I am currently reading “Intuitive eating” book written by Evelyn Tribole. It’s very interesting book to help people forget about diet culture and help them to learn good relationship with food.
Evelyn created 10 principals of intuitive eating to help people with quick recovery from dieting!
They are very interesting not only because of the “quit diet side” but also to get to know your inner self too. So this is what author -Evelyn Tribole is listing as 10 principals in her “Intuitive eating” book.
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“1.Reject the diet mentality .If you are maintaining your set point weight through a process of restricting,overeating,restricting and so forth,then it is especially important to put weight loss on the back burner”.The dieter is often vulnerable to loss of control over eating when violating “the rules” of the diet. The mere perception of eating a forbidden food (regardless of actual calorie content) is enough to trigger overeating. “
“2.Honor your hunger. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for rebuilding trust with yourself and food.
Eat time you eat ask yourself:”Am I hungry?”, when was the last time I felt hungry? Monitor your hunger levels each time you eat,before and after. What pattern do you see emerging? Is there a certain time interval that you eat?”
“3.Make peace with food. Give yourself unconditional permission to eat.If you tell yourself that you can’t or shouldn’t have a particular food,it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and,often,bingeing. The longer foods are prohibited,the more seductive they become. Consequently, eating these “illegal” foods brings with it a compelling sense of guilt for most dieters and as the guilt increases,so does the quantity of the food intake.”
“4.Challenge the food police. Scream a loud “no” to thoughts in your head that declare you are “good” for eating under 1000calories or “bad” because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The police station is housed deep in your psyche and its loudspeaker shouts negative barns and guild provoking indictments. Chasing the food police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating.”
“5.Feel your fullness. Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you are comfortably full. Pause in the middle of a meal or snack and ask yourself how the food tastes,and what your current fullness level is. ”
“6.Discover the satisfaction factor. When you eat what you really want,in an environment that is inviting, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself,you will find that it takes much less food to decide you have had “enough”. Ask yourself what you really want to eat and give yourself unconditional permission to eat in enjoyable atmosphere.”
“7.Cope with your emotions without using food. Find ways to comfort,nurture,distract and resolve your emotional issues without using food. Anxiety,loneliness,boredom and anger are emotions we all experience through life. Each has its own trigger and each has its own appeasement. Eating for emotional hunger will only make you feel worse in the long run. You will ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion as well as discomfort of overeating.”
“8.Respect your body. Accept your genetic blueprint.Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect realistically to squeeze into a size six,it is equally futile and uncomfortable to have a similar expectation about body size. Respect your body,so you can feel better about who you are. It’s hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical of your body shape.”
“9.Exercise-Feel the difference. Forget militant exercise.Just get active and feel the difference.Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body,rather than the calorie burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out,such as energized,it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm.If when you wake up,your only goal is to lose weight,it’s usually not a motivating factor in that moment of time.”
“10.Honor your health-Gentle nutrition.Make food choices that honor your health and taste buds while making you feel good. Remember that you don’t have to eat a perfect diet to be healthy. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or gain weight from one snack,one meal,or one day of eating. It’s what you eat consistently over time that matters. Progress,not perfection,is what counts.”
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The hardest part for me was Reject the diet mentality! It took about 5 weeks to stop labelling food “healthy” ,”unhealthy” “guild free” or “bad”-“good”. Food is just food😁
I would like to think I am at the moment at the stage of “Respect your body” I am learning to like my current weight and I feel fine about it but certain articles or body images make me want to gain more muscle or lose weight. Recognising the triggers quick enough helps me to disconnect myself from those “unrealistic” goals and focus on “me only”.
I will continue reading this book as I am finding very “healing” at the moment and love learning about my body every day.