Intuitive eating is the ultimate anti-diet.
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Unlike diets, intuitive eating is not sold as a quick and easy fix.
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SELF: In a general sense, how can meditating support people who are starting to practice intuitive eating?
How can mindfulness help you start to first notice and then disentangle yourself from diet culture?
Harrison:The noticing is so key.
So at first, it’s actually just becoming aware.
In what ways am I still buying into diet culture or stuck in a diet mentality?
How can dropping into the body help us get unhooked from the diet-culture beliefs embedded in our minds?
Weston:Our culture really values an intellectual approach to wellness.
And when Christy talks about an intuitive relationship with food, it’s more of a body-wisdom approach.
There’s a lot of valuable information there.
Learning to actually trust your bodys wisdommeditation is an incredible asset in being able to build that skill.
Harrison:That feedback loop is so important.
Intuitive eating often feels daunting to people.
How could that mind-body feedback loop help people with being better connected to their hunger, for instance?
Harrison:Hunger doesn’t always just manifest as growling in the stomach.
Fullness cues as wellsometimes people will feel sad that a meals ending or that they’re getting full.
and you’re free to start to locate where certain emotions are and how they are showing up.
It can be similar with intuitive eating.
Like, Okay, I’m thinking about food, I’m fantasizing about my next meal.
Are there any physical sensations that go along with that?
Theyre not aware of hunger or satisfaction until it’s really extreme, especially with hunger.
How can meditation help people navigate the inevitable emotional bumps in the road on their journey to intuitive eating?
This is too much.
And it gives us a way to be compassionate with ourselves.
People can beat themselves up with intuitive eating: I’m supposed to be rejecting the diet mentality.
Why am I still doing this?
I’m so bad at this.
I’m not having to actually change my behavior wholesale right now.
This is just a first step toward deciding what changes I really want to make.
Really getting to know our own minds and choosing what kinds of thoughts and values we want to cultivate.
When we have that self-knowledge, we can choose how we want to show up in life.
I often say: intuitive eating, intuitive everything.
Weston:I really love how the intuitive eating approach is not just about weight management or health.
It’s really about, how do you live more fully?
It’s a very holistic, whole-life approach, rather than a compartmentalized, fake silver bullet.
Theres a common saying among mindfulness practitioners: How you do anything is how you do everything.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Inspired to experiment with intuitive eating and meditation?
Ourintuitive eating overviewandbeginners' guide to meditationcan help you get started.
