Intuitive Eating: Break Free from Perpetual Dieting
During this strange time of social distancing, many of us are finding ourselves with a stockpile of groceries and living 24/7 within a few steps of our refrigerator. Add to that the feeling of being anxious and out of control, and this is a recipe for emotional eating. With this in mind, we reached out to Fit & Fly fitness instructor, Natalie Joffe, who is also a Seattle-based intuitive eating coach to learn about a different approach to eating than trying yet another diet.
What is intuitive eating?
Natalie: Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach to eating that helps you unlearn external diet rules and instead understand and respond to internal cues like hunger, fullness, and how food makes you feel.
Intuitive eating has been shown to have both physical and emotional health benefits, including a decrease in preoccupation with food and disordered eating, improved body image, improved cholesterol levels, improved metabolism, and a decrease in stress.
As an intuitive eating coach, how do you help your clients?
Natalie: Clients who come to me often struggle with continually feeling like they are “falling off the wagon,” or emotionally eating, or thinking of food as either “good” or “bad,” or struggling with anxiety, guilt, and shame around food and body image.
As an intuitive eating nutrition coach, I help my clients find freedom from food and body struggles and create a positive and sustainable relationship with both. I help show my clients why they are stuck in their current patterns and then guide them through the process of shifting away from relying on external rules around food and instead learning to understand, trust, and respond to their unique body cues.
How did you end up in the intuitive eating field?
Natalie: After earning my undergraduate degree in neuropsychology, I spent several years in healthcare research and corporate healthcare. Outside of work I became certified as a personal trainer and saw many women around me struggling with dieting and body image. I personally struggled with an eating disorder in college and healed my relationship with food while experiencing first-hand the many different ways our culture promotes and keeps women in cycles of dieting and body shame, as well as where our system falls short in providing care. Empathizing with them from my own journey, I realized my passion lay in pushing back against diet culture and helping women make peace with food. I left the corporate world to pursue my current role as an intuitive eating nutrition counselor.
Now that we’re staying at home (with too many groceries), all we’re doing is eating. Surely we aren't all that hungry! What is happening?
Natalie: Working from home is new for many, and combined with fitness centers being closed and an increase in stress, food has become a greater than normal source of comfort and escape.
Right now, what most of us are needing is structure, breaks during the day, movement, connection, pleasure, and something to look forward to. With our normal outlets being unavailable, the challenge is getting creative and finding new ways to meet our needs.
Isolation, uncertainty, lack of structure, and fear are all exhausting. It is easy to overlook that just making it through the day and taking care of basic needs is a lot right now. This is new territory for everyone, and it is going to be messy as we figure out a new normal.
How do we use intuitive eating principles while we're staying at home?
Natalie: When there is worry around weight gain or when we are feeling reactive around food, the pull often goes towards trying to plan and control food. The irony is that the more we tell ourselves not to eat something, the more we want it. Threat of deprivation or scarcity is powerful. Our current pandemic toilet paper situation is a perfect macro example of this.
When it comes to meals and snacks, instead of asking “How many calories can I have?” or “Is XYZ ‘good’ or ‘bad’?” try getting out of your head and into your body. Ask questions like “How hungry am I?” “What will leave me feeling good physically?” “What will be satisfying?” “Am I looking for what I need in a place where it can be found?”
I encourage my clients to practice regularly checking in with themselves and asking, “What am I feeling and what am I needing right now?” Sometimes the answer isn’t clear, or it is but we aren’t able to take care of ourselves in the way we need at that moment. I challenge my clients to be gentle with themselves and to see all food experiences as neutral “data” collection that they can learn from.
Since we can’t meet in person right now, do you work with clients remotely and how can people find you?
Natalie: I work with clients virtually (Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangout), as well as in person during non-pandemic times. I offer free phone consultations which you can sign up for via my website or by emailing me directly at natalie.m.joffe@gmail.com. So if you’re struggling with food right now or feeling overall in a physical funk, let’s connect!
Other places to learn more:
Instagram: @nataliejoffe