Intuitive Eating Myth-Busting Part 2

Emotional eating is bad, and debunking more common myths about Intuitive Eating.

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If you missed Part 1 of this Intuitive Eating Myth-Busting series, please check it out here.

In this post I’m going to bust a few more common myths about Intuitive Eating, including: 1) Emotional eating is bad; 2) You can’t plan your meals in advance; and 3) There is a right way to practice Intuitive Eating. Let’s look at each one.

Myth #1: Emotional eating is bad.
In general, the messages about emotional eating in our culture is that it’s “bad”. But because a part of Intuitive Eating is about tuning into your hunger signals, it can be easy to misinterpret this principle to mean that you should only eat when hungry and not for any other reason. Moreover, there is a principle called “Cope with your emotions without using food”. So on the surface it can seem like Intuitive Eaters believe that emotional eating is “bad”. But digging deeper into the model of Intuitive Eating, it’s important to remember that there is no “good” or “bad” behaviours in Intuitive Eating. Some behaviours may not feel as good for your body or mind, but it doesn’t mean they are bad. 

When it comes to emotional eating, Intuitive Eating acknowledges that eating can be an emotional experience- and that is normal. Eating because it gives us some comfort or getting some joy out of dining out at your favourite restaurant is all perfectly normal, human behaviours. What Intuitive Eating brings more attention to is whether or not the way you’re eating is actually taking care of yourself and nourishing your needs, or is it maybe adding more stress to your life? The reasons for emotional eating can vary from being harmless to completely self-destructive. But often, regardless of the intensity of it, there is often a reason it’s happening - usually because people have not learned alternative ways to deal with their emotions that’s not food related.

So Intuitive Eating does not criticize or judge someone for emotional eating. It will just ask you to start questioning whether or not your behaviours are serving you and helping you move forward in your life, or are they holding you back and need to be taken care of in a different way. By acknowledging that emotional eating is a pretty common behaviour, Intuitive Eating can help take out the self-blame and shame around it, AND it can also give people skills to deal with their emotions in more effective ways, especially if emotional eating seems to be causing more problems and stress in your life. Read more details about emotional eating here.

Myth #2: You can’t plan your meals in advance.
Intuitive Eating is largely about being able to tune into what your body and mind wants to eat. And in a ideal world, maybe this would mean that we can just go to the grocery store everyday and pick out exactly what we want that day, just based on what we feel like eating. But in reality, most people don’t have that luxury, nor is it necessary to still be an Intuitive Eater. It’s practical to make a big batch of soup on Sunday for the week or make enough dinners for two meals or more. You may still eat leftovers some days because they need to be eaten, and not because it’s exactly what you felt like eating in that moment. You may have a family to feed and lunches to make and only so much time in the day to plan and make your meals. That is totally fine, of course!

Intuitive Eating is not against meal planning and prepping. Even if meal planning and prepping may take a little bit away from eating totally intuitively in that moment- you can still practice intuitive eating within your planning. For example- when you’re planning your weekly menu, choose foods and recipes that you actually like and enjoy and that satisfy you. And along with the foods you need for the week, also stock your home with other foods and snacks you like, so that if or when you do feel like something different or just want these foods, they will be there if you want. So you can still enjoy your food and be practical at the same time.

Myth #3: There is a right way to practice Intuitive Eating.
If there’s at least one thing I hope you’ve taken away from this two-part series of myth-busting, is that there really is not one “right” way to do Intuitive Eating- because it’s not a diet or a meal plan with rules to follow. In the Intuitive Eating books - the authors make it very clear that even though there are 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating, they do not have to be practiced in any specific order and how an individual practices them will vary based on their needs and concerns at the time.

There is no pass or fail in Intuitive Eating. Anything that is deemed a “failure” is actually viewed as a learning experience and a chance to be curious and discover something new about yourself. If there is an “end game” in Intuitive Eating it would be to able to make peace with food and your body. But what they means and how to actually get there is going to look different for different people. And even if you “get there”, the journey of self-discovery doesn’t stop. Because humans like categories and we like check-lists, it’s easy to just check-off each Principle of Intuitive Eating when you think you’ve “mastered” it and believe you’re done. But Intuitive Eating is not a check-list or a project to finish and be done with. It’s a way of being with yourself, your health and I’d go as far as to say- life. This path is not about right and wrong, it’s about walking a path of curiosity, learning, compassion and inner discovery.

I hope this two-part series has helped clear up some common misunderstandings with Intuitive Eating and has encouraged to approach it in a more nuanced way.

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