Mistake #3 Using intuitive eating as a tool to lose weight
With intuitive eating, the end goal is not weight loss. The idea is that intuitive eating will give your body a chance to reach its set-point weight range- and this can only happen when eating and exercise have been normal for several months.
Some people do gain weight when they first start intuitive eating, while others will lose weight. But this shouldn’t be the focus- healthy behaviours are what are important.
Once you’re living healthily, then the body will reach its set point weight naturally and this is what will bring the mind and body transformation that will allow you to also live without obsessing about the numbers on the scale all of the time.
Finding a way to have peace with your body size and by accepting that healthy behaviours are more important than weight are the key.
Mistake #4 Continuing to restrict or control your food
When people start using their willpower and self-control to eat mindfully perfectly, it is just an extension of the “diet mentality” that we are all so used to. Mindful eating is about letting go of willpower and self-control, and simply tuning into the body’s needs in the present moment.
When eating intuitively, it’s time to release the mind of all the rules and tools such as weighing food grams, measuring portion sizes and counting calories. These tools are not needed when we are in tune with our body and how it feels and what it craves.
Healthy habits that can be maintained, rely on being created based on your body’s internal wisdom, not by external tools which tell you what to do all the time. It’s useful to remember that intuitive eating is a moment-to-moment daily practice of mindfulness which allows you to be free from the reactive, habitual patterns of being on a diet.
Mistake #5 Judging your success and failure
Following intuitive eating requires continual practice- it is a lifelong learning and not a test that you can fail or succeed at it. Thinking this way will only keep you in self-judgment and the diet mentality- which is likely how you got to the place of needing to overcome cravings and put an end to over-eating in the first place.
With intuitive eating there is no such thing as perfection, and there is no need to try and strive to eat 100% intuitively all the time so as to be perfect.
Instead, when you eat, be aware of your thoughts, emotions, and feelings in the present moment without judgement. Let go of perfection and the idea that you must eat mindfully 100% of the time or that you can't eat a certain type of food. This is not another diet in another guise- it’s a whole new paradigm of thinking and living.
