Intuitive Eating Principle #3: Make Peace with Food
Enough with the restrictions! Stop the food fight, make peace with food and give yourself unconditional permission to EAT!
Giving yourself unconditional permission to eat is a liberating and compassionate practice that empowers you to forge a healthier relationship with food and your body. It encourages you to break away from restrictive eating patterns and diet mentality, allowing you to embrace your natural hunger cues and indulge in all foods without guilt or judgment. By nurturing a mindset of self-acceptance and trust in your body, giving yourself permission to eat fosters a balanced and intuitive approach to nourishment, ultimately leading to greater well-being, contentment, and a profound sense of food freedom.
When you deprive or restrict yourself of certain foods that you have labeled “bad” or “off-limits”, cravings tend to run rampant. That certain food is all you can think about! If you are limiting yourself to a certain quantity, you are potentially setting yourself up for craving a larger quantity. This is not your fault and certainly does not mean that you don’t have strong willpower. Studies have shown that when you deprive yourself of restricted/limited foods, the desire to have it is heightened and will continue to grow in intensity until the need is met.
Give Yourself Unconditional Permission to Eat
stop labelling foods as “good” or “bad”
eat what you really want
eat without a personal food deal (e.g. “I can have cheesecake today, but tomorrow I start my diet”)
Embracing genuine food freedom and giving yourself unconditional permission to eat, without any underlying intentions of future restrictions, liberates you from the urge to overeat. However, this notion can be unsettling to many, even more daunting than the idea of abandoning diets altogether. Why?
Overcoming Apprehensions: Embracing Unconditional Permission to Eat
“I won’t stop eating”
As you embrace the knowledge that no food is forbidden, the novelty of eating the food, along with the compulsion to consume large quantities, will gradually fade away.
Pseudo-permission: “I’ve tried it before”
To truly embrace an unconditional permission to eat approach, it can not be tied to feelings of guilt. For example, maybe you allowed yourself to have a cheat meal, with the “deal” that you will eat better tomorrow. Your brain is still following a diet mentality because it’s telling you that you are eating something forbidden.
“I won’t eat healthfully”
Multiple studies have shown that as you go through the process of making peace with food, your body will balance its intake, focusing primarily on nutritious foods with a sprinkle of “play” foods.
Lack of self-trust
This stems from external rules, diet culture, and societal pressures that erode confidence in making nourishing choices independently. Overcoming it entails rebuilding a positive food relationship, cultivating self-compassion, and trusting one's innate wisdom for balanced and intuitive eating decisions.
Remember, you can make peace with food and establish an unconditional permission to eat, but beware of the
“I can eat whatever I want, as much as I want, whenever I feel it” trap.
Making peace with food encourages you to eat food that tastes good to you, but eating until you are full, not uncomfortable. Eating should be a pleasurable experience, so be sure to check-in with yourself and your body’s satiety cues.
