intuitive eating Archives

February 5, 2021 by Jamie English Leave a Comment

Tricksters

As I was looking at the book that I shared last week, a snippet caught my eye. The authors shared three ways to catch diets disguised as something else. Look for some key indicators—the need for willpower, the need for obedience, and the idea of failure. With intuitive eating, we are working toward trusting our bodies, trusting our natural desires.–no willpower or obedience necessary.

A common complication that comes up is a tendency to turn intuitive eating into a diet. True intuitive eating will not have these concepts. In rejecting diet mentality, a program will masquerade as a lifestyle or wellness, but still, they are a diet in disguise. Diets don’t work, remember, and they often cause harm. If you are trying to live the anti-diet life, be on the lookout for the tricksters. If you see the concept (and sometimes the actual word) of willpower, obedience, or failure…be very suspicious. I tried to come up with a mnemonic, but WOF doesn’t spell anything.

willpower

obedience

failure

January 29, 2021 by Jamie English 2 Comments

Revisiting a Trusted Resource

I was going through some notebooks I had kept over the years. One from exactly ten years ago (January of 2011), and I was somewhat amused. I had made a list of websites I wanted to visit. I took that list of twelve and typed in the websites, and about half of them weren’t even active anymore. I had made lists of trying to take care of myself, scheduling self-care, and family time. Then I saw it. Insert grimacing emoji here. I saw that I had a weight loss goal. I had the weight that I was at the time and how many pounds I would like to lose. I felt sad for myself ten years ago. It was only ten years ago when I believed in the stuff of diet culture.

But a few pages later, I listed books I planned to read that year. One of the books on that list was Intuitive Eating. I remembered it was in May of 2011 that I read that book. And it changed e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. A few weeks ago, a therapist friend of mine (also an eating disorder therapist) asked me to list my top ten books. Intuitive Eating was on that list. Make no mistake about it, there are some great books out with valuable anti-diet information. But it all began for me with this one, and it remains one of my favorites to recommend. They have built on it and revised it over the years, showing me that they are willing to grow and adapt as we all learn more about the anti-diet life. THIS is something I find respectable and necessary. They helped to start a revolution and have adapted as needed, as we learned that things might be different for individuals with various eating disorders. Adapting with language that is more inclusive and less stigmatizing. Attempting to be clearer, so as not to turn intuitive eating into another diet. Adding the science and research that has been done over the years. An important work like this will evolve and need adapting over time. As I write this, the most recent edition is the fourth. I recommend trying to get the latest version if you can or check it out at your library.

If you are ready to learn more about moving away from diets, this is a great place to start. Get this book and the workbook, too. Read it in order, the principles build on each other. Principle one is “reject the diet mentality.” Do the work in the workbook—write out the answers. It is well worth it!

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January 1, 2021 by Jamie English 1 Comment

Another Way of Thinking

It is the time of year when we are inundated with New Year’s Resolutions, and there are strong ad campaigns for just about every diet program out there. If you aren’t familiar already, know that some of what I am about to say will go against cultural norms. It might surprise you.

It may not fit with what you have believed, or it may challenge some deeply held beliefs.

You may experience some emotional discomfort. You may experience some resistance or defensiveness. Growth often feels like that.

Do take care of yourself. Know that it often takes some time to process this information if it is new, but maybe see if you can remain open and notice your response.

We have been lied to and tricked by the diet industry.

We’ve been taught and conditioned to believe that thinness is ideal, that thin is healthy and moral. We’ve been taught that weight loss is the path to happiness and well-being. This set of beliefs is often referred to as diet culture. Diet culture has us believing we are always broken, not good enough. It compels us to spend MASSIVE amounts of time and energy and money trying to shrink our bodies. It demonizes certain ways of eating and elevates others, so we are constantly comparing ourselves, our bodies, and food choices or how we are eating. Diet culture is making over 66 billion dollars a year from us believing this way.

Diet culture is everywhere, and I am tired of it. This time of year, it is super loud!

There is another way of thinking.

Intuitive Eating and Health at Every Size can help you break away from this pervasive and sketchy belief system. As an eating disorder therapist, this is the approach I promote and teach. As a person who once had the chains of diet culture tightly wrapped around me, this is the approach I apply to my own life. One thing I have learned is this change can be challenging. Diet culture shows up almost everywhere. Unless you are unplugged from any technology, isolating from other people, and not reading any books or other media, it is so hard to escape. Even then, we may have old programming showing up in our memory.

For so long, I have felt I wasn’t as knowledgeable as many of the amazing anti-diet teachers out there. And maybe I’m not. One thing I do know….we need more anti-diet content out there, so I am going to offer it more here. My hope for this space is that we can learn together and figure some things out. I’ll share some things I have learned and ways I’ve grown, and it won’t be perfect. This anti-diet world can feel complicated, but let’s journey and learn together!

Photo by Jorne Hermans on Unsplash

February 23, 2018 by Jamie English 4 Comments

Revolutionary Approaches to Eating

Revolutionary is the word I chose to describe this way of eating and thinking about food and our bodies….because well….it is revolutionary to go against the “norm.” The norm being hating our bodies and being obsessed with foods being good or bad. The norm being trying to ignore our body’s communication with us and listen to the latest diet fad or food guru. You are your own food guru! If you haven’t tuned out your body’s wisdom only to tune in food criticism and body hate. And if you find that you have lost touch with your body, take heart….it is not impossible to hear it again. It is a P-R-O-C-E-S-S, so be gentle and surround yourself with love, tools, and support. And maybe even get yourself a professional to help you through this journey.

One book I would recommend is Intuitive Eating, by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. This is the book that started it for me. It was first written in 1995 but it was revised and updated in 2012. When I read it in 2011, it was a huge paradigm shift for me. (coming back to update, as they have a fourth edition that came out in 2020–updating the link here–you may also want to read a later post talking about this more)

If you get the updated one, it looks a little different. It has two more chapters You can also get the Workbook, that came out in 2017. As I write this blog post, I am working through the workbook and am loving it.

And then, for a similar approach but with a really different package and voice, I highly recommend Body Kindness by Rebecca Scritchfield. She continues with a very different approach to looking at food and your body than the “norm” but she has a different way of packaging it in her book with some extras that go a little beyond. It came out in late 2016

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Tricksters

Revisiting a Trusted Resource

Another Way of Thinking

Revolutionary Approaches to Eating

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