Hello lovely people! Happy Saturday! I hope all is well with you. Today marks the end of the let's talk diet culture series. However, this won't be the last time we'll be talking about it, so don't you worry! We have reviewed a couple of diets and one thing remains true for them all. They are not a long term solution for intentional weight loss, or health for that matter. In fact, the pursuit of intentional weight loss is futile because people regain the weight and often times more than they had to begin with. Dieting is not healthy, no matter what the media says. It results in weight cycling which basically goes like this:
You go on a diet, lose some weight-"fall off the wagon"-regain weight- you go back on the diet. This is called yo-yo dieting and leads to the weight cycling which turns out to be a detriment to our health. Weight cycling can result in things like insulin resistance.
Of course there are times when restricting a certain food is necessary. For people who are lactose intolerant, eliminating dairy is a good idea, or they can take lactaid pills with any dairy products they consume. People with Celiac disease should avoid gluten containing foods. People who are hypertensive or diabetic should abide by the diet prescribed by their healthcare provider. These are some of the instances where living by a certain diet is necessary or acceptable. However, for people who are not experiencing an illness of any kind, a regular balanced diet will suffice.
Unfortunately for us, we've grown up in a culture that glorifies disordered eating behaviors. So they tell us to eat less, eat smaller portions, exercise to compensate for what we ate, lose weight and you'll be healthy, go on a cleanse, don't eat certain foods, watch what you eat etc.
Diet culture has caused us to stop trusting our bodies and so we end up questioning our hunger and our satiety. We start to restrict and think we don't have self control when the body starts to send natural signals of hunger. This obsession with being the perfect eater can lead to negative effects that affect both our mental and physical health. Don't get me wrong, wanting to take good care of our health is a normal impulse, however, when we begin to get obsessed over every single calorie we eat or burn it becomes destructive, counterproductive even. Eating disorders are a real thing and even if someone does not identify as someone with a diagnosed eating disorder, disordered ways of thinking about food or the body is still unhealthy.
So, as we close the Let's talk diet culture series, I propose a solution.
Nobody knows more about your body than you. We were all born with intrinsic ability to know when we are hungry, what will satisfy us etc. Learning to listen to our bodies is an important step in tending to our health.
Intuitive eating, is a mind and body, health approach that was created by two registered Dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. This method encourages us to pay attention to our physical cues of hunger and satiety and also encourages genuine self compassion in how we nourish ourselves. There are ten principles in this method.
1. Reject the diet mentality: this principle encourages us to throw out everything we know about dieting. Everything along with the false hope of the health we will gain from dieting and of permanent weight loss. Reject the idea that health resides in your body size. It doesn't.
2. Honor your hunger: Eat when you're hungry. Take note of the physical signs of your hunger and keep your body fed. Don't ignore your hunger by trying to use other things to mask it. What happens when we do this is we become extremely hungry and that leads to overeating, there is no conscious eating at this point. Ignoring your hunger also stifles your ability to notice your body's natural cue of hunger. So, honor your hunger and in doing so you begin to rebuild trust in your bodies.
3. Make peace with food: Remove the food rules and allow yourself the permission to eat. Stop labeling foods good or bad. When we assign for ourselves a list of forbidden foods, it triggers feelings of deprivation which leads to uncontrolled fixations with that food and later, bingeing. Then as we know, this lead to intense feelings of guilt and shame. If we take away the labeling of food as good or bad and give ourself the permission to eat, we become less consumed with food that we "can't" eat and now are free to choose outside of fear.
4. Challenge the food police: that voice in your head that tries to make you feel guilty about what you are eating or how much you are eating, Shut it down. It will definitely take some time, but saying no to the rules and accusations from the "food police" is a crucial step to eating intuitively.
5. Discover the satisfaction factor: We tend to ignore pleasure and satisfaction in our attempts to follow diet culture's rules. However, those are very important factors. When we eat what we really want, in an inviting environment, the pleasure from this experience will be very instrumental in helping us notice when we are content and satisfied.
6. Feel your fullness: In order to feel your fullness, you have to trust that you will provide the amount of food your body requires as well as the food you desire. Take the time to listen to your body so that you can understand the cues it gives when you are full. Try pausing in the middle of eating and observe how you feel. Satisfied? Still hungry?
7. Cope with your emotions with kindness: Food restriction triggers loss of control around food. This can feel like emotional eating. This principle encourages us to find other ways of coping with our emotions. Food will not solve our problems long term. It might bring temporary pleasure but the problem will still be there. We can go for walks, journal, talk to a therapist, pray, cry, go dancing etc.
8. Respect your body: stop saying bad things about your body, even if its a joke. Our bodies do so much for us. Accept it, love it, respect it. It is hard to reject diet culture and properly take care of our bodies if we are still scrutinizing it.
9. Movement- feel the difference: Focus on how your body feels (energized) when you are active and not how many calories you burn. It doesn't even have to be strenuous exercise, just get active, do something fun and feel the difference in your body. Engaging in movement that make you feel good and that you enjoy is very important.
10. Honor your health- gentle nutrition: There is no such thing as a perfect eater. You don't have to eat "perfectly" (whatever that means) to be healthy. Make food choices that are tasty and nourishing to your body and make you feel good. Health is not all or nothing, one snack or meal won't make you unhealthy/healthy. It is what is consumed consistently that truly matters.
To conclude, intuitive eating is not a weight loss plan. You cannot fail at eating intuitively. There will be a lot of trial and error because we are learning to reconnect with our bodies by rejecting diet culture. It will be okay. Remember you are the expert of your own body, NOT society, NOT diet culture.
I hope you found some insight and a new perspective in today's blogpost. As usual, I welcome any questions you have. Please share this post with anyone you think will benefit. Please subscribe if you haven't already.
Peace, love and Good Health!
Another related blogpost: https://www.theholistichealthnut.com/post/breaking-the-chains-of-diet-culture
References:
Tribole, E. (2018, September 12). What is Intuitive Eating? Retrieved February 28, 2020, from https://www.intuitiveeating.org/what-is-intuitive-eating-tribole/
10 Principles of Intuitive Eating. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.intuitiveeating.org/10-principles-of-intuitive-eating/
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