Intuitive eating, a type of mindful eating, is an approach to eating focused on your physical and emotional needs. It emphasizes eating when hungry and stopping when full, as well as other cues. For example, visual cues like food advertisements, emotional cues like stress, scent cues like smelling your favorite food and social cues like a meal out with friends. Intuitive eating is a practice that focuses on self-control through being present and aware of how you feel and how the food tastes.
Signs of Physical Hunger
Fatigue and lightheadedness
Irritability
Headache
Grumbling stomach
Increasing hunger
No specific cravings, but still hungry
Signs of Emotional Hunger
Quiet stomach
Sudden hunger (e.g., due to a stress or external response)
Cravings
Guilt associated with eating
Key Strategies for Intuitive Eating
Acknowledge Your Hunger
Whether you stick to a routine, like eating at the same time every day, or not, recognizing when you are hungry and acting on that feeling are key aspects of intuitive eating. Listening to your body when it is hungry increases your mindfulness practice.
Recognize and Respond to Fullness
Just as you acknowledge your hunger, you can acknowledge feeling full. ‘Checking in’ while eating or taking a moment every few bites to assess how the food makes you feel, can help you identify a comfortable degree of fullness. Aim to stop eating when comfortably full.
Be Aware That Negative Feelings Happen
Anger, sadness and stress will happen as you navigate life. Acknowledge these emotions as they occur and find coping techniques that help you work through them (e.g., talk to a friend or loved one, go for a walk, meditate, dance and sing).
Improve Your Relationship With Your Body
Positive self-image can be tricky to achieve, but it is important when connecting feeling to food. Your body carries you through all the worst and best times. It is resilient and so are you. Nurturing a positive relationship with your body is key for intuitive eating.
Intuitive eating is not considered a ‘diet’ but a practice since it focuses on the practice of eating more mindfully. It does not restrict any foods or provide strict rules to adhere to. The goal of intuitive eating is not weight loss, although it may benefit your weight management efforts. The goal is to improve your relationship to food and your body, and directly connect your experiences with your sense of fulfilment while eating. It’s a mind-body approach.