Have you absolutely had it with the dieting roller coaster and just can’t seem to stay on a new diet anymore?
Are you tired of constantly struggling with emotional eating, restrictive diets, and an unhealthy relationship with food?
If so, it’s time to explore two powerful approaches that can transform your eating habits and bring you closer to a healthier and higher quality of life.
Mindful and intuitive eating are two popular approaches to help you achieve this goal.
Both focus on developing a deeper understanding of your physical health and emotional needs regarding food and aim to help you make more conscious and satisfying food choices.
Both methods have their own set of benefits and approaches. Today we will explore intuitive eating vs. mindful eating so you can decide which is best for you.
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Mindful Eating vs. Intuitive Eating
The diet culture we live in bombards us with messages about what, when, and how much we should eat. We are constantly bombarded by the latest fad diets promising quick weight loss to help you achieve the perfect body shape.
But let’s face it, the dieting cycle rarely works in the long run. Weight gain, frustration, and negative self-talk become all too common, leaving us feeling defeated and trapped in a cycle of harmful beliefs.
Left unchecked, an unhealthy relationship with food is a risk factor for binge eating or an eating disorder.
So, how do you choose between mindful and intuitive eating? Well, the truth is, they are both great practices and are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they can complement each other beautifully.
Mindful eating skills can be a part of intuitive eating, helping you become more attuned to your body’s needs and preferences. By practicing mindful eating, you become aware of the satisfaction factor in your meals, which can help prevent overeating or mindless eating.
Mindful and intuitive eating have both been subject to extensive research and have demonstrated positive effects on various aspects of health and well-being. A systematic review that examined the effects of mindfulness training on eating behaviors found that it was associated with better psychological health, improved diet quality, and reduced emotional eating.
Similarly, a randomized controlled trial on intuitive eating showed that participants experienced improvements in body respect, decreased chronic dieting, and better overall satisfaction with their lives.
Mindful Eating
What is Mindful Eating?
Mindful eating stems from the principles of Zen Buddhism and its teachings on intentional focus on the present moment.
It helps you engage with the entire eating experience, nourishes your mind and body, and cultivates gratitude for the connection of all things, which helps promote a healthy relationship with food.
Mindful eating means paying full attention to the experience of eating. This includes awareness of where your food comes from, the sustainability of the food, how you prepare and serve it, and the people you are dining with.
It also involves paying attention to the sensory experience of eating, such as the taste, texture, and aroma of food, along with your body’s physical sensations, such as hunger and fullness signals.
When approaching food this way, you can see that eating is way more than healthy eating. Mindful eating leads to greater satisfaction during meal times which leads to feeling happier and more positive in your life.
Benefits of Mindful Eating
According to Kristeller & Hallett’s research on higher-weight persons in 1990, those who practiced mindful eating lost an average of 4.5 pounds over 12 weeks compared to a control group who did not use this approach at all.
Mindful eating (or conscious eating) has numerous benefits. Most notably, it can assist you in better listening to your body’s hunger and satiety cues. By using mindful practices, you can recognize physical hunger and when you have had enough.
This helps you make better food choices and reduces the potential of eating too much food. Mindful eating is excellent for your weight loss journey by cultivating greater pleasure in your food experiences.
Incorporate Mindful Eating into Your Daily Life
Incorporating practices of mindful eating into your everyday life is a simple and effective way to improve your relationship with food and achieve a more balanced and healthy diet.
Here is how to start a mindful eating practice.
- Before you take your first bite, take three deep breaths and pause to be grateful for how the food arrived on your plate. Be thankful for the farmer, the truck driver, the grocery store clerk, and the chef (or yourself). This will help foster an appreciation for the interdependence of all people and things.
- Set aside dedicated time to eat your meals. Instead of eating on the go or while multitasking, sit at a table and focus solely on eating.
- Take the time to savor and enjoy your food. Slow down and use all of your five senses. Pay attention to how the food tastes, from the flavors, textures, to the aromas of your food. Chew your food thoroughly and put down your utensils between bites.
- Listen to your body’s hunger and fullness cues. Serve yourself a modest portion. Eat when you are hungry, and stop when you are comfortably full. Avoid skipping meals when possible, making it harder to slow down because you are starving.
- Avoid distractions while eating. Turn off your phone, TV, and other devices, and try to eat in a quiet and peaceful environment. Refrain from venting, arguing, or any other stressor that can disturb your experience.
- Practice non-judgment while eating. Don’t beat yourself up for indulging in a treat or eating the types of food that are not considered healthy foods. Remember that all foods can fit into a balanced diet.
- Mindful eating is a practice, so approach it slowly and with patience. Start with mindfully eating a snack or drinking coffee or tea. Over time, the practice becomes a habit, and then you will eat mindfully with much less effort.
By incorporating these tips into your everyday life, you can develop a more mindful approach to eating, leading to a more balanced and satisfying relationship with food.
Intuitive Eating
What is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive eating principles are based on the belief that your body is naturally equipped to guide your food intake. It emphasizes reconnecting with your own internal cues of hunger and fullness rather than following external food rules.
Intuitive eaters trust their own body’s signals and eat when they are physically hungry, choosing foods that bring both pleasure and sustenance.
Intuitive eating means paying attention to hunger signals and how your body feels before, during, and after meals and responding to those signals. Eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full is crucial in intuitive eating.
Another key aspect of intuitive eating is learning to respect your body’s need for different types of food.
This means accepting your body image as it is and not constantly trying to change it through restrictive diets. Instead, focus on nourishing your body with the foods you love.
The food police refer to the external voices, internal negative thoughts, or beliefs that dictate what you should or shouldn’t eat. The goal of intuitive eating aims to break free from the restrictive dieting mindset and foster a sense of body respect, self-compassion, and trust in your own body’s wisdom.
Benefits of Intuitive Eating
One study concluded that people who eat intuitively have lower body weight and better mental health.
Intuitive eating also has many benefits. It encourages you to tune into your body’s natural hunger and fullness cues and make food choices based on what feels satisfying and nourishing to you.
You focus on developing a healthy relationship with food that does not involve the vicious cycle of dieting.
It is highly flexible as you are encouraged to give yourself permission to enjoy all foods without feeling remorse or guilty after eating. Intuitive eating also leads to higher self-esteem, body image, and improved mental healthy by learning to accept yourself.
Incorporate Intuitive Eating into Your Daily Life
Intuitive eating can be challenging at first, especially for a chronic dieter, but it can become a natural part of your daily routine with some effort and consistency.
It’s the most important first step is letting go of any diet mentality or diet rule in the intuitive eating process. Instead, focus on nourishing your body with a variety of foods without any guilt or shame.
Here are the basic principles of intuitive eating to help you get started:
- Intuitive eating (like mindful eating) promotes eating mindfully and with awareness. Remove distractions while eating. Pay attention to your food and feelings to recognize hunger cues so you can respond appropriately.
- Pay attention to your body’s signals. Take note of how your body feels before, during, and after meals. Are you hungry? Full? Satisfied? Eat when you are hungry. Stop when you are full. This will help you to respond to your body’s needs.
- Trust your body’s wisdom. Your body is brilliant and knows what it needs. Instead of following strict and rigid food rules that often stem from diet culture, listen to your body’s signals and give it the food intake that it needs.
- Eat with awareness while being non-judgmental. There is no right/wrong or good/bad eating style. You did not slip up if you ate something you didn’t plan on. You are on a journey of self-exploration and can only find what suits you if you go through this process.
- Experiment with different foods. There are no good/bad foods. Don’t restrict yourself to certain foods or food groups. Eat what you want most, even if it is cake and ice cream. Try new foods and see how they make you feel.
- Intuitive eating takes time and practice. Be patient with yourself and trust the process. Work with a registered dietician specializing in intuitive eating principles, or purchase an intuitive eating book for extra support.
The most important thing is to be kind and compassionate with yourself and to keep trying. With time and practice of intuitive eating principles, you will see big changes in your relationship with food.
Summary: Mindful Eating vs. Intuitive Eating
Embracing a mindful or intuitive eating framework can significantly improve your relationship with food.
Overall, the principles of mindful eating and intuitive eating have their strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately, you will have to decide what works best for you.
Whether that means combining aspects of both approaches or sticking with one more than the other, there is no single perfect way to eat healthily.
However, ensuring that your chosen approach helps you with lifestyle changes that foster a positive relationship with food and your body is important.
After all, that is the most important thing when it comes to dieting; learning to make sustainable changes that last for the long term.
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