Six Years of Intuitive Eating

Six years ago, when I was knee deep in diet culture and looking for another diet, I stumbled upon Christy Harrison’s Food Psych podcast. Little did I know, everything I thought I knew about food, bodies, and diets was about to change.

I was introduced to Intuitive Eating, Health at Every Size and the anti-diet movement. Everything I learned resonated with me and reflected my own experiences of trying to shrink my body my whole life.

It’s been an incredible journey of learning to listen to my own body instead of society’s voices telling me what is and isn’t healthy, tuning into my wants and needs, honoring my hunger, and reincorporating movement. What I’ve discovered over the past six years is that so many of our fears and misconceptions around food and health are misguided. They’re perpetuated by the diet and weight loss industry which profits off of convincing people that fat is bad and unhealthy, skinny is good and healthy. This industry is expected to grow to $90 billion in 2024.

Growing up, I was terrified of becoming the weight I currently am. I thought that if I became fat, I’d be unhealthy and I’d miss out on love, acceptance, and opportunities. All of that turned out to be a big FAT lie.

What other diet-culture fueled beliefs did I previously hold that turned out to be false?

I believed that if I gave myself permission and freedom to eat whatever I wanted…

• I’d never touch a salad again

• I’d gorge on sweets and carbs (and everything else I had restricted for years) all day every day

• I’d gain an uncontrollable amount of weight

But the reality was that my cravings ceased to exist, my weight reached a happy set point (not counting my birth control induced weight gain which didn’t faze me), my food choices often resembled the meals I ate when I was torturing myself, but this time the difference was that this was what I truly wanted and enjoyed eating.

Most importantly, the past six years have been filled with abundance, fun, and excitement. Because I wasn’t obsessing over what to eat or not eat, whether or not something would make me gain weight, etc. my brain power, energy and time were freed up to pursue some truly incredible experiences.

What’s been possible without my focus on diet culture?

• I was featured on the cover of a nationally distributed magazine

• I’ve followed my passion, climbed the career ladder, earned more money than I thought I ever would doing what I love and leading an incredible team

• I wrote a book

• I earned a new certification and redesigned my website

• I remodeled my home

• I made new friends and kept connections strong with those I’ve known for years

• I’ve traveled to Europe, Mexico, Zion and Oregon, walking and hiking many miles per day without getting tired

• I raised two awe-inspiring babies into kids who love their bodies and food

All while being the fattest (and healthiest) I’ve ever been. Isn’t that ironic?