When people say "just listen to you body" or "you'll know when you're full/still hungry"...that might feel frustrating. Anyone who has ever dieted or been on a diet has most likely been encouraged to "mute" their hunger cues. Before quickly diving into this topic, I wanted to give some quick vocab:
- Chronic dieter: A "chronic dieter" refers to an individual who repeatedly engages in diets and weight loss efforts in a cyclical manner, often with negative consequences for their overall health and well-being. We get caught in a repeat this cycle of weight loss, weight regain, and binge eating.
- Yo-yo dieting: lose weight during a diet but then regain it shortly afterward. This cycle of losing and gaining weight is often referred to as "yo-yo dieting."
- Unsustainable weight loss: diets usually require us to employ extreme or unsustainable methods to achieve rapid weight loss, such as crash diets, excessive calorie restriction, or extreme exercise regimens. These approaches are difficult to maintain over the long term and can be detrimental to one's health.
While "intuitive eating" is a nice, heartwarming concept...it can be a lot easier said than done.
That is because diet-culture messages have infiltrated our inner dialogues for generations. It used to be "low fat" was good for you, then "high fat, low carb", then "low carb" - the list goes on.
These "all or nothing" approaches usually involve under-eating followed by binge-eating...which is exhasting...so can strictly following regimented eating times & quantities. For example, if it's not "lunch time" you will not allow yourself to eat lunch.
Another contributor preventing us from tuning into our hunger/fullness cues of intuitive eating is consuming a lot of processed foods, which can lead to blood sugar dysregulation. Plus, they’re just really easy to overeat!
The good news? You absolutely had the ability to understand and listen to those cues at one point in your life, so it's just a matter of removing the diet layers to get back there!
So, how exactly do you get there?
Well, just like mastering anything, it takes loads of practice.
Everyone is different...but you might try adding in some structure before you can fully rely on your true hunger and fullness cues. This "structure" could come in many forms and is bio-individual.
For example, some people might prefer smaller meals every 2-4 hours...while others prefer three larger meals throughout the day. Someone might not be able to digest good fats from sources like cottage cheese and milk well, while others choose to obtain proteins and fats from dairy.
Again, tuning back into these belly-to-brain cues like "I am full, please stop eating" or "I am hungry and need energy" take a while. To re-acknowledge these until you reach a place of complete trust takes time, structure (at least in the beginning!), and patience.
This structure might look like...
- Eating every 3-4 hours
- Eating mostly unprocessed foods (simply because processed foods are REALLY easy to overeat, and they affect hunger/satiety hormones)
- Including all macronutrients (carbs, proteins, fats)
- Sleeping consistently with a routine
- Moving regularly while NOT overdoing it with exercise
- Managing stress, as it can cause hormones to get pretty whacky, leading to blood sugar issues & appetite changes
As a practitioner, I encourage you to focus on your motivation behind "why" you're choosing to make these choices. Start small! Choose one practice, focus, element of structure (perhaps from the list above, or perhaps one you have come up with) to focus on. Starting small will not only help avoid attribution error, but it will also help build confidence.
If you're like to work together on setting these recommendations and goals, please reach out to me...I would LOVE to hear from you!
