Intuitive Eating
What is intuitive eating?
Intuitive eating is a way of eating that focuses on reconnecting to your body’s natural signals with food. As with any other weight-inclusive eating and movement, intuitive eating focuses on promoting health and well-being and accepts and celebrates everyone’s inherent body size, shape and weight, including not pathologising weights. The weight-inclusive intuitive eating promotes compassionate, respectful and inclusive holistic care. It encompasses 10 fundamental principles:
Reject the diet mentality.
Honour your hunger
Make peace with food
Challenge the food police
Respect your fullness
Discover your satisfaction factor
Cope with your feelings without using food
Respect your body
Exercise and feel the difference
Honour your health
Other weight-inclusive approaches include Health at Every Size, Non-Diet Approach and Mindful Eating.
How do working with a dietitian help?
For anyone who wants to explore the idea of intuitive eating, dietitians can guide them through the 10 principles of intuitive eating and how to integrate them into every day with practical strategies. As experts in food and nutrition, dietitians act as a resource and support person to navigate through some intricate issues with information and practices, including breaking the boundary between “good“ and “bad” food, ditching the dieting mentality, understanding your internal hunger cues, distinguish between what your body needs and what the surrounding make you want, appreciate your unique body size and shape and make peace with some long-old childhood food practice, etc.
Why work with dietitians in particular?
Dietitians are medically trained nutrition professionals and the only professionals qualified to provide individual dietary consultation at the moment (Click here to read about dietitians and nutritionists). Dietitians are trained to provide medical nutrition therapy and one-to-one personalised dietary advice. We consider one’s lifestyle, dietary habits, preferences and goals to tailor our nutrition strategies.
The topics you can discuss with your dietitian:
Getting rid of the diet mentality and how to put into practice
Practices to be aware and act upon hunger and fullness cues
Debunk diet myths and nonsense to challenge the food police
Guided mindful eating
Building a healthy relationship with food
Accepting all foods in your diet
Dealing with non-hungry eating
How to deal with your binge/craved food
How to detach emotion from food
Respect and embrace your body
Engaging in enjoyable movements
Putting your health, wellbeing and what you want to achieve in your life as the first priority
What does working with the Timeless Dietetic dietitian look like?
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You will be invited to fill in a survey before the consults, including your health history, family history, current situation, goals
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Discuss and understand your goals, living situation, lifestyle, potential motivators and barriers.
Perform assessment on health indicators, training schedules and goals, usual dietary intake.
Provide professional feedback on your diet, and identify areas that can be improved to help achieve your goal.
Discuss the most relevant nutrition topic that can help with the current situation and those you are interested in.
In collaboration with you, set small but impactful nutrition goals, homework and challenges.
Recommend what else you can do in the future and a recommended review timeframe if you would like to continue.
Provide you with a tailored nutrition information package to takeaway.
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Review the effectiveness and practicality of previous goals/homework/challenges.
Review and track any progress indicators.
Reassess any changes in health indicators, training and dietary intake.
Discuss the most relevant nutrition topics and those you are interested in.
In collaboration with you, adjust the previous intervention that did not work well or develop a new strategy.
In collaboration with you, develop new strategies to improve your health and progress.
Provide you with a tailored nutrition information package to takeaway.
