Pursuing nutritional health… WITHOUT regard to weight.

What a great way to segway into a growing interest in pursuing nutritional health… WITHOUT regard to weight. 

 

Adolescents by their very nature struggle to feel confident, comfortable, and to fit into society. This struggle commonly plays out in the need to have the “right body.” Afterall, everywhere we look, social media, advertisements, magazines or television, we’re reminded that we’re not the “ideal”... not thin enough, not strong enough, not young enough, not good enough. Even well meaning parents, coaches and health care practitioners fall prey to these messages. 

 

Whether it's the keto, paleo, vegan or intermittent fasting (you get the idea), diet culture surrounds our society, teaching us to rely on external cues for eating. We opt to put our faith into restrictive programs or “lifestyle changes” that inform us what to eat, what not to eat, when to eat and when to stop eating because diets offer the antidote... losing weight will solve all your problems. 

 

What do all diets have in common? Deprivation. 

 

And why are there so many choices? Because they don’t work. Research shows diets have potentially devastating consequences. They are futile, set one up for failure and do more damage in the long run then never having dieted at all. 

 

So you ask, “What’s the alternative?” 

 

Listening to your body’s natural signals for hunger and satiety. Something with which we were all born… intuitive eating. 

 

Intuitive Eating is not a trend or a “lifestyle.” Do you really want to follow a keto diet for life??? Or miss out on a holiday breakfast because it’s served before 12pm? Or grandma’s homemade pasta that she made for you with love? And if so, is it worth it? And at what cost? 

 

This non diet, non weight focused approach has been around for almost twenty-five years but is just now receiving interest… possibly due to frustration that 95% of diets result in weight gain, added stress and disconnection from our body leading people toward a lifetime of disordered eating behaviors or eating disorders that now include children as young as 6 and an increasing number of males. 

 

Intuitive Eating is a model comprising ten principles that encourage cultivating or removing obstacles to body awareness. One’s health is honored by listening and responding to the direct messages of the body in order to meet its physical and psychological needs. 

 

The ten principles include: 

 

 

Intuitive Eating is a paradigm shift, a movement that is here to stay because it’s sustainable. Afterall, that's how our bodies were designed to function.