- Hey, everybody, happy Thursday.
Now, today's question is all about intuitive eating.
But are you new to my channel, welcome.
I put on videos on Mondays and on Thursdays
so make sure you're subscribed
and have those notifications turned on
so you don't miss out.
But let's get into this question.
Kati, could you maybe do more on intuitive eating?
I know several people are asking for more information.
Could it be accessible to the whole community?
Why, yes, it can.
Thanks so much, you're doing so much for us and we love you.
Well, I love you guys, too.
Now I've talked about intuitive eating
over the years because it's really the goal
of any eating disorder recovery,
is to do what essentially we, as children,
do without even thinking about it.
We're intuitive, we eat when we're hungry,
we stop when we're full, we crave different foods,
and we eat those foods without any judgment.
That's the goal, right?
But before I get into what intuitive eating is
and how we can get into it, I want you to first know
that this isn't something that can be done
when we're in eating disorder recovery right away.
This is something that we do towards the end,
when we're almost fully recovered,
potentially feeling fully recovered
because it's so difficult for us to do
when that eating disorder voice is still in our head
jibber jabbering away in the back of our head
telling us we're hungry when we're not
or we're full when we not or we need to exercise more,
if we don't have a clear head that has completely rid itself
of that eating disorder voice we cannot intuitively eat.
So, I just want you to know that first of all
it's really important that this is something
that we only enter into once we're
pretty much fully recovered.
Just know that intuitive eating isn't for everyone
so wait until your therapist and dietician
tell you it's good to go and you can get into it.
But let's start off by just talking about
some of the principles of intuitive eating
so you can understand overall what it is.
And I know I've mentioned this a ton in the past
but I love the Intuitive Eating workbook,
you can pick it up on Amazon, I'll link it
in the description, it's a great workbook.
I even recommended it to my own mother,
I think it's really great for people to read through
and understand how we think about food,
what we do with food, and how our emotionality
can affect our hunger fullness cues.
And the first principle, stop dieting.
Or more importantly, stop the diet mentality.
First of all, it's terrible, and everybody hates it,
let's just be honest.
But also dieting is very black and white.
It's all or nothing, you're either following it perfectly,
or oh my God, I'm off the rails, like,
my life is over, I'm not even following it at all.
And so we do this almost restrict binge cycle,
we're essentially setting ourselves up for failure.
And telling ourselves to ignore what our body says.
Because the thing that we have to be reminded
all the time, all of us do, essentially,
because I feel like most of media tells us to buy into
this diet mentality, we have to remind ourselves
that our body asks for what it wants.
The reason we're craving something is because
we need something that's in that.
It might not be like the quote unquote healthiest
option but our body is telling us,
and we need to sit down, shut up, and listen.
And the second principle,
honor your hunger and fullness cues.
And this kind of rolls off of stop with the diet mentality,
because we have to sit down, shut up, and listen.
Our body tells us when it's hungry,
and it tells us when it's full.
And if we actually take a beat and listen to it,
we won't have such a hard time following it.
So take the time to check in.
When I used to work in the inpatient
treatment facility for eating disorders,
at the beginning of a meal before we'd even eat
anything, we had everybody check in.
On a scale of one to 10, how hungry are you,
or how full are you?
On a scale of one to 10, how are you doing emotionally?
10 is like, I'm about to tear my hair out,
zero is like, I'm asleep.
So checking in with that before, in the middle,
and at the end of each meal will ensure that you're
actually listening to what your body is telling you.
And of course, the emotional component,
that other zero to 10 scale, can really affect
or hunger fullness, but we just need to recognize
how it does that, and how we can combat that,
and force ourselves to be more mindful,
listen to our bodies, and pay attention to what
it says 'cause it's kind of important.
And the third principle.
Make peace with food.
Stop fighting it.
And yes, my mind did just go to the cartoon of me
like kicking a carrot in the butt and then slicing
at a Ho-Ho, but you have to stop fighting food.
It's not out to get you.
It's not a good or a bad thing,
food is just energy to allow you to do what you
need to do every day.
And the sooner we stop fighting back against it,
and being angry at it, and hating it and loving it,
the sooner we'll be able to control the restrict binge urge,
and the eating disorder voice.
By making peace with food we give ourselves
permission to eat whatever we want without
any regret or guilt.
You hear that?
I know that's really hard to accept.
But when we make peace with food there aren't
any good or bad foods, it's all just energy
that we need, and our body will crave what it needs
at different times, like there are certain times
when I really just want ice cream.
There's other times when I really just want
a crunchy salad, and I really want protein.
My body tells me what it wants, and the sooner I stop
fighting against the food and saying well,
even though it wants that, I can't have it.
That's a bad type of food.
The sooner I can really listen and I can intuitively eat.
And also by having foods that are good and bad,
it leads us to binge eating.
Because once we've quote unquote,
fallen off the rocker, if we're in that black
and white diet mentality, we're just gonna binge
on the bad food, right?
We're gonna overeat on that one item
that we feel like we should never have.
But if we aren't fighting with food,
if we believe all foods have a role in our life,
then we're less likely to overeat a certain item
once we've given ourselves permission to eat it.
And sure, when you first go into intuitive eating
I find my patients kind of struggle with
a little bit of feeling like they binge,
but when we talk about it and we're working
to make peace with food, the guilt and the shame
that their eating disorder has tried to give them
their whole life, that diet mentality,
that's bad food, the less and less we start
to feel that and the more we're able to control
the fact that we can eat all foods when we're
hungry, and stop when we're full, and that
binge restrict cycle becomes less and less.
Essentially, by calling things good and bad,
it only makes us want them even more.
And that's why like if we were out drinking at night
we might come home and overeat a lot
of that one type of food, because we've been
telling ourselves we can't have it.
And the fourth principle of intuitive eating,
start loving your body.
It's hard.
I know.
I'm not immune from it either.
But everyone's body is different.
I'm never gonna look like Gigi Hadid.
First of all, I'm a lot shorter.
And also, my legs are extremely muscular for some reason.
Thanks, Dad.
So my body's different.
Our genetics are different.
Everything is different.
And so, comparison,
one of my favorite quotes is comparison is the thief of joy.
You know what I'm joyful about?
My body works, I'm here, my brain is working,
I can breathe, my feet don't hurt, I can walk on them,
my knees, they bend, sometime they pop but they still work.
We need to stop comparing ourselves to others
and looking at other body types and thinking
that's the only body type.
And I know media tells us that this certain look
is all that's attractive, maybe stop paying
that much attention to that type of media.
Maybe unfollow some people on Instagram.
And start to love your body.
Start to appreciate it for all that it does,
because trust me, we abuse them a lot.
And they keep ticking, and they keep working,
and we should be grateful.
And appreciating all that our body does
can really really improve our mood.
I find it's almost back to that positive self-talk,
I talk about how important that is all the time,
how we speak to ourselves is so vitally important
because if we're talking nastily all the time
in our heads, saying, ugh, I'm just so fat and lazy
and I hate the way my legs look and my stomach
is so flub, and blah blah blah.
I will feel more depressed.
I could feel more anxious when I'm out and around others
thinking that they're noticing the negative
and nasty things that I'm noticing about myself.
Trust me, beginning this relationship,
to start courting your body.
Start dating it, being nice to it, giving it compliments,
as we start that process, we will start to feel better.
I promise you, it'll improve your mood,
and potentially lessen your depression or anxiety
symptoms as well.
And something that I am constantly trying to remind
myself to do, as well as my patients,
is to write love letters to our bodies.
And I know that sounds kind of creepy
but I even just do it in my head.
Sometimes when I'm going for a walk,
I'm like, thank you feet for not hurting while I do this.
Thank you back, for holding me upright.
Thank you, lungs, for breathing.
Thank you eyes for seeing.
Whatever it is, I want you to start being thankful
and writing love letters to your body,
because my body's not like your body,
your body's not like mine.
But we need to appreciate them for what they are.
And the sooner we stop fighting against them
and being an enemy of our own body,
the sooner we'll be able to eat when we're hungry
and stop when we're full.
And so starting to love your body
is all part of the intuitive eating principles.
And the fifth and final principle that we're
gonna talk about today but there are a lot more
when it comes to intuitive eating,
that's why I recommend getting the workbook,
is to take care of yourself.
We're all gonna crave different foods
at different times, but in order to live
a happy healthy life, we're gonna need to
incorporate a bunch of different types of foods
and have a very balanced diet.
So just make sure that you're incorporating
a lot of different things, you're listening to
your body when it tells you it needs something,
and you're getting regular checkups by your doctor.
And I know that that just sounds silly to add this in,
but it's just really important, because getting
a yearly physical is key to making sure that we're
not anemic, maybe we need more iron in our diet.
Maybe we need more potassium.
It's really important that we know those things
because there are a lot of parts of different types
of food that we're gonna need to help our body
function at its best.
So just make sure you're putting in the time,
you're listening to your body, and you're taking
care of yourself, so that we can keep doing what
we need to do each and every day.
This video has been brought to you by the
Kinions on Patreon.
If you would like to support the creation
of these mental health videos, click the link
in the description and check it out.
But as always, I wanna hear from you.
Have you tried intuitive eating?
Have you gotten through it?
Are you working on the workbook?
Let us know in those comments down below
because with my expertise and your experience,
we keep working towards a healthy mind
and a healthy body, and I will see you next time.
Bye!