Do you struggle in your relationship with food, exercise, or your body?

I get it - I’ve been there too! It can be hard to know what the best course of action is when we’re feeling like our body or our eating is out of control - should we do another diet? Buckle down and get better “discipline” and “control” over our eating? Say f*** it and just resign ourselves to being at war with our body forever?

I want to present you with a different idea for your consideration: intuitive eating.

When we go through trauma, it can affect us in so many different areas of our life - and our relationship with food, movement, and our body is no different. We can have attachment trauma, trauma from our family of origin, trauma from living in a fatphobic society, trauma from dieting, etc. that can play into how we view food, exercise, and our bodies. In order to heal, it’s important to understand the impact that our past has on our present - and get clear on what we want for our relationship with food, movement, and our body.

Re-learning how to eat intuitively is one aspect of healing our relationship with food and our bodies, and the premise is deceptively simple: no rules, you just eat.

However, while it is simple, it’s not easy.

Our relationship with food (and subsequently, potential for trauma around food) begins as infants. When we are hungry, we cry - and hopefully a loving caregiver is there to meet our need for food.

But what if they aren’t?

What if our caregivers let us “cry it out” instead of showing up to meet our need for food (leaving us hungry and distrusting of getting our needs met)? What if our caregivers put us on a strict feeding schedule based on what worked best for them (but meant we may eat when we’re not hungry or not eat when we are)? Even well intentioned parents can impact their child’s relationship with food without even knowing it!

As we continue to grow up, we may be exposed to different messages around food, movement, and our bodies - some from diet culture and society at large, some from our peers, and some from authority figures like parents, caregivers, teachers, etc. - which can all impact our relationship with these things, making it harder for us to hear our body’s needs. We may also have experienced bullying, abuse, neglect, or other forms of trauma around food, movement, or our body.

Intuitive eating is a way we can get back in touch with our body’s needs and begin to build trust in our body again. When left to it’s own devices, our body is like a thermostat - it’s incredibly good at regulating itself and maintaining homeostasis (aka equilibrium, or balance). In many different ways, our society disconnects us from our body and it’s internal wisdom by external forces (like diet culture, caregivers, other people, etc.) telling us what to do and when to do it. For example, have you ever been told to eat a food “because it’s good for you” despite being entirely repelled by the idea of eating it (like for example, trying to choke down a chicken breast to get extra protein and the thought of it makes you queasy)? What if, instead of the problem being you, it was actually that your body was telling you it didn’t need or want that food in that moment? Intuitive eating can help us learn to reconnect to our body’s signals and understand our body’s needs better.

When we’re doing trauma work in other areas of our life (like working on our triggers, for example), we’re doing the same thing - we’re learning how to hear and meet our own emotional needs. As a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, I see intuitive eating as a natural extension of this to our physical need for food.

If you think you may be ready to work on your relationship with food, movement, and your body and learn about the intersection of those relationships with trauma, click the button below to learn more and apply for a consultation call to determine if it could be a fit for us to work together!