Is intuitive eating just giving up?
“I don’t want to give up on my desire to lose weight, do I have to in order to start intuitive eating?”
This is a question I often get when women are very much OVER the dieting game, and are ready to repair their relationship with food, but they have some remaining worries.
Worries like.. if i start intuitive eating, will I have to gain weight? Will I just binge all the time? Will i only eat cake and ice cream for every meal? Do I just forgo all guidance around eating healthy and just listen to myself!?
First of all, intuitive eating is not the end all be all for repairing your relationship with food, but it is an extremely helpful method. One that I integrate within my online courses and coaching! However, you might find it has limits for you, and maybe you’re worried you have to “pick a lane” for the rest of your life.
I want to ask you a few question to sit on as you continue to read this blog and for the next few days
What about letting go of some dieting rules scares you? What is the story that you are telling yourself will happen if you let yourself eat carbs? or allow yourself dessert when you want it?
What could life look like if you were no longer stressed about what to eat or what would happen to your body? How would you feel if you had total control around food and felt yourself loving food but excited about nourishing it too?
Often times intuitive eating gets confused with the “i see it, i want it, i have it” diet which is absolutely is not. It is, however, a way of eating that is to recover a healthy relationship with food and to prioritize your health and wellbeing along the way. Think of this as the Goldie Locks and the 3 bears.. mothers porriage was juuuust right.
Diet culture is to restrictive… eating what ever you want feels chaotic.. but what if there was that happy medium of honoring your taste and experience, and prioritizing your health, too.
Thats the magic of it all.
Every person intuitive eating journey is different. Some will grasp quickly and others will dabble over time. Some will feel stuck learning the same lesson over and over, while other lessons seam easy. However, you aren’t sold that.
The reality is, intuitive eating is like any journey or change, you will experience challenges. In stead of thinking them as roadblocks, think of them as opportunities that lead to that stronger you on the otherside.
That way, when a binge happens, or you fall back into dieting habits, and you feel like a failure.. know that you’re exactly in the part of the process you need to be to overcome your struggles.
For instance, some of my clients will say they learn amazing lessons within the first week, and they feel so much better by changes they make to fueling their body. They have a buy into the process because they feel SO much better.
But… then they feel insecure about their body and they are tempted to skip a meal or they feel like a failure and binge.
I am here to remind you that this process does require jumping into the deep end of those struggles and weathering the storm. Learning from them, and watching yourself get back up as a stronger version.
God does desire you to be free from those struggles, but waving His wand of healing wont produce lasting change for you. It might, temporarily, but long term? What have you learned? What have you unlearned?
God is there in the tick of it, and He knows you can face this trial. He is not serving up something you can’t handle. Yet, He is asking for your obedience to choosing a more God filled life.
That might look like intuitive eating so you can reflect a more healthy way of treating and talking about food.
So… is intuitive eating giving up?? Absolutely not… it might be surrendering or giving into the prompting God has put on your heart to say “enough.. enough with the dieting and weight loss diets”
I don’t know that answer for you, and I can only encourage you to seek Him through your journey!
See you next time,
Nikki
