From the Book Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Reish
Are you currently reading Intuitive Eating or working through the principles and feel like a failure? Good news, there is no such thing as failing with Intuitive Eating and it is crucial to recognize that this a process. Intuitive Eating isn’t a one-stop-shop. Intuitive Eating is a journey and the continual process of learning to trust your body and unlearning what diet culture has falsely led us to believe.
If you’ve hit that point of feeling like a failure with Intuitive Eating. The first step is to recognize that thought and become curious WHY you feel that way. Evelyn Tribole and Eleyse Reish talking about the stages of Intuitive Eating in their book Intuitive Eating. Let’s dive into those stages!
Stage 1: Readiness – Hitting Diet Bottom
- Aware that dieting has led to “failure”.
- Tired of valuing each day on the number on the scale or your value by what you ate.
- You’ve lost touch with biological hunger and satiety signals.
- You’ve forgotten what you really like to eat and instead eat what you “should” eat.
- You dread foods because you think it will be hard to stop eating.
- Food has been an enemy.
- You tend to overeat “forbidden” foods because you feel guilty.
- You eat when you seek comfort, distraction or desire to numb a feeling.
- You have a negative body image and lowered self-respect.
- You are ready to go back to eating intuitively.
Stage 2: Exploration – Conscious Learning and Pursuit of Pleasure
- Stage of exploration and discovery.
- You go through a phase of hyperconsciousness to help reacquaint yourself with you intuitive signals of hunger, preferences and satiety.
- It is similar to learning how to drive a car – when learning it’s necessary to go through all of the steps (checking mirrors, buttons, gas, break, lights, etc.) It may seem obsessive at first but it’s not characterized with worry. It zooms in on your experience while eating then stops when you’re done and move on to something else.
- You make peace with food by giving yourself unconditional permission to eat.
- You learn to get rid of guilt-induced eating and discover satisfaction.
- The more satisfied you are when eating, the less you think about food in between meals.
- You experiment with foods to see what you really like vs “should” eat.
- You learn to honor your hunger.
- It will be hard to respect your fullness at this stage because it will take time to experiment with the quantity of food to be satisfied.
- If you have been using food emotionally, you may find that you will begin to feel your feelings and may experience discomfort, sadness or even depression at times since food is not your primary source of comfort anymore.
- You may find that you are eating larger amounts of sugary/fatty foods during this stage that you have not allowed yourself in the past. The way you eat during this stage will not be the pattern that you will establish for a lifetime.
- You are rebuilding positive food experiences.
Stage 3: Crystallization
- You will begin to experience the awakenings of the true Intuitive Eating style that has been buried until debris of dieting.
- Your thoughts about food are no longer obsessive.
- You no longer need to maintain hyperconsciousness about eating that was originally needed.
- You find that your food choices and responses to biological signals are mainly intuitive.
- You have a greater sense of trust – both in your right to choose what you really want to eat and in the fact that your biological signals are dependable.
- You are comfortable with your food choices and will start to notice increased satisfaction at your meals.
- You honor your hunger most of the time and continue to make peace with food.
- It’s easier to take a time out during a meal to gauge how full your stomach is feeling.
- You may still be choosing previously forbidden foods most of the time, but you will find that you don’t need as much of them to satisfy you.
- You will be able to identify biological hunger from emotional hunger.
- Weight loss will be on the back burner as the sense of well-being and empowerment begin to take place.
- You will start to respect your body and understand that if you’re over your natural weight, it’s a result of the dieting mentality, rather than lack of willpower.
Stage Four: The Intuitive Eater Awakens
- You consistently choose what you really want to eat when you are hungry because you know you can have more food whenever you’re hungry.
- You may find you begin to choose healthier foods, not because you think you should, but because you feel better physically when you eat this way.
- Chocolate starts to take on the same connotation as a peach without former deprivation.
- When you have a food you formerly restricted, you will get pleasure and satisfaction without the guilt that used to follow (guilt takes away the enjoyment of something).
- If coping with your feelings used to be difficult, you will be less afraid of embracing them and sitting in them over looking for food as a distraction.
- You have stopped being angry with your body and making disrespectful comments about it. You will respect all of the different shapes and sizes in the world.
Stage Five: The Final Stage – Treasure the Pleasure
- You will trust your body’s intuitive abilities – it will be easy to honor your hunger and respect fullness.
- You will feel no guilt about your food choices or quantities.
- You will feel an inner conviction to give up using food to cope with emotional situations, if that has been your habit – learning to deal with the feelings first.
- The burden of exercise will be removed and exercising will begin to look enticing to you.
- You will use exercise as a way to feel better vs to burn what you ate.
- Your weight will settle into what is natural for you – a place that is comfortable and appropriate for your height and body frame.
- You will feel empowered and protected from outside sources telling you what and how much to eat, along with how your body should look.
- You will be free from dieting and intuitively eat.
You are not alone in your journey to trust your body and find food freedom. You are not a failure, you are courageous. You are taking steps to take care of yourself the best way you know how. No matter what stage you are at, give yourself grace. You are exactly where you need to be. If you feel that you need support, we would love to chat with you. We have a team of registered dietitians ready to support you! Click here to fill out a short application and we will shoot you an email ASAP after it has been reviewed!
Sources: https://www.intuitiveeating.org/about-us/
