My Intuitive Eating Journey

Hi there! My name is Maitha Alowais and I have struggled to have a healthy relationship with food for over a decade. I thought food restriction and constant dieting was the way to be healthy, boy was I wrong…

 The restrictions and constant dieting led me to develop a binge eating disorder that took over my life.

In Jan 2017, I had a health scare and my doctor told me to focus on eating nutritious foods. Just hearing those simple instructions sparked a light inside me and it was the first time I realized that I created this damage to my body by ironically trying to be “healthy”. In reality, I was trying to become “skinny” and I didn’t seem to care how I got there, I just wanted to see a specific number on the scale. I succeeded once and finally reached my “ideal weight” and guess what happened? Nothing special… I was low on energy, my body ached quite frequently, I wasn’t as happy as I thought I would be, and I felt emotionally heavier. Eventually, I gained back all the weight because those kinds of goals were short-lived and unsustainable.

Going back to the story when I visited my doctor. On my drive back home, I kept hearing the doctor’s voice “focus on nutritious foods”,“Eat whole foods”, it kept replaying over and over in my head. Now, I would love to say that I was able to change all my habits overnight and never struggled again, but that’s far from the truth. What I will say though, is that it was the beginning of my healing journey. It took me years to finally become the person I always wanted to be, but it was worth every second of it. 

I had to do a lot of self-work and understand my mindset by looking at my beliefs, values, and patterns of behaviors. It was uncomfortable to dig deeper and at times I wanted to just give up, but I reminded myself my why and would picture my future self, she was someone who felt free, had a great relationship with food, practiced self-care, had healthy boundaries, and had peace around food. Then I would use that as my base to help me get closer to her, even doing 1% of the work daily was better than doing nothing.  

Another big part of my healing was practicing intuitive eating, at the time I had no idea this term existed. It seemed that I followed a number of the intuitive eating principles but because I didn’t have a guide or blueprint, it took me a lot longer to heal and understand myself.  

For those of you who are reading this post and are thinking to yourself, wait, what does intuitive eating mean? Don’t worry, I got you!

 Intuitive eating is an evidence-based health approach created in 1995 by two dietitians, Elyse Resche and Evelyn Tribole. The purpose of intuitive eating is to reject the diet culture and practice a non-dieting approach to change your eating habits. The idea is not to restrict yourself from certain food groups and give yourself permission to listen to your body and eat accordingly. So, for example, when you’re an intuitive eater your decision to choose one food or another will not be dictated by your diet restrictions, but rather what you feel like you need now. At times you might be craving a large salad filled with roasted veggies, brown rice, and your favorite protein, while other times you might be more in the mood for a bowl of pasta. Both are perfectly great choices; the main thing is to have an overall healthy balance and not judge yourself for either decision. The idea is to reconnect with the body’s natural signals around food.

 In intuitive eating, there are 10 principles/steps to help you to have a healthier relationship with food and with yourself:

1. Reject the diet mentality: I know this one is hard to believe, but how many diets have you been on since you started? Can you even count? I know I can’t, but I do remember the ones that were the harshest. The truth is diets don’t work, sure you can get results, but for how long will you be able to maintain those restrictive habits while also feeling fulfilled, content and peaceful? I’m sure that it won’t last too long. In fact, an article from Harvard health provided research on how popular diets we see today don’t work for the vast majority of people and how they can have negative health outcomes in the future.
2. Recognize your hunger & fullness cue: When you start a diet, it usually dictates when you are “supposed” to be hungry and full. How do you think this impacts your natural cues? Well, you are essentially ignoring your biological cues and don’t allow your body to naturally tell you when you are hungry or full. So, starting to be in tune with your body is an important element to help you to recognize your natural cues.
3.  Make peace with food: No foods should be off limits; I know it sounds scary but allowing yourself to have your “banned foods” will help you to remove the feeling of guilt when you eat them and the fact that they’re no longer a “forbidden food” eventually won’t feel as appealing to eat it all the time. Our unconscious mind doesn’t process negatives, so when you say don’t eat a cookie or don’t think of a polar bear, guess what happens? You will think want to eat the cookie and you will think of the polar bear. Best approach? Just be neutral and allow all foods so it’s not as tempting.
4.  Challenge the food police: Be conscious of your inner voice and challenge the thoughts that categorize food as “good” or “bad” as this can lead to feelings of guilt or failure when you can’t stick to a diet plan.
5.  Discover satisfaction factor: Practice being more mindful when you’re eating, what does it look like? what’s the texture like? what feelings do you get from certain flavors? When you don’t pay attention to your food, you are more likely to eat more during your mealtime or in the next meal. When you allow yourself to take a moment to appreciate your food you will be on a path of self-connection and discovery. I would suggest you select an environment that is inviting and feels calm.  
6.  Cope with your feelings without using food: When we are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, bored, anxious, and even happy- we tend to use food as our comfort and while it’s not necessarily a bad thing, if done occasionally, it can have a detrimental impact if it has become your habit each time you feel the emotions above. I would suggest finding other ways to help you overcome those emotions like taking a walk, stretching, speaking to a friend, dancing, or practicing some self-care.
7.  Respect your body: Accepting your body for where you are now, will help you to achieve your goals while also being kinder to yourself. If you are being harsh on yourself and say mean things to yourself, you will more likely engage in negative behavior. Remember, you can’t hate yourself into loving your body.
8. Exercise and practice movement: use exercise to celebrate your body rather than punishing it for what you ate the day before. If you shift your mindset from I only workout to burn calories to I work out for my mind and body, your relationship with exercise will improve. Try to select workouts/ movements you enjoy and not ones you think you should do. This will help you to keep a consistent routine.
9.  Honor your health: being part of the diet culture for so long makes you an expert in how many calories, carbs, fats, proteins, and sugars are in your food, but do you know what you tend to miss out on? The freedom to select foods you want. So many of our decisions are influenced by nutrition facts rather than selecting food for enjoyment and pleasure. I will let you in on a little secret… a calorie isn’t everything and is just estimations. The way you process a certain food can be entirely different to your friend and that has more of an impact on your health than just looking at a calorie.

I can go on for hours discussing the topic of intuitive eating, but I thought I’d provide you with a summary that is easier to digest.

I hope you enjoyed this article and speak soon xx