And here’s what no one told me about why.
For so many women, intuitive eating seemed like the answer.
No more tracking, no more food rules, no more guilt. Just listen to your body and eat what feels good. It promised food freedom, body trust, and peace.
But for me—and maybe for you too—it didn’t go that way.
Instead, I found myself:
- Bingeing more often, not less
- Still feeling completely out of control
- Gaining weight and panicking
- Waiting to feel “free,” but mostly feeling lost
I thought I was broken. That I’d failed again.
But the truth is—I didn’t do it wrong.
I just didn’t have the full picture.
Why Intuitive Eating Doesn’t Work for Everyone (At First)
If you’ve spent years steeped in diet culture—
Skipping meals, cutting carbs, tracking every bite, fearing hunger—
Then intuitive eating doesn’t feel like freedom. It feels like chaos.
Without structure, you’re left confused:
- Hunger feels like too much.
- Fullness doesn’t register.
- And all those old voices—about “good” foods, weight gain, and control—are still loud in your head.
So when people say “just listen to your body,” what they don’t realize is this:
You can’t listen to a body you don’t trust yet.
You’re Not the Problem. Diet Culture Is.
Most women I work with aren’t just trying to stop dieting.
They’re recovering from a deep wound.
A wound caused by:
- Years of shame-based eating
- Moralizing every bite
- Associating self-worth with weight
- Living in fear of “losing control”
So when they “let go,” it doesn’t feel empowering.
It feels terrifying.
That’s not their fault.
That’s what happens when no one teaches you how to heal first.
Intuitive Eating Isn’t the Destination. It’s the Result of Healing.
You can’t just stop restricting and expect balance to magically show up.
That would be like quitting your job and expecting money to appear in your bank account.
It doesn’t work like that. Something has to replace the old system.
To make intuitive eating actually work, you need to rebuild:
- Trust in your hunger
- Confidence in your ability to stop
- Safety around “off-limits” foods
- A new identity beyond “chronic dieter”
That kind of trust doesn’t come from willpower.
It comes from partnership—with your body, your emotions, and your values.
What to Do When Intuitive Eating Doesn’t Work
If intuitive eating left you feeling worse, you didn’t fail.
You were under-resourced.
So here’s what actually helps:
- Learn how to interpret your body’s signals instead of fearing them
- Create gentle structure that supports—not controls—your eating
- Heal the mental and emotional patterns that keep you stuck
- Stop using food as a weapon, a coping mechanism, or a moral scorecard
Only then does intuitive eating start to feel like the peaceful experience it was meant to be.
This Work Isn’t Soft. It’s Sacred.
It’s not as simple as “eat what you want.”
It’s not about ignoring health.
And it’s definitely not about giving up.
This is the work of women who are ready to stop living in survival mode.
Who want more from life than food obsession and body shame.
And when you do that work—
When you rebuild from the inside out?
You never go back.
Want to know where to start?
I created a private tool just for you—like having your own personal coach guide you through healing your food and body relationship.
👇 Try the free Food Freedom Coach GPT here:
https://chatgpt.com/g/g-67fe826158048191960d0470f5e78838-food-freedom-body-image-coach (It’s totally private, ad-free, and designed for women over 40 who want real answers—without more food rules.)
