Are you trying to be an intuitive eater but still hoping to lose weight? This is the most common feeling and the biggest fear for people starting their intuitive eating journey. If you are someone that is interested in losing weight and you still want to be an intuitive eater, I’d like to say this is ok! Take a deep breath before you continue reading and I invite you to approach reading the rest of this blog with curiosity. Leave all guilt and shame behind, before reading on.
Getting Started:
A great place to start is by asking yourself, “how many years have I been dieting for?” Take a moment and think about that. I get a lot of answers from members of our community that reach upward to 2 or 3 decades of being in the diet culture world.
So it makes perfect sense to be freaked out about jumping into intuitive eating and also be very hesitant about NOT dieting, NOT shrinking your body, or NOT trying to change yourself. I don’t know anyone that hasn’t started this journey, not being nervous or having apprehensions.
When “yo-yo ” dieting has been part of your life for all those “x” amount of years, changing the way you view your body, and live your life is like trying to speak a different language you’ve never spoken before. Really hard but very possible. We have to accept that there is an “un-learning phase” that you go through when trying to change lifelong thoughts and habits.
When working through this process of change it’s important to ask yourself why you are struggling with letting this feeling go, and most importantly don’t shame yourselves for feeling this way.
Understanding the “Why”
Second question to ask yourself, “Why do I want to lose weight?” A lot of people answer with ‘confidence’, ‘acceptance’, ‘health’, ‘disease prevention’, and ‘keeping up with their children’.
What is your reason? I like to group these answers into 2 categories:
- Health
- Acceptance
When we talk about health we need to remember that weight is not a behavior. We can engage in health promoting behaviors that are uncoupled from restricting food, and losing weight. What this means is that weight DOES NOT equal health.
If weight equaled health that would mean ALL large people are unhealthy and ALL small people are healthy. This is obviously not the case. We don’t discuss weight loss, we don’t promote weight loss, and we don’t track your weight. If weight loss happens naturally that is ok. If your body gains weight, that’s ok too. Intuitive eating helps represent Health at Every Size (HAES®). If you have a medical disease or condition you can ABSOLUTELY be an Intuitive Eater. No medical conditions will improve with guilt and shame being tied to food. We need to remove guilt and shame with food around behavior changes that will make you feel pleasant. Click here to listen to a podcast episode where we dive more into the question “Can I Be An Intuitive Eater If I Have A Medical Disease or Condition?”
Here at Find Food Freedom we help our clients remove guilt and shame associated with food so that you can start engaging in health promoting behaviors that help you feel physically, mentally, and emotionally pleasant. Which will have a more positive outcome on your health. And this is done by listening to our bodies and what our bodies’ needs are. If weight loss is part of the journey,cool, but it’s not the focus and never the goal of Intuitive Eating.
When we talk about acceptance, and wanting to feel more confident or more accepted by the people in your life, I want you to know that feeling is real and valid. We live in a very “fatphobic” world, and we live in a society that treats people better if they are in smaller bodies. Hello thin privilege!Think about a friend or loved one. What if every single day you saw a person and you spoke negatively about their body. Imagine saying all the things you say in your head to these people you love everyday for years. Do you think they would feel loved and respected by you? Do you think they will feel accepted by you?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!
Most of you never would speak to someone like that. So why is it ok for you to speak to yourselves like that? Doing this for years on end makes you feel that you are not worthy of acceptance, and that you don’t respect yourself and that can be so hard to unlearn. Please know, you can’t hate your way to acceptance. Losing weight doesn’t guarantee better health outcomes, losing weight does not give you more acceptance, confidence, or self love.
You Deserve Food Freedom
The goal of Intuitive eating is to teach you how to unlearn the diet culture bull sh*t, and the toxic narrative we’ve been fed for decades, and start to learn to trust our bodies again, and listen to our bodies needs.
If you’ve made it this far down this blog post! Thank you for reading and for staying curious, asking the hard questions, and reflecting on your personal journey! If you enjoyed this post then we think you’d also enjoy our podcast titled “ I Want To Find Food Freedom, But I Want To Lose Weight.” Click here to check it out!
