As young girls, we likely internalized a restrictive, moral approach to food--purported by authority figures, mothers, aunts, and grandmothers. Now, surrounded by fitness influencers, stealth-Ozempic-users-that-claim-natural-weight-loss, and celebrities reconstructing their body compositions, we feel the resounding effects of diet culture more deeply than ever. Weight Watchers, Keto, intermittent fasting, water fasts, carnivore diets...we’ve heard it all. We’re versed in which foods are “good,” like salads and vegetables, and we surely know which foods are “bad,” like chocolate and donuts. Instead of assigning morality to certain foods, though, what if we eat what we want in moderation AKA balanced? Sounds like a completely radical or alient concept, we know. I want to discuss the process of unlearning diet culture and rather embracing intuitive eating. 

CW: Food intake, fasting, unlearning problematic diet culture, eating compulsions

What is intuitive eating anyway?

Luckily, intuitive eating is pretty self-explanatory: eat what you’re craving. Eat when you’re hungry; stop eating when you’re sated. If you’re hankering for chocolate, eat chocolate. If you’re only hungry for lunchtime, only eat then. It sounds pretty simple, right? Right. The issue is cultural and societal expectations--that we’ve internalized and likely partaken in--that we need to actively unlearn. To embrace intuitive eating, you first want to identify and make explicit your relationship with food.
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Start by asking yourself a series of questions that interrogate your deep-seated expectations, biases, and beliefs.

For example:
Do you deem certain foods as good and others are bad? If so, what makes a food good or bad?
Where do you think you might have learned this from (and why is that important)?
Do you view food as fuel or a mere necessity to survive?
Do you eat foods that taste good to you or will you bear something which your taste buds aren't a fan of because "it's healthy"?
Does it exist as an oppositional force for you?
Does eating make you excited? Anxious? 

Importantly, these questions aren’t exhaustive: your relationship with eating, and diet culture more generally, is context-dependent and experiential. Intuitive eating requires that initial “thought audit,” just to orient you to your behaviors and beliefs.

How do you really embrace intuitive eating?

To start, it’s an un-learning process: un-learning your negative associations with certain foods, un-learning restrictive eating habits, un-learning ignoring your body’s natural cues. After conducting your thought audit, you want the process to manifest in your body: really sit in your abdomen, your chest, your head. What does it really feel like when you’re hungry versus when you’re satisfied? Do you realize that you actively repress hunger signals? Alternatively, if you’re wanting a certain food, but you ignore that “craving,” how can you overcome that (again, everything leads back to that initial audit)? Although it seems natural that we pay attention to and indulge our hunger, desires, and cravings, we usually don’t. This could be for a variety of reasons, with problematic diet culture being front and center.

Sarah's entire career path is focused on helping people connect with their unbridled, free-of-guilt body cues. If you are struggling with it, don't be discouraged: you've been told, either implicitly or explicitly, that your body doesn't know what it needs. Following an influencer and/or dietician as you embark on your un-learning process might help you get in touch with and understand your body's hunger cues more fully.

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Another sure-fire way to start eating intuitively is to make explicit and not justify your cravings. If you're wanting a hearty sandwich over a salad, you don't need to have a "why"--just eat the sandwich. Your body knows what it needs: perhaps you're ovulating and your body needs a higher caloric intake, or you didn't drink enough water yesterday and your body is seeking additional nutrients and sodium. Some days, you'll likely crave the salad over the sandwich--trust that your evolutionarily selected, perfected-biological-machine knows what it's doing. We're making this sound simple now, but it might be difficult; give yourself grace. (That seems like the whole point, right?)

If you're interested in the specifics of intuitive eating, check this out!

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Movement, exercise, and mindset shifts

Once you start intuitively eating, you'll likely notice an entire lifestyle shift. Along with eating what you need, you'll probably work on un-learning the other perpetrators of diet culture, like exercise as punishment and movement as chore. Things that you might've resented before--like doctor visits, hitting the gym, and getting in your daily steps--might now feel like a privilege or an exciting challenge. The same kinds of peace-making with food can apply to health more generally: if you want to move your body but hate the commute to the gym, try rearranging your bedroom furniture or vacuuming for 30 minutes. Put on a yoga YouTube video. Carry your groceries up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Listen to your body and adapt!

There are small changes (that have a huge impact!) that you might feel inclined to implement now that you're healing your relationship with food. Listening to our bodies--their aversions, desires, anxieties, pulls--should always be a priority.