Introduction

The well-intentioned pursuit of wellness and a so-called healthy weight has been hijacked by a confluence of factors, and healthy eating has evolved into a near religious endeavor, with morality and absolution attained through consuming the “proper diet.” Public health policy has contributed to this dilemma by declaring a war on obesity; a holy war, if you will, which has led to both weight stigma and a flourishing dieting industry—to the tune of nearly $60 billion per year.

Fearmongering, in the name of health, in front of the backdrop of an appearance-based culture, has triggered the perception that we are one bite away from a disaster. It’s a cultural neurosis; the fork has become akin to a loaded gun—just one wrong move pulls the trigger. This creates a perpetual background anxiety at the kitchen table and every time you eat: Eater beware—you are only a bite away from a heart attack or obesity.

It’s no wonder that people are driven to popular eating crazes, such as “clean eating” and fad dieting, all in the name of health. But this pursuit is creating more problems. A substantial body of research shows that dieting is not sustainable and leads to a host of problems, including eating disorders, food and body preoccupation, distraction from other personal health goals, reduced self-esteem, weight stigmatization, discrimination, and—paradoxically—weight gain.

As a result, people are weary of dieting and yet terrified of eating. People don’t know how to eat anymore. They are ashamed of their bodies and don’t trust that their bodies “work.” The pleasure of eating has been stolen. Intuitive Eating—a concept we created in 1995, based on evaluating hundreds of studies, in addition to our clinical experience—is the solution to this growing dilemma.

What Is Intuitive Eating?

Intuitive Eating is a dynamic mind-body integration of instinct, emotion, and rational thought. It is a personal process of honoring your health by paying attention to the messages of your body and meeting your physical and emotional needs. It is an inner journey of discovery that puts you front and center; you are the expert of your own body. After all, only you know your thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Only you know how hungry you are and what food or meal will satisfy you. No diet plan or guru could possibly know these things.

There are ten principles of Intuitive Eating, which work in two key ways. Some of them help you gain body attunement—that is, the ability to hear (and thus respond to) the physical sensations that arise within your body, such as biological cues of hunger and fullness—and other principles work by removing the obstacles to body attunement.

Cultivating Attunement. The ability to perceive bodily sensations is known as interoceptive awareness, which is critical for attunement. This is because biological states, such as having a full bladder or feeling sleepy or hungry, have a physical sensation. Even emotional states have a physical sensation, which can be very subtle. Being attuned to the physical sensations of your body gives you powerful information into your physiological and psychological state, which helps you determine what you should do to meet your needs. Perhaps you need to sleep; maybe you need to eat or play, or maybe you just need a break. Your body knows! It’s rather profound—that all of this information is available to you just by listening and paying attention to your body.

Removing Obstacles to Attunement. If, rather than listening to your body, you have instead repeatedly followed popular diet crazes, you may find yourself thinking that you don’t know how to eat anymore. You may be feeling confused, conflicted, and mistrustful of your body. That’s why the principles of Intuitive Eating also work to remove the obstacles to body attunement. Obstacles to interoceptive awareness usually originate from your mind, in the form of thoughts, beliefs, and rules—such as rules about what you should or should not eat, beliefs about what a healthy body should look like, and judgmental thoughts about good food versus bad food. Part of the antidote is challenging these beliefs, rules, and thoughts, while cultivating a kind and compassionate view along your journey to becoming an Intuitive Eater.

Cultivating a self-compassionate viewpoint is vitally important on this journey. It’s about looking at your situation with kindness, because having compassion for yourself creates an inviting atmosphere for learning and moving forward.

If there were an eleventh principle of Intuitive Eating, it would be self-care. If you are not getting your basic needs met (such as enough sleep), it can interfere with body attunement. At best, it may make it difficult to hear, let alone respond to, the messages of your body in a timely manner. At worst, you might find yourself turning to food to self-soothe and cope. That’s why you will be learning a lot about self-care throughout this workbook.

Benefits of Intuitive Eating

When we wrote our first book, Intuitive Eating, over twenty years ago, we had no idea that our concept would generate many studies. To date, there have been over sixty studies on Intuitive Eating from around the world, which show many associated health benefits, including increased well-being, lower risk of eating disorders, and improved biomarkers, such as blood sugar and cholesterol. Intuitive Eaters also enjoy eating a variety of foods and have better interoceptive awareness and psychological hardiness.

One of the seminal studies was by psychologist and researcher Tracy Tylka from Ohio State University, who created the Intuitive Eating Assessment Scale [IEAS] and validated it though a study involving over four thousand men and women (Tylka 2006; Tylka and Kroon Van Diest 2013). Near the end of this introduction, you will have an opportunity to see where you fall on this assessment tool.

Because of its many health benefits, Intuitive Eating has been embraced by state public health departments, employee wellness programs, college student health programs, and many other programs that promote health and well-being. At many universities, Intuitive Eating is a required text in courses in a number of academic departments, including nutrition, psychology, and health education. Finally, eating disorder treatment programs are incorporating the principles as a significant part of their treatment protocol.

The benefits of Intuitive Eating have been popularized beyond the research world, with mounting interest from the media, health professionals, corporate wellness programs, and the readers of our books. Consequently, we have been inundated with requests for a workbook on the Intuitive Eating principles. Interest in this workbook has come from both consumers, who want to hone their Intuitive Eating skills, and health professionals and researchers, who are seeking practical exercises for their clients.

Who Will Benefit from the Intuitive Eating Workbook? This workbook can be completed individually, with a counselor, or within a group setting. Special note to those with medical conditions and eating disorders—we strongly recommend that you complete this workbook in conjunction with your health treatment team.

What Should You Expect? Practicing the activities through this book will help you achieve a healthy relationship with food, mind, and your body. We call this achievement authentic health. We say that it is authentic because it reflects your inner state of attunement with your body and mind, and—equally—it is integrated with health guidelines from scientific consensus (see figure I.1).

Figure I.1. Intuitive Eating: the dynamic integration. Reprinted with permission from Tribole and Resch 2012 / St. Martin’s Press.

It’s important to keep in mind that health includes a wide variety of factors. “Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition” (World Health Organization 2006).

When we talk to people about Intuitive Eating, they often ask, “Will I lose weight?” By following the ten principles of Intuitive Eating, you will normalize your relationship with eating and your body. Weight loss may or may not be a side effect. If you focus on weight loss, that preoccupation will interfere with your ability to make choices based on your intuitive signals, and it will place focus on appearance rather than inner wisdom. There is also a profound body of research—based on millions of people, cumulatively—that shows that weight, especially the body mass index, is not a good indicator of health (Lavie 2014; Ross et al. 2015; Friedemann Smith, Heneghan, and Ward 2015; Tomiyama et al. 2016). Furthermore, a scientific review has concluded that the pursuit of weight loss alone is linked to diminished health (Tylka et al. 2014). On the other hand, placing the focus on healthy lifestyle behaviors, rather than on weight, provides health benefits with or without weight loss (Ross et al. 2015; Bacon and Aphramor 2011). It is time that public health policy focuses on health and healthy behaviors. Period. Weight is not a health behavior. Intuitive Eating is about cultivating a healthy relationship with food, mind, and body—it’s about self-care and body appreciation, regardless of size—not about the pursuit of weight loss.

Getting the Most Out of This Workbook

We hope that you will find this workbook to not only be a comprehensive review of Intuitive Eating and its ten principles but also a rudder, with practical exercises, to steer you through the winding path of reconnecting with your innate Intuitive Eater. This workbook is organized by the ten principles of Intuitive Eating, one principle per chapter. There are exercises to challenge and modify distorted thoughts about food and your body and also to identify your emotions, while finding coping mechanisms to deal with them. There are also attunement exercises and practices, to help you to hear the messages your body is sending you and to respond in a timely manner.

You will gain the most from the workbook if you work through it carefully:

Each chapter begins with a one-paragraph summary of the principle that will be discussed in that chapter. Review this summary to gain a clear vision of the intention of the exercises in that chapter.
Commit to writing out or performing each activity. Sometimes you may need to do an exercise more than once—as a practice. It’s no different than when you learn to swim or play a musical instrument; sometimes you need repetition and practice to really get it, even though you understand the mechanics. You need experience working with your mind and body in order to cultivate trust in the inner wisdom from your body.

As a useful adjunct, read the most recent edition of Intuitive Eating. While this workbook can stand alone, we think that you will find it helpful to read more of the rationale behind each principle, as well as detailed discussion of the case studies and research.

One of the great benefits of this workbook is that it gives readers a solid and detailed framework for practicing Intuitive Eating. An intellectual understanding of the concepts and principles of Intuitive Eating is important, but it is not the same as having the experience of eating intuitively. Attuning and responding to the needs of your body takes practice and patience—it does not come from merely reading about it.

We invite you to partake in two introductory activities. First, there is the Handwriting Metaphor Activity, which will help you understand the importance of the three p’s of learning to become an Intuitive Eater: paying attention, patience, and practice. Then you will complete a brief Intuitive Eating Assessment Scale.

Handwriting Metaphor Activity

There are three parts to this activity. You will need a pen or pencil for this exercise. It’s important to take your time for this exercise and, preferably, complete it in a quiet environment, free from distraction.

Part 1. Write Your Name

Place the pen or pencil in your dominant hand (right hand, for most people). Then write your name below, and take as much time as you need. Pay attention to how the pen feels in your hand as you write.

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Next, switch hands. Put your pen or pencil in your nondominant hand (left hand, for most people) and write your name below. Remember to take your time and pay attention to how the pen feels in this hand.

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Part 2. Compare and Contrast the Signatures

Look at your two signatures. Is there a quality difference between the signatures written with the dominant versus the nondominant hand? How so?

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Did it feel awkward holding the pen in the nondominant hand? How did it feel physically when you were writing with your nondominant hand? Compare and contrast the physical sensation of holding the pen in your dominant versus nondominant hand?

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What were your thoughts as you were writing? Perhaps you had thoughts of frustration and judgment: My writing looks like that of a first-grader.

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What were your emotional feelings? Perhaps you were feeling impatient, judgmental, intrigued, embarrassed, fearful, or amused?

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Did you have the belief or expectation that your writing should appear of the same quality, even if your nondominant hand has had less experience?

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Part 3. Discussion and Processing

Both of your hands have access to the same brain, which possesses the knowledge of how to write and spell your name. Yet, for the majority of people, there is a marked difference in the quality of the writing, which reflects the significance of experience or practice.

Learning how to become an Intuitive Eater is a lot like learning how to write with your nondominant hand—it takes practice. Intellectual knowledge is not enough. If you have not had much experience listening and responding to your body cues in a timely manner, it will take patience and practice. If you have spent years dieting and creating food rules, it will take time to challenge and deconstruct those rules and beliefs, which can interfere with Intuitive Eating.

Reflect upon your eating experiences. Do you have much experience in paying attention to and honoring your body? What might that mean for you in terms of cultivating patience and compassion with the process?

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Like the Handwriting Metaphor Activity, the exercises in this workbook will help you connect with your body sensations, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs and help you to pay attention to them as well as practicing new ways to work with them. Doing these exercises will help you find ways to honor yourself, figure out what you really need in life, and provide you with long-lasting experiences, which will lead to a deep trust in your body, your mind, and your soul. Please remember to be kind and patient with yourself on your journey to becoming an Intuitive Eater.

Intuitive Eating Assessment Scale—2

This assessment is adapted with permission from Tracy Tylka’s research on Tribole and Resch’s model of Intuitive Eating (Tylka 2006; Tylka and Kroon Van Diest 2013; Tribole and Resch 1995, 2012).

In the following table, statements are grouped into the three core characteristics of Intuitive Eaters. Answer yes or no for each statement. If you are unsure of how to respond to a statement at first, that’s okay—you might be somewhere between a clear yes or no. But most people will lean in one direction or the other. Read the statement a few times and consider if the description usually applies to you. Is it mostly yes or no?

Scoring

For Sections 1 and 2. Add up your yes responses and write it in the left-hand column of the table below. Each yes statement indicates an area that likely needs some work.

For Sections 3 and 4. Add up your no responses and write it in the left-hand column of the table below. Each no statement indicates an area that likely needs some work.

It will be helpful to periodically retake this assessment to help gauge your progress. You can record and compare your scores below.

Please do not fret if you answered yes to many of the statements in the first two sections or have a lot of responses of no in the last two sections. This is simply an assessment to see where you are at now—not a judgment! Consider that your responses merely indicate how much this workbook will help you. Imagine how you will feel when you are genuinely able to change your responses—the freedom from food and body anxiety, with self-confidence and inner trust of your body’s innate wisdom.

In the first chapter, you will learn how to reject the dieting mentality, which is a critical first step toward inner peace and freedom in becoming an Intuitive Eater.