Imagine a “no-diet” lifestyle. No cravings, guilt, or restriction.

Eating your favorite foods at your convenience while maintaining a healthy and fit body. Being so in tune with your body that you always eat until satisfaction, never more, and feeling completely in control.

This is what a healthy and balanced relationship with food looks like. It’s about knowing your body and providing it with all of the nourishment it needs.

 

Diet culture can have the effect of messing with this natural balance—it consists of many rules that when followed, help us look good, but can make us vulnerable to unhealthy eating patterns. It’s not always a natural process.

 

Intuitive eating, on the other hand, involves taking away those rules, and instead tuning into the body and eating based on our cues.

So ideally, by eating intuitively, we should be able to look good and feel good without stress.

 

On the other hand, there is a common concern that intuitive eating is not ideal, because of its lack of structure.

Sometimes it can be necessary to step in and intervene when trying to reach specific goals such as if trying to build muscle, to lose weight, or gain weight.

I’m going to address these concerns based on my experience with both diets and intuitive eating.

Intuitive eating paired with healthy habits and in some cases, even diet plans, is the best way to help us achieve the goals we are looking for.

 

Resetting Hunger Cues

We all have hunger cues within us that tell our bodies exactly what we need. This is a completely natural process and is how the body regulates itself.

Sometimes, however, we can get in our own way: our hunger cues get thrown off balance when we ignore these cues and become disconnected from the body.

This can happen for example, when following a diet plan that is too rigid.

Rather than eating when hungry, you may perhaps, skip that meal as a part of this plan.

Done repeatedly for long periods of time, the body becomes imbalanced, thus creating an unhealthy relationship with food.

Many of us have experienced a similar scenario at some point in our lives.

Intuitive eating helps to reconnect to the body and restore balance.

 

My Initial Experience with Intuitive Eating

About 6 years ago, I was in what seemed like an unending cycle where I’d binge, then try to make up for it with long fasts, or rigorous workouts.

I followed calorie counts religiously. I was constantly in pursuit of perfection. It was purely exhausting, and it only got worse as time went on.

 

At the point of being completely fed up, I decided to try a reverse diet and it went like this:

Whenever a craving came along, I’d give in. I would even allow myself to binge. From then, I’d allow myself to feel the effects of my behavior, and not make up for it.

Initially, I gained some weight. It was uncomfortable, however, I knew that each time I did this, I was facing a fear that I previously tried to resist by over-exercising or fasting.

 

What I found was eye-opening–as time passed, my cravings grew weaker. I stopped caring so much about eating perfectly. If I fell off, it affected me less and less.

In fact,  I naturally started to desire healthier foods and wanted to exercise out of enjoyment instead of punishment.

 

Eventually, I got to the point where I felt in control. I was amazed to feel this way for the first time in my life.

I could finish eating before finishing my plates, by will and not by force.

The thought of indulging no longer gave me anxiety because I knew if I did, it could not harm me; even if I overate, I had so must trust in my body and I knew it would balance itself over and over again.

My eating problems were cured. In fact, this healthy relationship I had developed with food lasted for years.

 

In my situation, I learned how to reset my body’s natural balance. I had been too far on the restrictive side, which caused my anxieties in regard to food and overeating.

Once I faced my fear of overeating, I became detached, more relaxed, and in tune again.

I’m going to provide Intuitive Eating Tips for the best in an upcoming post. Stay tuned.

 

The Conflict Between Intuitive Eating and Body Goals

I ate based on intuitive eating alone for years—I rarely calorie counted, chose mostly healthy foods, and indulged occasionally. A new issue then surfaced.

Last August I started working with a personal trainer who re-introduced food-tracking back into my life.

He was a former body-builder so his style consisted of a lot of numbers and measuring.

I felt apprehensive because, in the past, numbers and tracking strictly had led to my binging problem.

However, I followed through—-and I was very committed to it.

 

We initially worked on a weight gain period, followed by a cutting period, where we focused on leaning out.

 

The cutting period is where it really got intense. I cut out food groups, ate only at specific times, and did a lot of cardio. I had to use discipline to successfully follow this plan, which required enduring uncomfortable feelings.

I had to compromise my intuitive eating habits in order to stay on track. I noticed more results and as time went by and started becoming addicted to them—I became so focused on looking good.

I began to disconnect from how I was feeling on the inside…little by little, stress was building up as I became increasingly restrictive and more tired.

 

Eventually, it backfired.

Everything had to be perfect in my eyes. I had very strong cravings for food, I felt exhausted, and any time I fell off the plan, I had to find a way to make up for it. I would do anything for those results.

Once the cutting period was over, I would indulge a lot. What should have been done as a way to reward myself for putting in so much work, was instead done so with feelings of guilt each time after. I would go to the gym and work off the excess calories I had eaten.

The cycle started again. Since then I have worked on fixing the problem through intuitive eating principles I had used in the past, but this time, I wanted to adjust the process:

 

Working with a trainer made me realize that results require structure. Measuring and tracking help to reach new points.

Intuitive eating alone can lack that structure—when you eat solely based on how you feel, you may not gain the muscle, or lose the weight as desired.

Your body needs a certain balance of food and activity, in order to change in the way you want it to.

In fact, practicing a healthy amount of discipline and even discomfort is a good thing. It keeps us strong and on track.

Balancing structure with intuitive eating cues is an excellent way to stay balanced and feel great.

 

Conclusion

Finding Balance: Reaching Fitness Goals while Intuitive Eating

Intuitive Eating is very effective. I believe many people can benefit from it and stop dieting.

When we want to make changes in our bodies, or habits, however, diet plans can be helpful. They serve as guides to a new destination and help to keep track of progress.

Now, here’s the thing: we all have different preferences for health, different goals, body types, and lives.

There is no one-size fits all method. However, what is most important is balance.

Always listen to your body, and adjust. Your needs are constantly changing.

As a general rule of thumb, it’s good to choose a lifestyle and food that nourishes the body and makes you feel enjoyment from living in it.

However, indulgence is perfectly fine. You don’t have to make up for every time you get off track, in fact, I don’t advise doing so. This process does not have to be “perfect”, this is life—it is volatile, it’s fun—so enjoy the ride.

 

What are your thoughts and experiences with intuitive eating?