How to keep your Intuitive Eating practice fresh

You gotta hand it to 'em. Even though diets suck on too many levels to list, they do offer a blissful honeymoon phase full of fantasy and promises (however empty). Images of what your life will look like at that fictional future point at which you finally fit into the culture's narrow standard of what it means to be acceptable and worthy...

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If I could draw, I'd create a series of sarcastic diet culture-inspired romance novel covers with titles like "Finally worthy of love" and "Up in flames (like my metabolism)."

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The honeymoon phase, even though it burns out, can be intoxicating. It feels really good, and perhaps it is one part of what brings us back, doing the same thing over and over again with a slightly different emphasis.

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Intuitive Eating, on the other hand, offers no such otherworldly promises. Rather than a lusty, heady initial phase in which you are floating on a cloud (or is that hypoglycemia?), with Intuitive Eating, your feet stay firmly planted on the ground.

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Without the drama of dieting, though, we need something to keep our Intuitive Eating practice fresh. Something to help us stay engaged, motivated, alert, and present.

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One way of bringing this type of exertion and freshness to our Intuitive Eating practice is to work with intentions. Intentions, very different from goals in my mind, are process-oriented, flexible, and compassionate in nature.

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We can set an intention that is compatible with our Intuitive Eating practice and re-engage with it every morning before we start the day. For example, "May I listen to what my body is telling me and respond as precisely as I am able."

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Then at the end of the day, we can check in with that intention:

- Did I remember it throughout the day? Did I totally forget about it?

- What made it easier to maintain my intention?

- What made it more difficult?

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The answers to these questions are just data to help us continually refine our intentions.

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By bookending your day with an Intuitive Eating intention, you connect with your values and ever-changing priorities as you progress on the path. As your intentions evolve and become more deeply nuanced, so do your confidence and trust in your body.

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Don't take my word for it. Try it out in your own life and see what you think?!