In this blog I’ll discuss how we’re all born innate intuitive eaters and how growing up surrounded by diet culture crushes it out of us. I then discuss how the Intuitive Eating process can reteach us to trust our body’s internal cues of hunger and satiety, unlearn the harmful messages we’ve internalised about our bodies and find a way of movement that is joyful. It’s a way to bring an end to the endless dieting, workout plans, calorie counting and living in fear, to start the journey to genuine food freedom and health.

I wanted to tell you something you may not be aware of. You were born an intuitive eater. Each infant on this planet was led by hunger and satiety when they came into this world. They sought out milk by crying and whining when they were hungry, and came off the breast or bottle and turned their heads away when they were full. Infants are insanely good at listening to their body for what it needs, respecting it, and acting to satisfy its needs. As we get older, we observe our role models, listen to the messaging around us and internalise all of it. We get weighed in school, compare our weights with other children and are left to feel like our bodies are not normal. We get put on diets as children, told to not listen to our body’s signals of hunger, taught to distrust our body and ignore it. As children, we naturally believe the adults in our lives, so we do what they say to achieve their approval. We watch cartoons where the pretty girl is always skinny and the evil character is big. Then as we hit teenage years, we want to fit in. We want to have the body that’s acceptable and desired, regardless of if our body is actually able to achieve those expectations. We pluck and shave and dye our hair and straighten our teeth because our body isn’t acceptable or worthy of acceptance, not even from ourselves. Then we blame our body for not meeting our strict standards, and punish it by not feeding it the way it needs to be fed. We go to school where we’re taught being in a larger body is unhealthy, that it’s the person’s fault for eating too much and moving too little. We watch movies like White Chicks and Mean Girls where we learn it’s bad to have any body fat, cellulite, scars, and it’s weird if you don’t hate something about your body. We’re taught exercise is how you stay small, instead of all the more important reasons why exercise is good for our mind and health. We buy into diets, surgeries and personal trainers, hoping that the image we imagine for our body will eventually be the reflection in the mirror. We eat “clean” and exercise plenty, eventually unable to maintain our restrictive and exhausting way of living, to then swing the pendulum and eat all those foods we craved and stop exercising as it clearly didn’t work. Only to then feels bad about ourselves and swing the pendulum back and forth, and back and forth. We then never heal from all the internalised beliefs, have our own families, passing on our insecurities onto our children, continuing the trauma.

It’s exhausting to hate yourself. It takes away joy and is time consuming. I don’t want you to be 80 and still trying to lose weight and have spend your entire life feeling inadequate! By shifting the focus away from weight loss, and onto more important goals like health, bone density, strength, happiness, gratitude, stress management and healthy relationships, you begin to realise you are more worthy and capable than you ever realised.

That’s what I work on with people through consultations. I work on reteaching people how to follow their hunger and satiety cues, on how to reject diet mentality, on how to find a way of movement that works for them, we work on gratitude, on refocusing on themselves and stop comparing themselves to other people, as we know comparison is the thief of joy, and to feed themselves in a loving and nourishing way. Health and happiness is the main priority when I work with clients.

If you’re interested in working with me, book a Free 15 Minute Discovery Call here.