- Can you lose weight with intuitive eating?
Is it another diet?
What do I really think about it?
(upbeat music)
Welcome to the series, I'm Alyssia
and I'm so glad you're here.
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So, this series is about healing relationships with food.
Intuitive eating.
This is the definition from the website is,
a self-care eating framework which integrates instinct,
emotion and rational thoughts.
Now, much of what I speak about
throughout this entire series, much of what I've spoke about
can sound like intuitive eating,
but I wanna be clear, it's not.
Now, Evelyn Tribole
who was the woman who founded intuitive eating,
started intuitive eating, she would agree with me.
So my approach is, at its heart mindfulness
and intuitive eating is not.
Now, I greatly respect Evelyn
and I've so appreciate what she's done with intuitive eating
and some of the science that she's contribute
to published literature,
but what I practice and what I am preaching in this series
is not intuitive eating.
That being said,
it's also not anti-intuitive eating.
So, remember inner and outer wisdom,
the cake in the frosting.
Let's just do it again.
(soft music)
(man laughs)
Stop, it doesn't look like a table cloth, it's icing.
- [Man] You need a candle.
(soft music)
- Cake, this is a cake with frosting
and if you don't know what I'm talking about
this whole series compounds on previous episodes.
So watch the beginning to really understand the concept.
But, in this analogy, the cake itself
is the inner wisdom and remember,
that is the foundation that we wanna build off of it.
It's our connection to ourselves,
it's being able to listen to our bodies to tune in.
The frosting is the outer wisdom.
The outer wisdom is the awesome tools
that we get through different ways of eating, dieting,
macronutrients, knowledge about nutrition,
health expert advice.
All of that is really valuable
but, we don't wanna blindly
listen to outer wisdom, to frosting.
The frosting on its own doesn't really do much for us.
It's only really useful when it's the whole package
the frosting with the cake.
That being said,
the cake is the structure, the foundation of everything.
Intuitive eating is primarily inner wisdom.
It's only the cake.
I am pro inner wisdom.
So, that is a pro about intuitive eating in my opinion
but it's also the only pro
and also for that reason
the biggest con.
So intuitive eating focuses so much on inner wisdom
that it almost completely ignores the power
of the frosting of the outer wisdom.
So, intuitive eating has these 10 principles.
I'll put them up on the screen.
But essentially, most of them relate to inner wisdom
except for pretty much the last one
which is honor your health with gentle nutrition,
and that kind of nods to outer wisdom.
I've read their books
and gone through their program
and they often maintain,
that last one is not even necessary.
All you need are essentially
they don't say inner wisdom,
but what they're getting at is inner wisdom.
Now that is not the balance I'm going for.
I really believe inner and outer wisdom together
provide the greatest value.
The difference is the inner wisdom is foundational.
We need that first, not only but first,
I also, I'm hesitant about the tone of intuitive eating.
You know, it can be a little bit judgmental,
a little extreme.
So principle one for instance,
that uses this word, reject.
So extreme,
reject the diet mentality.
I think what's resonated with me on my mindfulness journey
is listening to what feels reasonable and make sense.
I've talked about the pendulum a lot.
Those extremes are so stressful over here and over there,
reject this, only do this.
I find so much more ease in the middle.
Intuitive eating makes sense mostly,
but that harsh tone can make me cringe a little bit
so that doesn't make me feel super peaceful.
Mindfulness has made my body kind of like an alarm.
So how I'm feeling, how I wanna hear something,
how I feel can really guide me.
While I endorse intuitive eating,
I do think it could help
but I think it can easily be misused
and it easily is misused.
There are some helpful tools in the books, in the program
that really are designed to foster inner wisdom.
Some of the studies also mentioned in the book
are really interesting
and they acknowledge the connection of the mind and body.
I appreciate the reasoning
and the science that they point to talking about
how diets specifically don't work
and can actually cause more harm than good.
But sometimes it's a little bit hypocritical.
I don't think they're partners with
but they endorse health at every size a lot
which I think is doing great things overall
but both of these programs really say,
be wary of BMI and I agree
because I think it's misinterpreted and inaccurately used
but then the hypocrisy is when you read the book,
so many of the studies they reference, are based on BMI.
It's kind of like they're cherry picking what serves them
and I guess in a way are all of us.
Also intuitive eating explicitly says
you cannot focus on weight loss.
And when I said that it can be misused.
You know, one of the most highly searched things on,
when you go on Google is like,
how to lose weight with intuitive eating
or why am I not losing weight with intuitive eating?
Well, they specifically say you can't focus on it.
I personally don't think there's anything wrong
with wanting to lose weight.
I mean, the truth is you feel how you feel
and I believe this journey to peace with food
is about meeting yourself in the moment
and how you respond to meeting yourself.
Are you judging yourself?
Are you hating yourself?
Are you being harsh and unreasonable or unkind?
Or are you being patient and light-hearted
and self compassionate, easy going, open, mindful?
Now weight loss can be approached
with an unhealthy mindset
where, there's so much of a focus on the frosting
on the outer wisdom
but it can also be approached
with a healthy and mindful mindset.
That's where we find the foundation in the inner wisdom.
So what intuitive eating is getting at,
that I agree with is,
once you have the inner wisdom foundation
then you realize the weight loss doesn't matter so much.
The weight loss isn't really what we're after, right?
We wanna feel good, We wanna feel confident
but to tell people stop caring about losing weight.
You have to stop caring about losing weight
to do this program, good luck.
If you care about losing weight right now
and I tell you well just don't,
is it gonna do anything?
No, I mean if someone told me a couple of years ago,
five, 10 years ago, to stop caring about losing weight
when it was all I cared about, it's not gonna happen.
And I also don't like a lot of the kind of social media
approach and tone with intuitive eating.
This is not necessarily the intuitive eating accounts
but like the nutritionist who endorse it saying,
don't listen to these coaches
or those experts only listen to us.
Sorry, that's just as much of an extreme
that's just saying don't trust you trust me.
I wanna listen to someone who encourages me
to listen to me first and foremost.
And I want you to listen to you.
I want you to hear what other people have to say,
If it's calling to you.
And then I also want you to recognize
it's your power in your decision to absorb or let it go.
I don't believe in doubling.
I don't believe that anyone outside of you
is gonna really have the answer to you, that you can't find.
It doesn't mean that you can't benefit
from their information.
When it comes to weight loss my approach is,
meet yourself where you're at now
and then meet yourself again where you're at tomorrow
and the next day and you keep doing that
seeing clearly what's here now and it evolves
and your relationship to weight
and health and food will change.
Eventually if you keep meeting yourself now what I found
and what I've seen a lot of other people find that have
healed their relationships with food
is they start to lose the weight
because they stopped caring so much
because they get less stressed
and they realize all I really wanted was peace.
All I really wanted was to not focus on the number
but we have to just kind of let it happen.
Okay, so share in the comments.
What are your thoughts on intuitive eating?
You know, how do you decide what to listen to?
If you've tried intuitive eating, did it work for you?
What worked and what didn't?
And if you know someone who's considering trying it
or who's confused about it,
feel free to share this video.
It really means a lot to me when you do that.
And at the end of the day,
no matter what, the choice is yours,
just remember it's all a matter of mind over munch.
(upbeat music)