Does thinking about food or your body take up too much mental real estate? Would you like to find more flexibility, peace and contentment around food and the relationship to your body?

Intuitive Eating is an approach to food and the body that rejects diet culture and focuses instead on connection to your own needs, satisfaction and pleasure as well as mental flexibility regarding your food choices. It is based in the knowledge that permanent weight loss is unachievable for most people. And a large majority of people who have been on a diet and lost weight will regain the weight (or maybe more than the original weight) within 5 years after the diet. The harm that is caused by diets is manifold: heightened insulin resistance through weight cycling, an increased risk for developing an eating disorder, disconnection from your internal hunger and fullness cues, nutritional deficiencies, dissatisfaction with your own body, shame and many more.

Intuitive eating recognizes the science shows: weight and health are unrelated. Instead of obsessing about a number on the scale or calories consumed, we focus on health promoting behaviors such as movement, enjoyment, self-care and stress reduction techniques, as well as finding a medical professional that is informed about health at every size. Unfortunately, many medical professions and the media are lagging behind in relaying this knowledge to the general public, and promote harmful fatphobic and negative stereotypes about people in larger bodies.

View my Intuitive Eating Counselor Profile.

Resources and useful links:

HAES HEALTH SHEET LIBRARY: Accurate information on “weight realted” diseases such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome

INTUITIVE EATING WEBSITE: more information on the principles of intuitive eating by the founders, as well as studies to use as armor against fatphobic comments or harmful medical advice

SELF COMPASSION WEBSITE: Kristin Neff is a researcher that is interested in self-compassion