I’ve Tried Intuitive Eating, and It Didn’t Work

Something I hear quite often is “Bonnie, I’ve tried Intuitive Eating before and it didn’t work for me.”

I’m wondering if this is something you’ve said before or think now. You gave it a go but didn’t end up finding peace with food and your body.

You realize that you were born an Intuitive Eater, and you wonder why you still can’t find food freedom. You feel stuck.

I bet that you love the concept of Intuitive Eating and even wonder why you haven’t heard about it before you did. It’s the best kept secret! But you just wish that it would “work” for you!

If you’ve tried Intuitive Eating and you are thinking that it just didn’t work, maybe you are facing some common roadblocks.

3 Common Roadblocks

There are a few common reasons why your past experience with Intuitive Eating just didn’t work.

1. You were focused on weight loss and caught up in diet culture.
2. You are not giving yourself full unconditional permission to eat the foods you enjoy.
3. You aren’t truly focusing on Intuitive Eating.

Stuck on Weight Loss and Caught Up in Diet Culture

I get it. You’ve been focused on the scale for 5, 10, 20, maybe even 40 or more years. It’s not your fault. It’s the message that surrounds us all day, every day.

The struggle with weight loss and constantly being obsessed with the scale is a difficult one to shake. Diet culture tells you that to be worthy, you need to be “skinny”.

Here’s some questions to ponder:

• What brought me to Intuitive Eating in the first place?
• What do I fear about weight gain?
• What are my fears of weight gain based on?
• What does weight loss/gain mean to me?
• If others did not make comments or care about my weight, how would I feel about my body?

Bonus Tip: Set a daily reminder and ask yourself “is my mind on weight today and how is it impacting my food choices.”

Afraid to Give Unconditional Permission to Eat

Before you began your Intuitive Eating journey, more than likely you’ve had foods that you considered “forbidden”.  You might still be feeling anxious around certain foods and having a hard time letting go of food labels and eating these foods.

Again, it’s understandable, so be gentle with yourself through the process.

Here’s some questions to ponder: 

• Are you allowing yourself to eat the foods you want?
• Who are you with when you are eating? Are you afraid of judgement?
• Are you eating the food, but have guilt?

You’re Not Focused on Intuitive Eating

You began this journey to ultimately become an Intuitive Eater however, you’re just not focused on the journey. It all sounds great, the idea of having peace with food and total food freedom. But you aren’t really doing the work.

Truth is, it’s not an easy journey. I will never tell a client that it’s easy to recover from dieting and diet culture. But the work you put in now will pay off later.

Bonus tip: Put the same effort into healing from dieting that you’ve put into your dieting years.

Which roadblock are you bumping into? Let me know in the comments below.

Resource: Here’s a resource for you to begin your Intuitive Eating journey with a step-by-step approach.