How’s Your Relationship with Food?

How many diets have you tried, but ended up failing because of your restriction on certain foods? Learn how intuitive eating teaches you to have a healthy relationship with food and how to stop the need to diet anymore.

According to an article at edreferral.com, “Intuitive Eating is Not a Diet It’s a Healthy Relationship with Food”

“Intuitive eating teaches individuals how to look inside themselves and listen to internal cues. It also provides guidance on how to form a healthy relationship with food. It is an anti-diet approach to eating. There are no rules to break and no temptations to resist. Intuitive eating, unlike dieting and meal planning, is not a set up for failure.

To get back to a healthy and natural relationship with food, it is important to remember that infants and toddlers innately possess this ability. Infants easily know when they are hungry and full. Doctors guide new mothers to respect their infant’s inner wisdom. They instruct moms to never force-feed an infant. It is amazing that infants intuitively know that they need more food right before a growth spurt and will naturally crave increased feedings. Toddlers are the same. A study done by Leann Birch, Ph. D. showed that children age’s two to five were eating, on average, the same amount of calories daily for a week, even though the calories from their individual meals varied greatly. This study shows that toddlers don’t need to count calories to get the appropriate amount of energy; they naturally know what they need.

The ability to use the internal cues (hunger and fullness sensations and cravings) to regulate food intake is present in everyone. This is true no matter how long the individual has been ignoring them. The challenge in becoming an intuitive eater is to reconnect with the already present internal cues and to learn to ignore the external ones.
Dieting is a purely external way to regulate food intake. Other things that control food intake, which are external, are only choosing “good” or “healthy” foods, automatically finishing everything on the plate, and taking the portion that is listed on the food label. Using external factors to determine what, how much and when to eat is a dangerous path because it disconnects us from our bodies and our intuition.

Fears Regarding Listening to Our Bodies

Most people initially believe that by using internal cues to guide food amounts and food choices, they will inevitably be “unhealthy,” make the wrong choices, and eat too much. This is a sign of a lack of self-trust, which is natural when external factors have been used for so long to make these choices for us. Regaining trust is a process. It takes time and practice, but it is well worth it. By using internal cues it is possible to never diet again!” To read the entire article click here.

Tired of the diet restrictions learn how intuitive eating teaches one to have healthy relationship with food. For more information contact Barbara Cox at 775-329-0505 or visit ABCNutritionServices.com.