The principles of intuitive eating are not like any diet. They claim that limiting your diet is an ineffective and unhealthy way to lose weight. Professor Steve Hawks of Brigham Young University lost more than 18 kg using the principles of intuitive eating. Since then, this approach to eating and dieting has become even more popular.
We gathered together the main principles and benefits of this system that helps stabilize your body weight just by listening to your body’s signals.
Principle 1: Reject The Diet Mentality
According to renowned nutritionists Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, authors of the book on intuitive eating, you must understand that all diets are ineffective and firmly believe that there are no diets in the world that can help you.
The main thing is to reject any external control over your eating and accept the belief that there is only one internal control: your own feeling of hunger.
Principle 2: Listen To Your Hunger
According to this principle, you should eat as soon as you feel hungry. You don’t have to wait until your hunger gets really strong, because hunger can lead to overeating.
It is important to build a friendly and healthy relationship with food and train to use it only to satisfy hunger.
Principle 3: Respect Your Fullness
It is important to listen to your body during meals and to stop when necessary. Your feeling of fullness should be comfortable and your stomach should not be too tight.
To hear this signal, try taking short breaks during your meal. You should stop eating even if there is still food on your plate.
Principle 4: Stop Controlling Your Menu
Stop blaming yourself for eating a muffin or praising yourself for sticking to your calorie limit.
Forget the dietary claims that foods can be “low-fat,” “good,” or “bad.” You must understand that food is not your enemy, but your friend: it brings energy and saturation.
Of all the criteria you used to apply when choosing your food, leave only one: you must eat exactly what you want at that particular time.
Principle 5: Become Friends With Food
Don’t be afraid of food and don’t treat it as an enemy that keeps you from getting the body you want. Allow your body to send you signals and listen for those signals, providing you with the foods you crave.
The forbidden fruit has the sweetest taste. If you constantly force yourself to reject what you want most, you can end up with an uncontrollable obsession. As a result, you may end up overeating what you are not allowed to taste.
Principle 6: Enjoy Tasty Food
It is important to enjoy delicious dishes and meals. Pay attention to how the food is presented. Learn to appreciate the aroma and taste of every food you eat.
When you eat something you like, the satisfaction you get from the food grows exponentially while, at the same time, the feeling of fullness accelerates.
What do you think of this approach? Would you try to eat intuitively? Give your opinion in the comment section below.
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I feel this is absolutely true and relatable when it comes to me. Whenever I try to follow a strict diet and control my cravings, I ultimately end up eating more in the long run and instead of losing weight I gain it even more and at the same time develop a lot of guilt in my mind which leads to emotional eating and the cycle repeats. Thanks for this post! 👍