How does intuitive eating improve your health?
“Can I support my health without going on another diet? Heart disease runs in my family. My cholesterol and blood sugar levels have been creeping up the past year. But I’m afraid if I focus on eating healthy for my heart, that I’ll end up feeling crazy about food again!”
I hear this scenario from clients, students, social media DMs, and grocery store conversations.
If you’re like many active women over 40 I work with, you may have an intro-understanding of Intuitive Eating and its principles. Maybe you’ve fully ditched wellness-lifestyle plans for good and are slowly learning to make peace with food and your body.
And then one of two things usually happens…
A: Embrace the anti-diet mentality. You allow yourself full permission with all foods and start to honor hunger, pleasure, and satisfaction with gusto. Then, your clothes feel tighter or someone comments on how your body has changed.
You think, “Oh shit, what have I done. I’ve completely let myself go.”
Fear wells up as you remember your family history of heart disease and diabetes. Like a deer in headlights, you’re ready to dive headfirst back into the first wellness-lifestyle plan that grabs you from the magazine rack at the supermarket check-stand.
Or, B: A slightly more advanced Intuitive Eating situation. You’ve sworn off the diet roller coaster for good. You consistently make food choices based on satisfaction and allow full permission with all foods. You find it satisfying to honor subtle hunger and fullness cues.
You accept your body with compassion and respect
At your annual physical, you feel strongly about your anti-diet, weight-inclusive motivations and boldly deny being weighed, because you know weight is only correlated with health, not the cause of disease.
The doctor continues with the exam, draws blood, and reports your results back in a few days – with concern. Your cholesterol and blood sugar have increased since you were in last year. With your family history of heart disease, the doctor suggests it’s time to try the latest diet-lifestyle program flooding Instagram.
You think, “What the f*ck! I’ve been working so hard work to make peace with food and my body, and now my health appears to be in jeopardy!”
You’re concerned and frustrated. You don’t want to lose the mental and emotional strength you gained by committing to your Intuitive Eating practice. You don’t want to go back to the food rules and body shame you experienced in the years of trying to be “good and healthy.” You want to live with food freedom and achieve your health goals.
Are you in scenario A or B?
Either of these situations is a true test of where the rub meets the road with Intuitive Eating. They’re both prime examples of times when another diet-wellness-lifestyle plan to “get back on track,” would make your life easier.
If you want to practice Intuitive Eating and achieve your health goals, here’s how
The important first step is to notice when fuckit eating kicks in and ask yourself why. Could it be because you’re trying to “get back on track?”
Give yourself compassionate reassurance about your concern for your health. Acknowledging the desire to get back on track comes from a diet mentality. Remember, our entire culture equates thinness with health and health with moral virtue.
The second scenario above recently came up for one of my clients. The dilemma was this, how do you eat for heart health without dieting? Or as the client beautifully asked,
“How can I think of heart-healthy eating in a way that’s not diet-y?”
Here’s my response
Motivation is tricky when you notice your body change as a result of Intuitive Eating or you get sobering lab results. Diet culture warns you that both situations must be corrected immediately. This triggers fear and doubt for all the hard work you’ve put into recovering from years of dieting and body shame.
My clients often express a desire for weight loss and “to get back on track.” Especially when asking, “is heart-healthy eating” possible without dieting?
The short answer is yes. Motivation is important.
Can the principles of Intuitive Eating support your goal of heart health?
In conversations with clients, we often talk about how these principles are intertwined. For example, it’s satisfying to care for and respect your body by supporting its metabolic health (i.e. cholesterol, and blood sugar levels) with Gentle Nutrition and movement when possible, without rigidity.
However, this thinking can get hijacked by the diet mentality if there is an underlying desire for weight loss. This is why it’s important to separate weight from health outcomes.
For example, if you include more movement on most days by walking in your neighborhood, notice how your body feels during and after the walk. If walking feels good to you (regardless of weight changes), you’re more likely to keep doing it, which will support your heart health.
The focus isn’t on heart health itself, or the motivation to reduce the lab value numbers associated with it (cholesterol, blood sugar). The focus is on how you feel in your body. Do you see the difference?
The mindset shifts to focus on how you feel internally rather than on external numbers like lab values. You know what you “need/should” do intellectually to support your health, but it can be hard to get started with those behaviors and stick with them if you rely solely on your external motivators like lab values or weight.
When you can get in touch with physical sensations in your body as a guide, the motivation shifts to, “I want to feel better in my body.” This internal motivation will take you much farther in your Intuitive Eating practice and overall health.
If the idea of supporting your health as a form of satisfaction and body respect feels like a stretch, that’s ok. Have patience and compassionate curiosity with yourself. It’s a highly nuanced concept within Intuitive Eating.
