal, then it’s worth working for and getting through the frustrating days of learning. It’s a lifetime of knowledge that you’ll need until the day you leave this earth. It’s sustainable.

I hope this was helpful to give you a little bit of understanding. This is only the surface of intuitive eating so I will be diving deep into intuitive eating in my hybrid group & 1:1 program that’s coming up! I know it’s not easy. Which is why I want to guide you to your end goal.

Keep a look out for more details about it and follow me on Instagram where I go on stories to give more information about it <3

Until next time,

Christina <3