Written by: Candace Dixon, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The concept of Intuitive Eating has many different interpretations and I’m always so surprised at how many different understandings there are out there as I talk to people both in the Food & Body space and people who have no idea wtf it is that I do, lol.
Whenever I meet new people and I tell them about my methods for treating disordered eating, they usually just nod and smile but sometimes they have some kind of widely misunderstood idea of what Intuitive Eating is, based on how confused the whole internet still is about it.
‘Oh wow, you must eat really clean. I like food too much to eat that way.’
The common misunderstanding here is that Intuitive Eating means you only eat Bird Food/Health Food Store food.
‘That’s too fancy for me. I don’t have the time to go to all that trouble.’
The common misunderstanding here is that Intuitive Eating means you only eat pretty acai bowls and elaborate recipes.
‘But you look great! You don’t need to diet!’
The common misunderstanding here is that Intuitive Eating is a diet and it’s also a low-key insult assuming that I want to lose weight.
‘I’d blow up if I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted.’
The common misunderstanding here is that Intuitive Eating means you shove your face with whatever you want aka junk food.
The common underlying belief around all of these misconceptions though, is that eating requires control.
Eating doesn’t require control.
We only LEARNED to control our eating.
Intuitive Eating to me is really about getting back to eating the way we did as little kids - before Diet Culture came into our lives and ruined our Body Images and caused us to start denying our hunger cues and ignoring our body’s signals.
When we could eat what we wanted to eat, when we wanted to eat it, stop eating when we felt full and satisfied, and then move on to think about other things besides food guilt & body shame - like fun & play - until we got hungry again.
There’s no “way” to eat with Intuitive Eating.
It’s all perfect, and that’s constantly changing for everyone, every day.
Intuitive Eating is actually a lifestyle.
It’s a way of living and caring for yourself for purposes of physical, emotional, mental & spiritual health.
It’s basically the opposite of Diet Culture in the way that Diet Culture has you eating & caring for yourself and living from a place of external direction & validation around your physical body, and Intuitive Eating has you looking at your internal GPS system AKA your intuition, for that guidance & reassurance around your overall wholistic health.
You’re most likely used to resourcing only from your mind to evaluate your food choices, whether that’s calling on nutrition knowledge and making calculations, or obsessing over forbidden foods and employing willpower.
And you’re most likely used to overthinking everything you SHOULD eat as it relates to your body weight & shape, vs. trusting and following the signals and cues your body gives you throughout the day.
But your mind isn’t the ONLY resource available to you, in fact, it’s not even the most helpful or honest resource you have.
Intuitive Eating doesn’t involve any SHOULDS.
You should eat what FEELS GOOD for you mentally, emotionally, physically & intuitively.
What feels RIGHT for you.
Instead of eating based on what you SHOULD have, Intuitive Eating allows you to eat what FEELS GOOD aka RIGHT for you (which is also very different from what SOUNDS good to you).
There’s no way to really put into words how you know, and you probably can’t really justify it, but you just KNOW something is or isn’t RIGHT for you.
This is what your Intuition feels like in your body.
To break this down further, I’ll explain with an example:
Let’s hypothetically assume that you have unlimited resources to choose whatever car you want…
Your mind will want what would look the sexiest, be the most impressive, be the best value, make the most sense - and that’s great, that’s helpful information to have.
Your body will need certain features & comforts, and depending on where you live physically, you’ll need to take performance into consideration - and that information is all very necessary.
But the moment you sit in your car, you’ll KNOW.
You’ll just know.
You’ll feel it in your body.
How right it is for you.
And you’ll be able to confidently make that purchase by taking all of this information into consideration.
Taking your practical thoughts and your physical needs into consideration you can FEEL what the best choice for you is, even if you can’t fully justify it, or explain it or make it make the most sense.
This is the same choice-making process that Intuitive Eating employs.
I have unlimited choices.
I can use my mind to make smart choices.
I can meet my body’s needs.
And I can trust my inner wisdom to make choices that support my overall wellbeing.
This has nothing to do with how my body looks or my self-worth.
To practice connecting with the feelings of your Intuition, you can recall the feelings you felt while sitting inside of the other cars and the NOT-RIGHTNESS you felt vs. the full-body YES you felt when you drove YOUR car for the first time.
That is your body’s language.
Those subtle signals, knowings, feelings, you get when you really listen.
With practice you can strengthen your communication with your intuition so that it’s easier for you to hear and follow it’s signals while taking your thoughts, feelings & your body’s actual needs into consideration, to make an overall responsible decision for your self-care.
We all have internal wisdom that nudges us subtly towards what’s right for us and away from what's not meant for us, but the trouble is that we’ve given our power away to the external world and now we can’t hear our own inner voice through all the chatter from the outside.
So. Back to eating what FEELS GOOD…
A part of you is probably thinking okay yeah that sounds great but what if Doritos are all the only thing that FEELS GOOD for me?
You’re only gonna be able to eat so many Doritos before you’re tired of Doritos.
Right now it’s hard to believe that you’d ever actually crave vegetables and “health” foods, or that you’d ever actually WANT to move your body and build muscle, or that you could ever slow down enough for consistent self-care, but that’s only because of the state of mental restriction & punishing conditions you’ve been living under.
Undoing all the years of conditioning and rebuilding self-trust is a process, but trust the process.
You will learn to trust yourself again by choosing to view your body under a lens of neutrality so that you no longer care for yourself based on how you temporarily feel about your weight.
Living an Intuitive lifestyle isn’t as complicated as it’s sometimes made out to be.
If you need help getting started, download my Free Beginner’s Guide and grab my checklist for setting yourself up for success.
My number one tool for reconnecting to the Intuitive Body and learning to speak the body’s language is Breathwork.
If you want to dive deeper, I have many free Pre-recorded Breathwork resources available on Instagram or you can register for one of my Live Virtual Breathwork Classes.
I hope you don’t feel so intimidated or confused by the concept of Intuitive Eating anymore and I hope you feel empowered to create your own Intuitive Lifestyle that supports your healing journey.
Stay tuned for the next episode of The Good Body Podcast where I’ll go into detail about how Anti-Diet doesn't have to mean Anti-Weight Loss.
xo,
Your Coach,
Candace
Candace Dixon, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Candace Dixon is a leading Intuitive Eating expert and an inspiring thought leader in the Anti-Diet Culture Rebellion. As a Holistic Intuitive Healer & Certified Food & Body Coach, Candace specializes in helping women heal body image & disordered eating behaviors at the emotional root, to naturally achieve sustainable weight loss through her signature framework & non-diet methodology. After winning her life-long battle with body dysmorphia, anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and orthorexia, Candace has made it her life's mission to help others liberate themselves from their diet depression too. As the founder of the Release + Reclaim Online Program, a premier online group coaching program, Candace is working to shift the Diet Culture paradigm internationally.
