A Journey to Body Love Through Intuitive Eating

Throughout our lives, many of us have been exposed to a wide variety of trending diets. We’ve been continually introduced to new fads that promise to make us lose weight and look “beautiful.”  Personally, I felt a lot of pressure growing up in a world where we are so harshly judged by the shapes of our bodies. Growing up I was never satisfied with how I looked and was always striving for more. I tried it all, cutting out every food under the sun, including fruit because I was told it was too high in sugar; I tried fit tea, slim fast, and random supplements to name a few. Going down the rabbit hole of dieting and trying to become thin can become an obsession. At some points in my life, it was an obsession. What I didn’t realize was that no matter what I did, no matter how thin I looked, or how much weight I lost, it would never actually make me feel beautiful. So then what was I missing? 

I was missing that deep self-love and acceptance that can ONLY come from within. This is something that can be cultivated at any time, but in our society, we aren’t taught how to do it. I found myself here after discovering intuitive eating. It truly changed my life and my relationship with my body and with food. There are times when I look back at old pictures of myself when I was in a diet mentality; I was so thin and yet so unhappy. Today I weigh about 20 lbs more than I did in those phases of my life, but I have cultivated a deeper sense of self-love and acceptance for my body than ever before. I feel more myself, more secure, happy, and comfortable in my body. 

This is how I learned to love my body through intuitive eating:

After learning that the diet culture was not sustainable for long periods of time, and realizing that this way of life was leading me to feelings of guilt surrounding eating and to an unhealthy relationship with food, I knew I needed to make a change. My mind had become so clouded with all of the societal ideas of how and what I should eat, and the more restrictions and judgements I placed on myself, the further away I got from truly being able to listen to what my body really needed. So, I finally made a change. This is where intuitive eating came into play. 

When we were born, we each had an innate instinct that told us when we were hungry and when we were full. Intuitively, your baby self knew when you were hungry, so you’d cry for food. You also knew when you'd had enough, so you’d shut your mouth and be done until you were hungry again. The practice of intuitive eating is not a diet; in fact, it’s the opposite. It’s bringing us back to our innate ability to listen to our bodies. Similar to when we were babies.

CEO of Inspired Nutrition, Haley Goodrich, said, “Through this tool of intuitive eating, we can unlearn diet culture. We can get back to a place of ‘body trust’ and turning inward.” 

There’s no calorie counting, measuring out portions, or restrictions. Instead, it’s about re-learning to eat outside of the diet mentality, and shifting the focus onto your intuition or internal cues like hunger, fullness, and satisfaction, trusting your body to tell you when, what, and how much to eat. 

What I found my body was truly craving was love and nourishment from the foods of the earth. REAL food from mother nature and a healthy relationship with everything I was putting inside of myself. This had been gone for so long. I abandoned my truest instincts of what my body really needed. As I started coming back to my intuition and listening to my body, I knew I wanted to be healthy and love myself again. I started by creating a mindfulness around what I was consuming. Ingesting fruits, veggies, legumes, seed crackers, nut milks, flavorful hummuses — foods from the earth that truly fuel me. From there I was less concerned about how much or little I was eating. What I was concerned with was nourishing my being. 

Intuitive eating has allowed me to let go of all of the societal pressures and truly listen to what my body desires. What I look like on the outside is less important to me now because I know that what I’m putting into my body is pure love. This in turn allows me to feel a sense of love for myself that I had never quite felt before.

Now, if I feel the need to have some chocolate or whatever it may be, it’s not a big deal, I let myself have it and I let myself enjoy every moment of it. I am no longer depriving myself, making myself feel guilty, binging, or starving. I am simply listening to my body with a mindfulness around what will truly nourish me. This has changed everything. Intuitive eating brought me back to loving my body from the inside out.

It’s time we love ourselves in the deepest way. It’s time we listen to our bodies rather than the media. It’s time we look in the mirror and say, “I love every inch of my being exactly as I am in this moment.” It’s time to unwrite what has been written for far too long.   

If you want to hear more, head to the Huma Rising app and check out our intuitive eating talks and practices, as well as our mindful eating, shopping, and cooking practices! 

Sending you deep love.

by Brittany Gleason