10 Principles of Intuitive Eating Series, Principle 9- Movement - Feel the Difference
The vicious cycle of dieting usually includes exercise. Dieting often can come with overexercising and pushing ourselves to break at least an hour either running or doing cardio, hoping we see a considerable number on the treadmill counter. But this is not the original purpose of exercise; this is what diet culture has morphed exercise into being. In this post, we will discuss how to reintegrate movement into our lives without any connection to weight loss.
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.
10 Principles of Intuitive Eating Series, Principle 5: Discover the Satisfaction Factor
What does “Discover the Satisfaction Factor” mean to you? For me, the satisfaction factor is when I take my first bite of a dinner I just finished prepping for the week, and I can taste the different sauces I marinated my protein of choice in. Savoring the spices put in gives me a feeling of satisfaction in my meal. Figuring out what the satisfaction factor is for you can be a process depending on what your relationship with food used to be and is in your current status in the intuitive eating journey.
10 Principles of Intuitive Eating Series, Principle 2: Honor Your Hunger
In this post, we will learn more about how to honor your hunger. Honoring our hunger can be considered a way to rebuild trust between us, our bodies, and the hunger signals we have lost touch with. It can also be a way to start rebuilding your trust in food.
10 Principles of Intuitive Eating Series, Principle 1: Rejecting Diet Mentality
Rejecting the diet mentality means to stop thinking about losing weight and dieting. This is a big step in your journey of intuitive eating, especially if you have been dieting for a long period of time. It is not expected of you to stop your dieting habits cold turkey, it is something that you have to ween off. Especially when it comes to counting calories, points, microproteins. Diet mentality most harshly affects those who do not fit with the stereotype that the media presents for us to look like.