Mindful Eating For Repairing Our Relationship With Food

This talks focuses on the tenants of Intuitive Eating. We discuss each of the 10 principles as far as the basics. This is a basic discussion of each principle. Intuitive Eating is evidenced based to repair your relationship with food!

Transcript

Hi, My name is Sarah Nielsen and I am an LPC, Licensed Practicing Counselor, Who is entering their 20th year of practice. I am licensed in Missouri, Kansas, Alabama, And New Hampshire, And one of the areas I specialize in is eating disorders, Disorder of eating, And intuitive eating. So today, I would like to utilize this time to talk to you about the relationship with food and an evidence-based approach to repairing your relationship with food, No matter where you're at on the spectrum of disordered eating, Anywhere from under-eating to over-eating and any combination of that, Including purging. I would like to reference intuitive eating by Treblay and Raich. Again, This is an evidence-based approach and it is based off of 10 principles and we are going to do nuts and bolts of each one and again, This is a brief overview, So I welcome you to practice this and sometimes the information can feel a little overwhelming and so what you may want to do is pick out one or two principles that really speak to you, Resonate with you, And begin practicing them and then continue to integrate principles until you feel like you are at the full capacity integration. It takes time. Okay, So our first principle is reject diet mentality. Reject diet mentality. So diet mentality is everywhere. It's in media, Social media, Conversations, Life experiences, It's all over the place. It often coincides diets with transitions, Hard times, Breakups, Stressors, Things of that nature. It is a grip for control, Okay? Diets often give us rules, Which gives us comfort and safety and they can give us hope as well. However, They also have a lot of downfalls and I'm going to list a few of those. One is social isolation. Maybe I don't want to go out with my friends because I don't want to break my diet or be tempted, For example. Diets actually trigger overeating. They biologically teach our bodies to retain more fat. They cause increased binges, Cravings, Urges, Leaving us feeling not good enough because there's a lot of morality in the diet world. And eight more times to develop an eating disorder, It can cause weight cycling, Which is that up and down of weight, Which can be very difficult. And, You know, It throws us into the deprivation effect, Pardon me, Which means when we can't have something, We want it more. Our cravings go through the roof and we end up overeating it. I'm going to briefly give you guys an example of the cycle of dieting and I want you to rinse and repeat it. It's what happens through a lifetime. We decide we're going to start a diet. Oftentimes it's on a Monday, It's the magic day, And we overeat before the diet, Then we start the diet. And as soon as we, Quote unquote, Break the diet, We feel guilt and shame, And then we tend to overeat, Rinse and repeat. That is the cycle of dieting. That's why it's so important to reject. And so how do we do that? Your biggest tool is awareness, Okay? Stay aware of diet mentality and do not let it seep in. That includes conversations, That includes media, Social media. It's so alluring. That includes weighing yourself. That includes saying, Oh, I can't have carbs. I can't have fat. I can't have sugar. I can't eat after seven o'clock, For example, Okay? Reject diet mentality. Principle number two is honor your hunger. So when we are honoring our hunger, We are keeping ourselves biologically fed because otherwise when our hunger gets too high, We have the drive to overeat. When our hunger gets too high, We eat too fast, We are mindless, Usually poor quality and high quantity. So it is important to tap in in tune to our hunger, And when we hit that pleasant level of hunger, To feed ourselves, Okay? If you have trouble knowing your hunger, That happens from eating disorders, Disordered eating and diets, Because it's been years of rules rather than connecting to your body, Aka interoceptive awareness. I'm going to give you a few questions you can ask yourself that will be helpful in learning your hunger. Am I hungry? How hungry am I? What and when did I last eat? When did I last feel hunger? Check in on your emotional state and your physical state. Again, I know this is a very brief overview, So I will do another talk more in depth on each principle, Okay? That will be coming, But this is to give you nuts and bolts start. Principle number three is make peace with food. We are practicing unconditional permission. That can feel scary, It really can. Unconditional permission means nothing's off the table unless there's a medical reason for it. For example, Someone who's diabetic. So if you want pancakes for breakfast or egg whites for breakfast, Either is great. But remember that this is balanced with other principles. Unconditional permission does not mean we eat whatever we want, Whenever, How much ever. It is balanced with general nutrition, Respecting our bodies, Hunger in full, And eating in a mindful way. So unconditional permission is, I'm not taking it off the table because that causes deprivation effect, Which leads to overeating. I'm allowing it, Bringing it in, And I'm doing it mindfully and moderately, Okay? That is the essence of make peace with food. Number four is challenge the food police. So the food police is saying no, It's setting boundaries, And it is thoughts, Rules, And beliefs about food. So saying no is pretty obvious. Setting boundaries means sometimes you have to tell people, I'm not comfortable with you commenting on my body or my food. And thoughts, Rules, And beliefs, That's a big one that we'll have to look forward to another talk on that. But that is just exactly that, Thoughts, Rules, And beliefs about food, And I highly recommend you look into my cognitive restructuring talk right on here that will help you rework those thoughts, Rules, And beliefs about food, Because you can apply it to any subject. And that comes from life, From experiences, And media, And the diet world, But sometimes we have warped, I'll use, Thoughts, Rules, And beliefs about food, And we need to check in on that and bring more balanced and rational ones. Number five is discover satisfaction. So I'm going to do this one quite briefly. We are eating in satisfying ways, Food that is satisfying, Because guess what? Satisfaction actually lowers consumption. Can you believe that? And so I'm going to give you a quick example. How many times have you said, Oh, I want those cookies in the kitchen, But you denied yourself so you went and ate something else? And then where did you find yourself? Back in the kitchen, Eating something else, And something else, And something else until you get to the cookies, And then we have overeaten. So satisfaction teaches you to eat in satisfying ways. It lowers consumption, And eating mindfully, That means pausing and thinking about what does my body need, Hot, Cold, Creamy, Crunchy, Light and airy, Hearty, Taking some time to feed yourself in ways that are satisfying. Many people with eating disorders, Disordered eating, And diet histories deny their self-satisfaction. Okay? Food is a gift, Enjoy it. Number six is fill your fullness. So the main caveat to this one is the way we feel our fullness is we get off of auto-pilot. How do we do this? We get off devices. That includes books. That is TVs. That is laptops. That is phones. That's all of it. And then I'm going to give you some steps for mindful eating in no such order except for the first one, Which is breathing, Okay? Take a few deep breaths, Particularly if you have food anxiety, And then we want to express gratitude for our food, Describe our food, Color, Shapes, Textures, Aromas, Things like that, Rate your hunger, Check in on your full, Check in on your physical body, And your emotions. Number seven, Cope with emotions, Common kindness. Cope with emotions, Okay, So there's, Again, There's a whole lot that goes into this one, And I plan on doing a psychotherapy talk on each and every one of these principles right on here. But coping with emotions, If you are dealing with emotional eating, The more proactive you are about managing your emotions, The more, Pardon me, You're going to curb emotional eating. So be proactive. Take care of yourself, Care, And recognize, Validate, Sit with your emotions, And offer yourself some kindness. Number eight, Respect your body. So primarily with respecting your body, You are being mindful of catching body bashing and body comparing, And I'm going to reference my cognitive restructuring talk right on here and encourage you to go listen to it. Number nine is body movement. Body movement from an intuitive eating perspective is we are moving our bodies in ways that feel good because we like it, Okay? We're not moving our bodies because we should. We're not doing it for penance or punishment. We're not doing it because we ate a cheeseburger. We're doing it because I sleep better. I am less depressed, Less anxious. I'm stronger. I'm faster. It feels good, And we're doing the movement that we enjoy, Okay, Because that is what is sustaining. When you're doing movement you do not enjoy, It is not sustaining. And last but definitely not least is gentle nutrition where we are making choices that honor our health and our taste buds, Make us feel good. We are looking for variety. We are eating nutritionally dense foods, And the last thing I'm going to say about that is we are also very much paying attention to how foods make our bodies feel and how they interact with our bodies. That's really important, Okay? Does it give me energy? Does it make my stomach hurt, For example, Okay? Thank you so much for being here and watching and listening, And look for future talks getting into each one of those more in depth. Thank you so much.