Intuitive eating, or listening to your body and its cues around food, is an increasingly popular nutrition framework. It attracts people interested in giving up diets and who want to finally make peace with food without neglecting their health.
Often, people’s messy relationships with food parallel their relationships with movement. They can get caught up in all-or-nothing thoughts and behaviors, follow rigid rules, and act in ways that are totally disconnected from their body’s signals. For this reason, the practice of intuitive eating often promotes intuitive movement, a more adaptive and compassionate approach to physical activity.
So why practice intuitive eating?
Intuitive Eating is a non-dietary, weight-neutral nutrition framework comprised of 10 principles. Intuitive eaters use their body’s internal cues and cues to guide their eating rather than the typical external rules and restrictions of diets. For many, intuitive eating offers a pathway to recovery from chronic dieting. It allows you to make peace with food, exercise, and your body while practicing gentle eating, following the fundamental principles of intuitive eating.
“Gentle nutrition is about giving your body the nutrients it needs without restricting or micromanaging your food intake, and while eating tasty and satisfying foods,” Christine Byrne, MPH, RDa Raleigh-based dietitian who specializes in eating disorders, previously said Good + Good.
Psychologically, some mental benefits of intuitive eating include increasing self-esteem and body appreciation, decreasing disordered eating behaviors or risk of eating disorders, and improving overall quality of life and satisfaction, explains Kathleen Castrejon, RDN, LDNnon-dietary dietitian at power supply works.
And while the mental benefits of not stressing over every morsel of food you put in your body are profound, there are also plenty of physical benefits to eating intuitively. Castrejon says: “Biomarkers such as blood sugar levels can be better managed by eating intuitively. Another physical benefit of intuitive eating is that it can increase high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and decrease triglycerides, thereby decreasing the risk of heart disease.
Intuitive eating is a framework rooted in self-compassion and kindness. Too often we are told that we need to restrict our favorite foods, punish ourselves with difficult exercise routines, or lose weight to be happy and healthy. Intuitive eating is a research-backed alternative approach that is rooted in compassionate self-care and body confidence.
The intuitive eating process is a journey. It takes time and will not be linear. It will be about recognizing your food rules and letting go of them one by one. It will be about eating foods that you label as “bad” or “unhealthy” and letting go of those black and white terms. It will be about learning how to nourish your body in a way that makes you feel good. It will be about re-establishing trust with your body. And it won’t be limited to food.
How ditching a diet leads to intuitive movement
The ninth principle of intuitive eating is “Movement – Feel the difference”. It’s about finding a movement – a gentler alternative to exercise – that feels good in your body and that you enjoy. Some call this movement intuitive. Lauren LevelNASM certified personal trainer, group fitness instructor and body positive content creatorsays, “For me, intuitive movement is about listening to your body and moving in ways that connect with it.
Part of what Leavell describes is interoceptive awareness, a central part of intuitive eating. Castrejon explains, “Interoceptive awareness is described by Resch and Tribole, the creators of intuitive eating, as a person’s ability to recognize signals or sensations from our body. This awareness can help someone’s relationship with movement, as it can serve as a guide to what feels good and help someone incorporate consistent intuitive or joyful movements instead of moving to lose weight or change his body. When we learn to connect to our body’s signals for things like hunger and fullness, we are training to connect with our body as a whole, which can also positively influence our movement practice.
When we get stuck in the dieting mentality, we get caught in a lot of mental traps around the movement. We often think of it as something rigid, intense and serious. We establish rules around movement similar to those we establish for food. These could include:
- The duration of a training session so that it “counts”
- The type of movement you need to do to make it “count”
- The time of day you should train
- Physical changes in weight or body shape that you “have to see” to be “worth it”
- The number of days you should train each week
- Refusal to complete a workout sooner
For many, what comes to mind when they think about moving their bodies for health is a tough gym session or a long run. And while some people really enjoy this type of movement, a lot of people don’t. By connecting to our bodies through intuitive eating and leaning into a gray area around food, we can do the same with movement. Leavell says, “With anything, getting started can be very difficult, especially if someone has always had a strained relationship with exercise and movement. I would recommend starting small and associating your movement with existing things you do. It might look like adding a few minutes of stretching in the morning after brushing your teeth or at night before bed.
The type and duration of movements that feel good one day may be different the next, and that’s okay. You don’t have to stick to a routine of rigid, repetitive movements for this to be beneficial to your health. In fact, if you’re more in tune with the type of move that feels good to you instead of forcing yourself into a square that wasn’t intended for you, it’s likely to be more sustainable. Leavell says, “I would recommend not getting discouraged right away if the first thing you try doesn’t work. Some people prefer more structure and others prefer more flexibility.
Embrace the guilt-free rest
If we talk about movement, then we must talk about rest. Rest is a necessary part of your movement practice. And in our society steeped in grind culture, rest can even be a form of resistance.
Our bodies need rest. Even the most elite athletes need to take rest days. You may be thinking, “But they train all day! They earn the rest. But the thing is, you don’t need to earn your rest. It’s something you deserve no matter what.
If you practice movements regularly, you will need rest days to allow your body to recover. These rest days may feel different to you at different times. Leavell says, “There will be rest days where you naturally get more movement doing things throughout the day. There may also be rest days where you truly reduce your movement to a minimum and allow your body to recover. You don’t need to earn rest, and it pays to build rest days into your life.
Pay attention to whether guilt creeps into your days off. Especially if you are healing from a disordered relationship with movement, guilt and anxiety can arise when you start prioritizing rest. Remember that rest is essential. You can even pick up a new hobby like reading, knitting, or writing! Ultimately, it is essential to find a balance between movement and rest.
Final Thoughts
By embracing intuitive eating, you will not only heal your relationship with food, but also your relationship with movement. There are so many parallels in these two relationships. Adopting more flexibility in one can serve as a basis for doing the same in the other. Treating yourself and your body with kindness and compassion is the basis of the intuitive food framework. Finding joyful and intuitive movements can help you feel better about your body without the strict rules typical of diet-related fitness routines and can even make it more sustainable.