10 Principles of Intuitive Eating Series, Principle 8: Respect Your Body
Respecting our bodies, especially when they do not fit into what society would deem acceptable, can be hard. This can start by accepting what our genetic blueprints look like. Our genetic blueprints include height, eye color, foot size, and weight. Think of it like this; if your shoe size is a 7, you will not try to fit your foot into a size 5, right? How would that feel? Tight, uncomfortable, your toes would feel pinched and rubbing against the walls of the shoe. If you would not do that to your foot, why are we taught to do that same thing to our bodies? While saying all of this, it is good to note that we will be unlearning body comparison and seeing our bodies negatively.
10 Principles of Intuitive Eating Series, Principle 7: Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness
Every time food is introduced through a cultural or life event, the emotional bond with food strengthens. This can be through the presence of wedding cake at the reception, cupcakes at a child’s birthday party, turkey for Thanksgiving, and my fondest memory was my Poppop’s baklava at Christmas. When food is introduced to help us cope with life or comfort us, it deepens our emotional bond with food. Food symbolizes different things in our lives; food can be our comfort when we feel a sense of homesickness or loss. Food can be celebratory. Lastly, food can also be our friend because we can rely on food.