Is Intuitive Eating Just Mindful Eating?
Mindful eating and intuitive eating have a lot of similarities. In fact, mindful eating is part of intuitive eating. But sometimes intuitive eating gets the reputation of just being mindful eating... it's actually so much more! So let's explore this a little, shall we? What's the difference and how does mindful eating help us be more intuitive with food?
If you think about mindful eating as our planet Earth, intuitive eating is like our solar system. Mindful eating is part of intuitive eating, but there are so many other factors that play a role in us eating intuitively.
When you think about mindful eating, what do you think about? You probably think about sitting at the table, pausing before you eat, enjoying your food and thinking about what you're eating, and eating slowly. All of these things are really helpful when we're practicing being intuitive eaters. But like I mentioned a second ago, intuitive eating includes so much more.
Some of the trickiness and confusion comes when we think about intuitive eating as just mindful eating. When we do this, we miss out on so much more with intuitive eating and it easily can turn into just the "hunger-fullness" diet.
Intuitive eating is about your overall relationship with food. And if you've been struggling with yo-yo dieting and feeling out of control with food, mindful eating can help. But it won't get to the root of why you keep wanting to go on another diet and why you feel anxious around food because of all the times you've felt like you can't control yourself.
With intuitive eating, you are taking off the bandage that diets have kept you wearing and actually discovering how to feel completely calm around food, how to never diet again (because you feel healthy and yourself without them) and how to have a relationship built on respect with your body... you care for her! If you're new to intuitive eating, I wrote a post all about it HERE.
HOW MINDFUL EATING HELPS US EAT INTUITIVELY
All of the things that you probably think about with mindful eating can help you tremendously with eating intuitively. A big part of a healthy relationship with food is building trust with yourself and your body around food and slowing down enough to notice the little signals your body gives you like hunger, thirst, fullness, satisfaction, can help build that trust. When we are busy and neglect to pause to ask ourselves questions like, "What do I need right now?" and "How do I feel right now?" we can easily forget to eat until we're so hungry that it's all we can do to keep us from eating everything in sight.
Dieting teaches us very little about mindful eating and actually leads us to believe, no, you can't trust your body...that's why you need this diet. So if you have a history of dieting in your past it may take some time to feel comfortable with pausing to notice these signals within you. It may take time, too, to actually recognize signals like hunger and fullness because you've been so used to using external cues like certain times of day where you're allowed to eat or certain amounts you're allowed to eat. Give yourself grace for this discomfort and know it will get better the more you let go and practice tuning into and trusting your body.
INTUITIVE EATING IS NOT THE HUNGER/FULLNESS DIET
Where I've seen some people get hung up is buying into a belief that intuitive eating is just about eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full. Again, this plays a role, but not understanding all the other facets behind your overall relationship with food can be something that keeps you stuck in just another diet.I'd say the foundation of intuitive eating lies not with just hunger and fullness, but with an overall mindset of building up trust with your body, something that mindful eating can help with. Again, diets teach you the opposite...that you can't trust yourself and you need rules and a plan in order to eat healthily. So working through giving up dieting, making peace with food, and respecting your body all come together to build up that trust that was lost with dieting. All of these help us eat more mindfully. Not because of a mindset of wanting to control how much we eat (even though practicing mindful eating is so helpful with recognizing when you're full), but rather from a place of "I trust her--my body--and I want what's best for her so I am going to slow down, enjoy this meal, and be fully present."
HOW TO PRACTICE MINDFUL EATING
So, we've been talking about mindful eating as part of intuitive eating. What are some things you can do to practice being more mindful with eating?
The first recommendation I give for someone wanting to be more mindful with eating is to take a little pause before eating. What this could look like is sitting down for your meal and before you dig in and rush through, pause and take 3 deep belly breaths. Not only will this pause and breath help you with the digestion of your meal (there's research to back up slowing down before we eat to help with digestion) but also it will help you get into the mindset of eating. How often have you sat down to rush through lunch because you were busy and didn't even hardly taste your food? This pause will help get you ready physically to eat as well as mentally and help you be in a mindset to pay attention to the cues your body gives you as you eat.
The second thing I recommend is going to go along with the last. Pause throughout your meal or, at the least, do mental check-ins throughout your meal to notice how you feel as you're eating. Can you sense yourself getting more satisfied by the food you're eating? Can you feel your body getting more full? How does the food taste? This will help you stay present during your meal.
And lastly, get rid of distractions if you find they are preventing you from eating mindfully. I'm all for sitting on the couch with dinner and watching a show at night. But if it's preventing you from being able to cue in to your body's signals then you may need to first practice with less distractions until mindful eating is easier and more natural for you. Do you struggle with eating mindfully?
Have you found it difficult to eat intuitively and think it may be because you've been treating it like just another diet?