Do your friends or family members think you should be dieting or struggle to understand your intuitive eating journey? It can be a challenge to share your journey with loved ones when it isn’t received the way that you may be praised if you were going on a diet. Most often, when loved ones are recommending diets or commenting on why you should eat this or that, they are coming from a place of love and care. They have your best interest at heart and in their minds, they are making suggestions based on what they know is best.
This is YOUR journey to finding food freedom, making peace with your body, listening to your internal cues, and finding what brings you satisfaction. YOU are the expert of your body. This is your journey, nobody else’s.
Some people may not be ready to hear your intuitive eating journey, and that’s okay. If you have a loved one who’s currently stuck in a chronic dieting cycle, they may not be in a mindset to fully embrace or hear what intuitive eating is all about. Not everyone may be ready for that conversation, but there is always a time and a place to share.
We have all been in a place where diet culture made us believe a certain way about eating and it took us a long time to realize that dieting doesn’t work. We know that 95% of diets are not sustainable. If a friend or family member is on a particular diet, it might not be the right time to come from a negative viewpoint and question what they are doing. Simply ask them a few questions like “how’s that diet working out for you?” or “how do you feel mentally around food?”
It can be difficult explaining intuitive eating to people who don’t quite understand living without diet rules. Try coming from a place of care and really emphasize the mind-body connection. Explain that intuitive eating is all about turning away from external limitations on how to treat your body, and focusing on our internal cues. We connect with how our body feels during exercise and movement, after eating certain foods, and what foods we find most satisfying. Emphasize that nutrition is absolutely a huge aspect of intuitive eating. It is the 10th intuitive eating principle, in which we learn about the benefits of protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats and all the different nutrients for our bodies. Before we focus on nutrition, it’s important to walk through the other nine principles first.
Whether you are sharing with loved ones who do or do not understand your intuitive eating journey, it’s important to know that this is YOUR health journey. Sometimes people may be ready to hear what’s working for you and sometimes people may not be. Your testimony can really go a long way. Sharing that you now have freedom to eat all foods and you are able to go out with friends and enjoy their company without comparing your size or what you’re eating to theirs will speak way more than just saying that 95-98% of diets fail.
Remember: this is about you and your journey. You are the expert of yourself. Continue to explore the mind-body connection and share your journey with loved ones whenever the time is right.
If you liked this blog, I know you’ll enjoy reading my blog post titled: Putting the Scale Away!
