Intuitive eating: slimness without diets and self-torture

Интуитивное питание: стройность без диет и самоистязания

Diets don work. This has long been proven and recognized by nutritionists around the world. Dietary thinking is flawed, because in the end it leads to overeating, a set of dropped kilograms, weight recompensation. Restrictions only harm, giving a short-term and unstable result.

Dr. Stephen Hawkes suggested an alternative — intuitive eating. It's "making peace with" food that helped him lose 22 pounds and keep the weight off himself. The editors of estet-portal.com offer to understand the principles of a harmonious relationship with food.

How Intuitive Eating Differs from Dieting
Debunking the myths about a new way of thinking
10 Basic Principles of Intuitive Eating
The Essentials of Intuitive Eating and Rejection Diets

How does intuitive eating differ from diet

The basic principle of any diet — restrictions. They may concern the list of products, the volume of servings or the time of eating, but there are always restrictions. A person has to constantly use willpower, deny himself desires in order to follow a diet and fight weight. All this ends with breakdowns, overeating, guilt, self-abasement. A depressed mood provokes a desire to seize psychological pain, and the weight only grows.

Intuitive Eating is built on a different principle — "the body itself knows what it needs."

Dr. Stephen Hawkes suggested a way to meet all the needs of the body. He proved by personal example that it is possible to normalize weight without mocking yourself. According to Hawkes, there are no bad bodies or forbidden foods. Main — hear the signals of your body, respond correctly and in a timely manner to

Debunking the myths about a new way of thinking

Intuitive eating has been widely discussed in recent years, and the new way of thinking that leads to slimness has become mythical. Let's dispel the most popular of them:

Food Freedom — this is permissiveness. Yes, you can eat whatever you want, but you can’t jam problems. They need to be dealt with in other ways. No matter how much you eat cakes, but love and recognition they still cannot replace.
The choice is limited to a certain list of products. Nothing like that. You can really eat everything, without regard to the calorie content of food. It is important to enjoy the food you choose.
You can eat everything, but at a certain time. Eating freedom is limited neither by volume, nor list of products, nor time.

People have a hard time accepting that their bodies are able to regulate their own weight, hence the speculation, attempts to introduce flexible control under the guise of intuitive eating. We are so accustomed to a restrictive dietary mindset that &t's hard to even think about.

Read also: Is it harmful to eat at night: debunking a popular food myth

10 Basic Principles of Intuitive Eating

Each person from birth has an intuition that controls his nutrition. A small child begins to eat only when he is hungry, and refuses food when he is full. At different periods, appetite may fluctuate depending on the signals of the body.

With age, the mechanism of self-regulation breaks down under the influence of parental attitudes. It can be restored if you change the power, guided by the following principles:

Rejection of dietary thinking. We need to clearly understand the harm of diets and make a decision to no longer pay attention to them. Concentrate on you, your body and its needs.
Respect for hunger. Don cut your portions and deny your body food. This is a mistake in dietary thinking that will inevitably lead to bouts of overeating. On the contrary, it is important to learn to recognize the signals of hunger and eat precisely to satisfy it, and not for other reasons.
Respect fullness.Listen for satiation signals, pause during meals to see if you are full. Mentally draw a satiety scale, dividing it into 10 marks. If it seems to you that you are full of 5-6 points, stop. If less — calmly eat as much as you need.
Relinquishing control. and "wrong" food, "large" or "small" portions, throw them out of your head. Deny yourself any control.
Peace with food. Decide for yourself that you can eat anything and anytime when you're hungry. Any food is good.
Enjoying food.Eat whatever you want at the moment, enjoy every bite. When you feel full, just put down your fork.
Respect for emotions. Most of the time we overeat when we feel alone, angry or bored. Recognize that these emotions are valid, but have nothing to do with food. Find other ways to relax or calm down.
Respect for the body.You have a certain physique, genetically determined. If your foot is a size 39, it will never fit into size 35 shoes. This can only be achieved by cutting off part of the foot. Barbaric, isn't it? But you do the same, trying to fit your body to certain parameters. Respect and love yourself regardless of size and weight.
Respect for health. Listen to how feeling after meals. Determine which products are most comfortable for you, give vivacity and good mood.
Love workouts. Stop being afraid of the gym, because no one is forcing you to squat barbells or sweat on treadmills. Choose for yourself the type of physical activity that will bring joy. It can be walks in the morning or favorite games. The main thing is that there should be activity, and what — question ten.

To Intuitive Eating Start Small — hang a piece of paper on the fridge, on which each family member writes down the name of the product that they wanted during the previous week.

Take this list with when you go to resupply. Let everyone eat whatever they want.

Read also: The harm of canned food: what is true and what is a myth

The main thing about intuitive eating and failure dieting

Stop controlling how much you ate throughout the day. Nothing but stress, diets will not give. Make peace with food and follow simple rules:

Food — to satisfy the feeling of hunger. Learn to recognize the signals of hunger and satiety. Don't use food to solve psychological problems. It still won't help, but will cause weight gain.
Respect your feelings.You have a right to anger, boredom, and pain, but emotions are not related to food.
Listen to how you feel after eating. This way you determine your own reactions to different foods.
Respect your body. Stop judging kilograms and centimetres. All bodies are good.
Come to terms with food. Stop dividing the bad and good, the bad and healthy.
Enjoy every bite. Focus on the food enjoy but put your fork down when you are full.
Love being active. Listen to how it feels after a walk, run, or gym session. If you like them, give your body this joy more often. Main — have fun.