Intuitive Eating: Learn to Listen to Your Body

Ssh…listen.

Your body is trying to tell you something.

But all of the noisy information overload about diets, superfoods, and exercise can make it hard to hear.

Diets and exercise plans – with their emphasis on rules and regulations – prevent many people from being able to tune in and listen to their body.

Nurturing your body instead of harming it can help you reconnect with signals of hunger, fullness, and food preference. This can help restore a healthy relationship with food, mind, and body.

The Difference Between Mindful and Intuitive Eating

According to The Center for Mindful Eating, mindfulness in eating includes:

• Allowing yourself to become aware of the positive and nurturing opportunities that are available through food selection and preparation by respecting your own inner wisdom.
• Using all your senses in choosing to eat food that is both satisfying to you and nourishing to your body.
• Acknowledging responses to food (likes, dislikes or neutral) without judgment.
• Becoming aware of physical hunger and satiety cues to guide your decisions to begin and end eating.

Intuitive eating includes principles of mindful eating. It also includes a broader view that addresses cognitive issues and emotional eating.

Ten Principles of Intuitive Eating

1. Reject the Diet Mentality – Throw away diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently.
2. Honor Your Hunger – Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates.
3. Make Peace with Food – Stop the food fight! Telling yourself you can’t or shouldn’t have a certain food can lead to cravings and binge eating.
4. Challenge the Food Police – Say “No” to thoughts in your head that say you’re “good” for eating minimal calories or “bad” because you ate a piece of chocolate cake.
5. Feel Your Fullness – Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry.
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor – When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting, the pleasure you experience will help you feel satisfied.
7. Cope with Your Emotions without Using Food – Find ways to comfort, nurture, distract, and resolve your issues without using food.
8. Respect Your Body – It’s hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and critical about your body.
9. Exercise: Feel the Difference – Forget strict exercise. Just get active, have fun, and feel the difference.
10. Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition – Make food choices that honor your health and taste buds while making you feel well.

This information is from the book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works.

This book and others can be checked out free of charge at the Health Information Center located in the main lobby of the University of Tennessee Medical Center.

Intuitive Eating is a reference book and is not intended to be used as a medical manual. Nutritional needs vary from person to person. Talk with your doctor about food and exercise needs based on your health, age, and health status.

If you don’t have a doctor and would like help finding one, call Healthcare Coordination to make an appointment.

This healthy tip is provided by the Health Information Center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center.

For reliable information on how to take better care of your health or a loved one’s health – or, on any health related topic – contact the Health Information Center.Staffed by medical librarians and certified health information specialists, the Health Information Center offers an extensive health library, digital and print resources, walk-in assistance, and help with research on specific health conditions—all free of charge and available to the public.