Intuitive Eating and Cutting Out Certain Foods

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Based on a lot of the conversations going on here lately, I thought many of you might get something from this article.Best Wishes!

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Intuitive Eating and Cutting Out Certain Foods

via Intuitive Eating blog for Intuitive Eating Support by Christie Inge on 5/10/11

In my post, what intuitive eating is not, there was a common theme in the comments, emails and facebook responses: What about needing (or wanting) to cut out certain foods?

For some, this food is sugar. For some, it is gluten. For others, it may be dairy or soy. The list is truly endless.

I discuss this from a health perspective in my post, intuitive eating and health issues, but here, I would like to address it from a diet mentality perspective. (If you have a health related issue like diabetes or gluten intolerance, please check out the intuitive eating and health issues post). The problem is that when we start cutting out this food or that food, it can often lead us to feeling deprived, restricted or, basically put – like we are on a diet – even if we are doing it for health related reasons.

I think the first thing to consider is this:

Are you really doing it for health reasons or is this a pseudo diet?

In other words, it is worth examining your true beliefs about whatever the food is. For example, going gluten free has become quite the trend theses days. In my how to go gluten free post, I share that some people ultimately believe that they will lose weight by going gluten free. Ironically enough, often the opposite is true – many people actually gain weight when they give up gluten. Maybe you believe that giving up sugar will help you drop a few pounds and maybe that belief is actually on a subconscious level. I think it is important to ask yourself why – and keep asking – because when you are truly doing something to honor your body – it won’t feel like a diet at all.

And that leads me to:

Drop the All or Nothing Thinking

The difference between giving something up because it makes you feel like crap and giving something up as a form of restriction is that when something makes you feel like crap, you really just don’t want to eat it – most of the time. You may find yourself noticing that too much dairy makes you feel congested or clogs up your digestive system and from there decide that you don’t want to eat it very often. But then, for a multitude of reasons, you will be faced with the choice to have some ice cream or some cheese every now and then and you will make the choice to eat it anyway – with awareness of what is will happen in your body. It is about making a choice rather than depriving yourself. And when you make the choice to eat whatever anyway, you don’t beat yourself up about it. You just move on.

OK, but:

What About Sugar?

Sugar is a tricky, tricky food because of the signals it sends to our brains. I have wavered back and forth on whether or not I believe that sugar (or food in general) can be a true addition but I do know that for many, eating sugar can create a cycle of craving that can feel unbearable. I think that this is a balance that each and every person needs to figure out on his or her own. But, I also think that the drop all or nothing thinking thing applies here.

If you find yourself in the viscous cycle of sugar cravings – it may be worth it to experiment with what actually works for you. Try reaching for natural sweeteners, fruits and sweet vegetables instead of processed sugar. Observe how eating sugar at different times of the day impacts the cycle of cravings. Find out what happens when you eat no sugar, only a little sugar and a lot of sugar without making it a hard and fast rule.

and most importantly:

Be Compassionate with Yourself

There are few things in life that I believe work with rigid, hard and fast rules and I think it is important to embrace that with your food choices. We are human beings and nothing we do – despite how hard we try – is going to be perfect. I like to say that we are perfect in our imperfections. Adjust your thinking about these things – understand that sometimes you will make the choice to eat {insert whatever here} and that is OK. Just be aware of what is going to happen in your body and accept it for what it is – a choice. You aren’t a good or bad person because of what you eat. Now, if you find yourself making the choice that doesn’t honor your body more often then not, it is going to be worth examining why you are doing that and getting to the bottom of it.

Is there a food choice that you struggle with? Does cutting certain foods out feel like a diet to you?

Things you can do from here:

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