Think About Food Less + Enjoy it More
is Intuitive Eating the same as Mindful eating? • u-turn back to body • IE Principle #6 Feel Your Fullness
Is Intuitive Eating the same as mindful eating?
When I stopped dieting, I began to read about mindful eating and it made a lot of sense—pay attention to your hunger and be present with the food you choose to eat, notice how it smells, looks, tastes, and feels, both in the moment and afterwards. Also, no judgement—be kind to yourself, allow yourself to eat and to enjoy it. It sounded an awful lot like how Julia Child talked about food—if you’re worried about butter, use cream; eat what you want at dinner just don’t snack all day. Enjoy eating. Enjoy life!
Emboldened, I began to incorporate such messages into my cooking classes. Everything was going along great until one participant misinterpreted my just-don’t-snack tip and said it would cause her to relapse her anorexia recovery. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt someone, so I stopped my classes and set out in search of nutritional training that fit my chef-mindset.
I joined Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch’s Intuitive Eating Professionals program and got certified to teach. When I began, I thought I had nothing new to learn—don’t diet, eat when you’re hungry, allow yourself to be satisfied—but as I lived it out, I realized that “good/bad” food moralizing had become deep-seated. Bread, sugar, chips, chocolate, ice cream, even glasses of wine with dinner were on my mental list of “red light foods” (as they say in Weight Watchers).
I began to wonder why it was that all the things on the “bad” list were the things I had trouble controlling; was it really the food’s fault?
Mindful eating stopped short of exposing this fatal flaw in my food relationship: food moralizing, but it is Principle #1 of Intuitive Eating—reject the diet mentality.
I now live with a sense of peace and ease I never thought was possible. It feels like a miracle. I am present and able to deal with the ups and downs of life without turning to food (or wine or anything else) to cope. Food is a joy. My body is a joy. I can feel. And I am grateful.
U-turn back to body; Intuitive Eating Principe #6: Feel Your Fullness
IE gave me a u-turn back to my body, connection after decades of disconnection. What began as noticing hunger and fullness evolved into a trust that I would never again take away the pleasure and freedom of eating, that God willing, there would always be a next time to eat. This trust vanquished the former urgency I experienced when faced with an abundance of delicious, beautiful, or “bad/not allowed” food—get it all now and get “back on the wagon” tomorrow. Craziness like this comes from diet mentality which creates a sense of lack—“scarcity mindset”—a wanting but simultaneously thinking, can’t have it! I was able to put this kind of torment behind me once and for all with Intuitive Eating.
Smooth Sailing, Fix Your Food Relationship in 2025!
So this is week 7 of what I’m calling Smooth Sailing, how to fix your food relationship in 2025. I’ll keep posting every Monday. Please subscribe and share. Thank you so much for being here!
Here’s a recap so far, since the beginning of January:
About Love & Cookies, homepage
Week 1: Food Addict? Or Something Else?
Week 3: Sugar “Addiction” and Primal Eating
Week 4: One is Never Enough…because None are Allowed
Week 6: Allow Yourself to Receive
Have a good week!
