Ditching dieting for Intuitive Eating (IE) may sound a little scary, but today I am offering some tips for those just starting out.

First of all, some of you may be wondering, “What is this Intuitive Eating thing anyways?”

Well IE is an evidence-based way of eating, created by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. It has over 100 published studies to support its use, and is used by many Registered Dietitians who specialise in non-diet approaches. 

Let’s take a look at an example… 

Intuitive eating is most easily thought of in the context of toddlers. Toddlers tend to eat when they are hungry, stop when they are full, and they naturally seek out a wide variety of different foods. They may even leave ½ a biscuit or chocolate buttons on their plate… when was the last time you did this? 

We are born with an innate ability to understand and regulate our own hunger. As we grow older, we can lose this ability. Being told to finish everything on our plate can teach us to unlearn how to listen to our natural cues. We then add in years of dieting, food judgement, ignoring our hunger/fullness cues and we can lose trust in our own bodies.

Intuitive Eating has been developed to help people build that trust up again in their own bodies to tell them what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat. To heal people from the chronic side effects of dieting (binge eating, secret eating, rebound weight gain, food obsession, food guilt and much more). 

It can help remove those judgy voices that may sit on your shoulders telling you that you’re good for eating a salad, and bad for eating a cake. It can help you discover what foods you actually enjoy and what foods make you feel good, versus what you think you ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ be eating. 

One of the creators, Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN, CEDRD-S, describes intuitive eating as, “a personal process of honouring health by listening and responding to the direct messages of the body in order to meet your physical and psychological needs” (Evelyn Tribole). Basically, this is a method where you learn to honour hunger and fullness while respecting your body.  

Intuitive Eating is composed of 10 key principles:

1. Reject the Diet Mentality
2. Honour Your Hunger
3. Make Peace with Food 
4. Challenge the Food Police
5. Respect Your Fullness
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor
7. Honour Your Feelings Without Using Food
8. Respect Your Body
9. Exercise—Feel the Difference
10. Honour Your Health with Gentle Nutrition 

This may all sound like a lot, after all, leaving dieting behind is no easy task. But no fear, we are here to help! Here are some tips to help you get started on your intuitive eating journey.

1. Take the quiz to find out if you’re ready.

Check out the link here:  How Do You Know if You’re Ready to Stop Dieting?

2. Say goodbye to dieting.

In the spirit of Marie Kondo, say goodbye to dieting, it does not spark joy!  The very first principle of Intuitive Eating is to “Reject the Diet Mentality.” Intuitive eating is not another fad or 21st century “wellness diet” or food plan. So can you throw away the scales, drop the diet tools and reflect on how dieting has not served you? Take some time to journal or reflect upon instances of dieting and the ways it has interfered with your life. It is okay to miss dieting, or even mourn it for a little, whatever you have to do to respectfully say goodbye, thank it for whatever role it served, and move on. 

 3. Start honouring your hunger.

One of the second most important steps of IE is to learn to honour your hunger. How can you possibly  eat consciously and moderately when you approach food in a state of monstrous hunger? Of course you’re going to shovel it down, eat anything in front of you, feel overly full and then potentially guilty about ‘overeating’. If you can stop yourself getting to this point of monstrous hunger, you may be able to implement some of the other principles. See this as the first layer to the process. So try rating your hunger on a scale of 0-10 before you eat something. Are you tuning into your hunger cues? Here’s a scale to get an idea of how.

4. Quit the food labelling.

Try to eliminate the “good/bad”, “healthy/unhealthy” food language. Think about this. If you tell a kid not to eat something, what do they want to do? They want to eat it! The same happens with us adults. So if you place certain foods up on a pedestal (bread, cheese, chocolate, crisps are usual suspects) then of course the desire to eat them will be stronger. When you remove them from their pedestal, put them onto a level playing field with all foods, you get to decide whether you actually like the food. No single food is good/bad/healthy/unhealthy. After all, you don’t just eat a carrot and tick off health. Or eat a cake and undo your health.

5. Be forgiving to yourself.

The beauty of intuitive eating is that it leaves room for our imperfections. How many years have you been trying to shrink your body, follow food rules and diet plans? I imagine a little while. So you can’t expect to undo this work overnight and that’s okay! Sometimes you will eat and feel overly full and sometimes you may still feel hungry. All of this is part of normal eating. Like most things in life, intuitive eating isn’t linear and ups and downs are to be expected. One thing I would encourage is to practice talking to yourself like you would your best friend.

6. Practice a bit of mindful eating.

Take some time, if possible, to eat without distractions. Sit down alone at a table, with your phone tucked away and the TV turned off. How does the food taste, smell, and look? Practice acknowledging your hunger and satiety. This will help you learn what is satisfying to you. *Spoiler* if you misgauge your hunger and serve yourself more than you actually want, you can save it for another time!  

7. Stop thinking that your body isn’t worthy of care.

Our bodies are pretty freaking cool. They are so many systems in place that allow us to survive. This isn’t something that happens overnight or even ever entirely. But how about you set a goal to be more generous to yourself more days than not? Or, identify one thing a day you can do that shows yourself care and compassion. This can look like a good bedtime, decluttering toxic social media from your feed, or spending a day to break from work. You are worthy of self-compassion and care. You owe it to yourself to invest in yourself.  

Summary

Intuitive eating is complex and it’s a personal journey of building up your own toolkit of life skills. This way, you can be the boss of you! Not the meal plan/points system/or calorie counting app! Many people think that when they give themselves permission to eat and stop following the rules, they have ticked off this intuitive eating thing. It’s a lot more complex than that and there are many levels to unravel. If you would like to learn some more ways that you can get started on this journey, check out my free audio guide and workbook, providing you with 7-steps to find food peace and food freedom. 

So you have decided to ditch the weighing scales!

Congratulations!

You’ve learnt how diets don’t work for most people, and how weighing yourself may be doing more harm than good!

You are taking the first step to improving your mental and physical health.

But breaking a habit is hard, and perhaps you are worried you won’t be able to resist the temptation? 

1. Dive straight in by throwing them in the bin!

The correct way to ditch the weighing scales is easy! You can put it in your recycling bin if it is marked with the crossed-out wheeled bin symbol. If you’re not sure about how to dispose of electrical items, your local authority will provide guidance on recycling of these items.

Un-recycled electrical equipment ends up in landfill where hazardous substances can leak out and cause soil and water contamination. This can harm wildlife and also potentially our health too! 

2. Put the scales where you won’t see them

If throwing them in the bin feels too scary, this may be a good alternative. For many people, weighing themselves is a habit, something they have been doing regularly for a long time. Putting the scales somewhere you don’t see them may reduce the likelihood of accidentally stepping on the scales simply because it is what you have always done. The back top shelf of a wardrobe or in the garage/loft is a good idea. 

3. Take the batteries out of the scales

It may still be tempting to step on those scales, even when you told yourself you wouldn’t. Taking out the batteries adds another step to getting that number. This gives you time to really think about the decision you are making, especially if you store them separate from the scales.

4. Ask a family member or a friend to hide the scales from you

Having a family member or a friend to keep you accountable may help you break the habit for good. Needing to ask someone for the scales forces you to externalise your thoughts and rationalise them to someone else. By this point you might realise whatever excuse you told yourself about needing to know your weight, isn’t rational at all. 

5. Don’t have scales in the home

Throw your scales away, or give them to a friend. It’s difficult to weigh yourself when you have to leave the comfort of your own home and find a public place to step on those scales. Then it will truly no longer be a habit, rather a firm decision to step on the scales.

6. Seek support from a health professional.

I support women who want to give up dieting for good. Part of this process involves learning how to listen to your internal cues (hunger/ fullness) instead of the external ones (the scales). If this sounds like something you would like to try, you can book a free discovery call here. I would recommend finding a Registered Dietitian or Registered Nutritionist who specialises in non-diet approaches. 

7. Remember, the scale will always be there to go back to

It might feel daunting giving up something you have always done. Just know that it doesn’t have to be forever. I challenge you to stop weighing yourself for a month and see how it makes you feel. If after that month you want to go back to weighing yourself, that’s OK! We are all different, but you will never know whether ditching the scales can help you improve your mental and physical health unless you try.

Whatever you decide to do just remember, you are more than a number on the scale.

**If you are struggling to stay away from the scales or are feeling anxious about not knowing how much you weigh then you may have an unhealthy relationship with the scales. Getting support from a mental health professional may be beneficial in helping you overcome this.

Do you ever dread weighing yourself? 

Do you ever lay awake in the morning worrying about what that number will be?

Maybe you try to remember all the things you ate yesterday, wondering whether they were the right choices.

Will today be a good day? Or will it be a bad day? 

When you step on those scales I’m guessing one of three things happens. 

1. The number goes up

Your heart sinks. Feelings of shame and disappointment take over your body. Your biggest fear came true… you gained weight. Logically you know it is impossible to gain 2 pounds of fat overnight, but you have no time for logic. Your brain is too busy with negative thoughts about yourself or scrambling to figure out how to ‘fix’ it. You either plan to restrict what you eat for the next few days, or you let the negative thoughts swallow you whole. ‘Why did you eat that extra slice of bread!!’ you think. Inevitably, both of these thought processes end in you overeating at some point. You wish you hadn’t weighed yourself at all.

2. The number stays the same

Phew, it didn’t change!  After a moment of relief to see it hadn’t gone up, you get a pang of disappointment. It still wasn’t the number you wanted to see. You would think about all of the things that you ‘shouldn’t have’ eaten and would promise yourself to eat ‘better’ today. Either that or you feel angry and frustrated your efforts aren’t giving you the results that you wanted. ‘Stuff it’ you think. “Why do I bother eating healthy and exercising if it clearly isn’t working?” You decide to get fast food for lunch today, because what’s the point of even trying. Later that night, you worry about what the scales will tell you tomorrow. 

3. The number goes down

Yes, excitement! You check and triple check the scales just in case you somehow stepped on the scales wrong. For a short while, you feel great! But then you feel nervous. What if it was just water weight and it all comes back tomorrow? Maybe you’re tempted to eat even less today so you lose even MORE weight tomorrow? Or maybe you are tempted to ‘reward’ yourself for your efforts. ‘I deserve this ice-cream’ you think… until later that night, you begin to regret it. Maybe that was a bad idea.  You dread stepping on that scale tomorrow, what if I gained it back?

If any of these three resonated with you, then weighing yourself may be causing you more harm than good.

Many people battle with their scales every day.

I know I did.

I know most of my clients did too. 

This is no surprise considering self-weighing is related to increased concerns about weight, increased depression, decreased body satisfaction and poorer self-esteem in people who are sensitive about their body image. This is especially true for women and teenagers, who are more likely to experience negative emotions from weighing themselves.

If this sounds like you, it’s important to know that you are not alone. One in five people in the UK report feeling shame about their body, and according to a 2016 study, it was estimated that 57% of women had tried to lose weight in the last year alone. It is clear that this a common struggle.

So if self-weighing is making people feel so bad about themselves, why are they still doing it?

Why do people weigh themselves?

It can be hard not to worry about the number on the scale when we live in a society that values thinness. Some people believe that they will be happier or more confident if they are thinner. Others weigh themselves because of concerns regarding their health.

However, not only are the scales not very accurate, but they also tell you nothing about your worth, or your health (see my last article on having Health at Every Size).

Whilst stepping on the scales can be useful for some people and for some medical needs, for others it can cause more harm than good. Being unhappy with the number on the scales can encourage restrictive dieting which, for most, results in rebound weight gain, disordered eating, psychological distress, slowed metabolism, reduced self-esteem, weight cycling (see my previous article on Why Diets Don’t Work). 

If not weighing yourself, then what?

You may be wondering how you are supposed to manage your weight without knowing what it is. But what if I told you that focusing on weight is actually distracting you from your bodies natural weight management system? 

Whilst it is possible to lose weight in the short term, the body has powerful physiological mechanisms to bring your weight back to where it wants to be. In short, when you lose weight your body responds by slowing down your metabolism, making you hungrier, and think about food more often to bring your weight back to its happy and healthy place – its set point. 

These powerful physiological mechanisms are so strong that they can actually cause our body to ‘overshoot’ its needs. This is why most dieters regain all the weight they lost, and sometimes even more. 

So what can you do instead?

Intuitive eating uses mindfulness to teach you how to get back in touch with your bodies internal hunger and fullness cues, to work WITH your bodies natural weight management mechanism rather than against it. This is known as the non-diet approach. Evidence shows that this approach can improve lifestyle and eating habits, self-esteem, body image, and mental health. 

Tips to ditch the scales

If you have made the brave decision to ditch the scales, well done! You’ve made your first step to improving your mental and physical health.

Breaking a habit can be hard, but I have written some tips to help you ditch the scales. 

If you would like to begin your journey to making peace with food and your body, you can get started today with my FREE audio guide and actionable workbook (below). 

Remember: You are more than just a number on the scale.

Firstly, let’s just clarify what I mean by ‘dieting’. Dieting is anything that you do in order to try and shrink your body. Whether it’s a juice cleanse or a ‘lifestyle’ change jazzed up as some kind of wellness thing. 

You can have health and wellness without the never ending battle of trying to shrink your body. I have written about ‘why diets don’t work‘ and how you can have ‘health at every size‘ so I won’t go on.

So do you want to know if you’re ready to stop dieting? 

This questionnaire has been written to help you identify the ways in which dieting may have interfered with your life. To help you identify where you are currently at, and where work may be needed with your relationship with food.

This may help you identify whether you’re ready to stop dieting, so that you can save money and create more brain space to be the best version of you!

If you would like to talk through your challenges with me, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute no obligation call. 

Alternatively, you can get started on changing your relationship with food TODAY, by listening to my FREE audio guide on 7-steps to find food peace and food freedom. 

Sign up below! 

“I don’t like the way I look”

“I wish I looked more like X”

“Once I’ve lost weight I will feel more XXX”

“Once I’ve lost this weight I will be able to XXX”

“There’s something wrong with me”

Are these things you hear yourself saying? I can certainly put my hands up to saying some of these things to myself previously.

Nowadays, we live in a society that is more and more obsessed with appearance. Both teenagers and adults are flooded with images of society’s idea of “perfect” bodies. We see adverts of diets co-opted as “lifestyles” designed to “transform and sculpt”, compounding the message that we are not good enough as we are. That we need to shrink or change our bodies to feel more worthy, accepted, happy and to have better health.

As a Registered non-diet Dietitian, specialising in Intuitive Eating, I work with clients to help them heal their relationship with food. Body image work comes into this frequently. This is because many of the food issues my clients experience, are underpinned by them trying to shrink or change their body.

What is body image and why does this matter?

The Mental Health Foundation describe body image as “a term used to describe how we think and feel about our bodies”. As a society, we are becoming more aware of the impact of how we think and feel about our bodies on our health and wellbeing. In fact, just recently the Mental Health Foundation conducted an online survey of 4500 UK adults over the age of 18, and 1100 teenagers (aged 13-19). They found:

• 1 in 5 adults (20%) felt shame about their bodies.
• 34% of adults felt low or down and 19% felt disgusted because of their body image.
• 13% (1 in 8) even experienced suicidal thoughts in relation to body image.
• Just over one in five adults (22%) and 40% of teenagers said images on social media caused them to worry about their body image.

So what is positive body image?

Positive body image doesn’t have to mean floundering around half naked shouting to the world that you love your body (although that’s also totally okay). For most of my clients, it’s about getting them to a place where they are not actually thinking too much about their body image. Where they can be at weddings, parties, events and get involved in other activities without body image holding them back from being present and participating. As a Registered non-diet Dietitian, specialising in Intuitive Eating, I work with clients to help them heal their relationship with food. Body image work comes into this frequently. This is because many of the food issues my clients experience, are underpinned by them trying to shrink or change their body.

Below I have outlined 5 steps you could take today, that may help improve your body image.

5 steps to having better body image

1. Adopt some self compassion

We often find it easy to direct compassion towards a friend, animal or young child who is suffering. Perhaps we feel affected by their suffering, and have a strong desire to help them ease that discomfort. Self-compassion is about directing that compassion inwards to ourselves. Recognising our own suffering, not avoiding or disconnecting from it, and generating the desire to alleviate and heal that suffering with self-kindness (Neff 2003). This may sound a little spiritual, and if you’re not into that, stick with me here. There is some sound research to suggest that adopting some self-compassion may attenuate body image dissatisfaction.

So how can you adopt some self-compassion?

• Quit following #fitspo #fitspiration images on social media, and start following some #selflove and #selfcompassion quotes instead.
• Give yourself permission to be imperfect. After all, there is no such thing as perfect!
• Recognise that you’re not alone – 1 in 5 adults feel shame about their bodies.
• Talk to yourself like you would your best friend that felt dissatisfied with their body.

2) Ask yourself who’s profiting from body hatred?

The diet industry is worth $60 Billion and is profiting from trying to cure you from a problem that really doesn’t exist. How are you fuelling into this and how else could you best spend your money?

3) Get clued up on weight science, and understand that weight does not define your health

This social requirement that we need to achieve an “ideal weight” is based on the misconception that we can completely control our body size. You may be surprised to learn that some of the most basic assumptions you hold about weight and health aren’t supported by scientific evidence. Misconceptions:

• “It’s just calories in versus calories out right?”
• “Surely shrinking your body shouldn’t be so hard, I’ve just not go the willpower”.  
• “Thinner = healthier”

Unfortunately, weight is not that simple. We know (and maybe you’ve experienced) that in the short term, weight loss is typically possible. But over the long-term the body has compensatory mechanisms that undermine its ability to maintain weight loss. Health is not dictated to by what the number says on the scales. You can read more about that here.

4) Can you show your body some respect?

You may not love or even like your body right now. But for now, how can you show it a basic level of respect? Here are some examples:

• Nourishing it regularly with food that you enjoy
• Wearing clothes that fit you and that don’t pinch
• Taking your medications
• Having regular medical and dental check ups
• Move your body in a way that feels comfortable
• Allow it adequate sleep and rest

5) Notice how diet culture is deeply ingrained in our society

Diet culture is everywhere. It teaches us that we’re not good enough as we are. That we have to live a life of constant monitoring, controlling our bodies, restricting ourselves, and over exercising. It’s not until we open our eyes to this messaging, that we can start to shut it out. Here are some examples of messages that promote negative body image that we are often not aware of:

• The consistent diet advertisements – on Spotify, in the gym, in the doctors surgery, on the train, tube or bus, on TV.
• The casual use of fat phobic language – jokes around the dinner table, in the office, on TV and in films.
• The general assumption that larger people are lazy, lacking in will-power, incompetent, unclean and undisciplined.
• The lack of body diversity in the media.
• Public health campaigns that shout about the “obesity epidemic” and place blame on those people in larger bodies being a “burden” on the NHS. These indirectly stigmatise larger bodies and indirectly contribute to appearance-based bullying.
• The way we talk about food – good/bad/healthy/unhealthy/guilty/indulgent/clean

This work is hard so don’t expect to master is overnight. Consider how many months or years you have you been trying to change or manipulate your body? It’s normal for this work to take some time and it particularly difficult to embrace in a society that’s telling you otherwise. If you’re struggling with your body image it’s important that you seek support from a qualified professional who can point you in the right direction.