10 Principles of Intuitive Eating

I want to spell out what the principles are and then share where I am with each of them.  

1. Reject the Diet Mentality Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating.

-Where am I with rejecting the diet mentality?  I have thrown out all of my diet books-years ago.  Magazine articles, gone.  Though...I am not sure that 100% of the thoughts of having false hope of losing weight quickly have left my mind yet, but I hope they continue to decrease.  Where she says, "if you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating."  I do not believe I have this accomplished.  I do still get small hopes and haven't fully let go (though I have tried) of the idea that there is something I am missing that I need to do to lose all the weight and be healthy.  I haven't dove in completely, but I have been reserved.  Not fully letting go, and I feel it.

2. Honor Your Hunger Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for re-building trust with yourself and food.

-Where am I here?  I am pretty good at honoring my hunger--and I don't go too long without eating.  I do sometimes grab food still when I am not hungry though and that causes me to drown out the feeling of hunger.  Though my goal is not to eat only for hunger 100% of the time--that will only cause me to turn Intuitive Eating into another diet.

3. Make Peace with Food Call a truce, stop the food fight! 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 When you finally “give-in” to your forbidden food, eating will be experienced with such intensity, it usually results in Last Supper overeating, and overwhelming guilt.

-Where am I at here?  THIS area I am definitely still a work in progress.  This is a huge goal I want to work on-"giving myself unconditional permission to eat."  I have not fully done this, like I said, I have not completely let go--but I am going to work on this.

4. Challenge the Food Police .Scream a loud "NO" to thoughts in your head that declare you're "good" for eating minimal calories or "bad" because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The Food Police monitor the unreasonable rules that dieting has created . The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loud speaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the Food Police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating.

-Do I challenge the food police?  I am PRETTY good at this and have overcome it for the most part.  I do not call food good or bad and I do not call myself good or bad for eating certain foods.  This is awesome.

5. Respect Your Fullness Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you're comfortably full. Pause in the middle of a meal or food and ask yourself how the food tastes, and what is your current fullness level?

6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor The Japanese have the wisdom to promote pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living In our fury to be thin and healthy, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence--the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting and conducive, 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've had "enough".

-Have I discovered the satisfaction factor? Yes.  I have come a LONG way in this.  People used to KNOW me for standing up while eating.  It was a rare occasion if I sat down to eat.  After going through this process and learning to enjoy my food---well I love to sit down to eat.  I cannot stand eating and not being comfortable and in peace to eat.  I like my plate to be served with food I want, and then I want to sit down and enjoy it, with a delicious drink to go with it.  I would have to say the only thing I need to work on here is eating in the car and also grabbing the chocolates that I tend to overeat on and walking around with them in my hand and doing my tasks while snacking.

7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food Find ways to comfort , nurture, distract, and resolve your issues without using food. Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won't fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb you into a food hangover. But food won't solve the problem. If anything, eating for an emotional hunger will only make you feel worse in the long run. You'll ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion, as well as the discomfort of overeating.

-This.  Yeah this--I am a work in progress and this needs to be one of the topics I focus on.  She is right-eating for emotional hunger will only  make you feel worse-and it does and I need to work on this.  I still eat when I am overwhelmed, when I am bored, and sometimes just because.

8. Respect Your Body Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally as futile (and uncomfortable) to have the same expectation with body size. But mostly, 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 about your body shape.

-Me?  Since I have released weight 2 times when eating when hungry and stopping when full and was a size 4-6 or 8, I feel I have this set in my mind this is where I need to be.  I must say that I may have eaten less than I needed at those times, so I need to have an open mind as to where my body goes as I continue in this process.  I have purchased some clothes here and there the past few weeks that I feel pretty and comfortable in to help accept me right where I am.  I have also cleaned out my drawers and closet of all the clothes I haven't worn, thought I would fit into one day, and that didn't make me feel pretty, and gotten rid of them--two trash bags full, and I will now get clothes as I continue to have my body change.

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.

-I need to continue working on exercising and how I am thinking about it so I can instead of focusing on losing weight when exercising I want to have the thoughts of how I feel--stronger, fit, energized, and healthy.  

10 Honor Your Health--Gentle Nutrition Make food choices that honor your health and tastebuds while making you feel well. 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.

-I have to be careful with this one because I do not want to focus on what types of food I eat, but listening to my body...and I have come a long way in this area.  I learned about "whole body pleasers" while reading Thin Within and I love the perfect bite too.  I like combining the perfect combination of meat, veggies and cheese and maybe a touch of carbs in one bite, that is so good.  I want to continue working on what works best for my body and have gentle nutrition.

These principles were taken from the Intuitive Eating website.