This intuitive eating guide will help you understand your body’s hunger signals
What even is intuitive eating and why do we need an intuitive eating guide? Health experts have pushed this new approach to eating and dieting, and we are here to help aid any concerns for those curious in this unusual health study.
Intuitive eating is an eating philosophy that empowers us to understand our body’s hunger signals. It’s basically the polar opposite of a regular diet and doesn’t give us any rules about what types of foods are necessary and doesn’t require a tight schedule. Simply, we are in control of what and when we eat. In most cases, we just eat when we are hungry, and stop when we are full.
There are two important things to note in our intuitive eating guide for beginners, and that is the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger. Physical or biological hunger is our body’s way of signaling us to consume nutrients. Examples include fatigue and stomach growling. Emotional hunger is based on emotional feelings such as boredom, sadness, or even happiness.
The mentality that surrounds intuitive eating is that it promotes a healthy attitude toward our body image and our food. In a self-titled book written by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch covering intuitive eating, there are ten basic principles of the eating philosophy which are provided below for reference.
- Reject the diet mentality
- Honor our hunger
- Make peace with food
- Challenge the food police
- Respect our fullness
- Discover the satisfaction factor
- Honor our feelings without using food
- Respect our body
- Exercise
- Honor your health
For those who are willing to start intuitive eating, remember to practice these principles with responsibility and self respect. Our intuitive eating guide for beginners isn’t here to enable us to go to the extremes in either weight loss or weight gain, but to approach our eating habits with more awareness and without judgment. Note that most of the principles listed are phrased with “honor” or “respect”, which are key elements to the eating philosophy.