When people get out of Diet Culture they tend to struggle finding that balance between permission-based eating and intentional eating.
With permission-based eating, which gives you full permission to eat what you want, when you want, and in as much quantity as you want, people can sometimes feel like they’re floating through space without any eating structure.
They come from a rules-based eating strategy that’s based around calories, macros, meal timing, carbs, etc. So once the rules are gone, they have no “anchor” with their eating. So they’re left eating in a very disorganized way, with a lot of self-doubt that they’re doing the right thing.
On the flip side, with intentional eating, which has you focused on eating foods that satiate, satisfy, and nourish you, it can start feeling like you’re just following another version of Diet Culture rules-based eating.
You start latching onto a very binary thought process that has you making sure you eat this and that, in the perfect quantities, with just the right amount of fullness and nourishment. And if you don’t, you fail and are left discouraged.
Permission and intention are a little like yin and yang – working in harmony to create a balance with your eating that puts you into the zone.
As Deanna says to her Mentorship clients: Without permission, intention can feel like rules. Without intention, it can feel like you’re falling off a cliff.”
Always remember what you’re working towards and use intention to get there. And always remember you don’t need generic rules in order to listen to your body to give it what it needs.
Find that balance between…
- Giving yourself unconditional permission to eat what you want, while knowing the end goal is to be able to eat the foods that make you feel your best (without needing willpower to do it).
- Eating with enough intention to meet your satisfaction, satiation, and nourishment needs, while knowing the end goal is to be able to eat the foods that make you feel your best (without needing willpower to do it).
Notice how both permission and intention converge to the same goal in the end. Working towards that balance is what puts you in the zone with your eating – where eating feels easy and effortless and you can just go and live your life.
Talk soon…