Intuitive Eating: 10 Things Every Christian Woman Needs to Know

Want to know more about Intuitive Eating and figure out if it’s right for you? Before you do any more searching start with this breakdown of Intuitive Eating: 10 Things Every Christian Woman Needs to Know.

If you pay any attention to health and food news you’ve probably heard about the recent backlash against dieting. At the core of that you will find Intuitive Eating.

What is Intuitive Eating?

So what is Intuitive Eating? Read my full explanation post here and check out other posts on Intuitive Eating here.

So, what is intuitive eating? Read my full explanation post What Is Intuitive Eating? for an overview of the basics. Then be sure to check out my post Intuitive Eating: 10 Principles for Christian Women to find out more about how the 10 principles align with scripture.

Intuitive Eating is an approach to health, food, movement and body image that is about releasing diets altogether, forgetting about trying to lose weight, and reconnecting with the inner wisdom of your body.

Essentially it brings you back to the way you used to eat as a child, before diet rules and fear of weight gain poisoned your mind. I discovered Intuitive Eating at a time when I was deep in a body image and dieting prison in which I had made weight loss an idol in my life.

Just as God was convicting my heart of that idol and leading me onto a new path, I discovered (or rather He put in my path) Intuitive Eating… and I couldn’t help but notice all the ways that the 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating line up with scripture.

If you want to read more about the 10 principles and how I unpack that from a Christian perspective check that post out HERE.

You  may be wondering:

• Is Intuitive Eating right for me?
• How does my faith fit into all this?
• Is that still, small voice convicting me of making health or weight loss and idol in my life?

If so, read on.

What every Christian Woman needs to know about intuitive eating

Let me break it down like this — Intuitive Eating: 10 things every Christian woman needs to know:

(1) It’s NOT a diet!

In fact, it rejects diets and rejects attempts to lose weight. So don’t think that this is just a repackaging or just a fresh look on the next wellness trend. It is not that. Intuitive Eating is NOT a diet!

And because of that, this is not a “dieting with God” program, this is not a “dieting for God” program. Absolutely no dieting and no intentional weight loss. Those are out of the equation!

(2) It’s not a faith-based book

Intuitive Eating was developed by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch who first published their book “Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works” in 1995. The two authors are prominent dietitians. I don’t know if the authors are Christian or not. It doesn’t matter, they did not write it from a Christian perspective. You need to know that.

But that’s not to say the Intuitive Eating approach to food doesn’t line up with the Bible. I believe it does!

(3) It’s for everybody

Intuitive Eating is not for a specific type of health issue. It’s not specifically for people who struggle with binge eating or emotional eating. (BTW I don’t like that term, more on that later.) It’s not just for people who are obsessed with being skinny and are in the body idolatry space like I was. It’s not for any particular issue and it is suited for every human being. 

If you have a body and you live in this culture which is hell bent on dieting and with promoting weight loss (which you do, which you are) then it is for YOU!

(4) You don’t need to be an expert

Just like you don’t need to go to seminary to be able to read and understand God’s word, you don’t need a nutrition degree to practice Intuitive Eating. You don’t need to be an expert in how many macros are in every kind of food.

You don’t need any specialized knowledge or experience or training to be able to do this. You can do it right now, this very instant.

(5) It’s not some touchy-feely, new age thing

While you will be employing techniques such as mindfulness, this is not some kind of new age, woo woo,  feel-your-way into it thing. This is actually a very common sense approach based on the biology of your body and how God designed your body to function. On the biology, physical side of it, it is very clear cut and practical.

The part that gets into the messy, emotional area is, of course, your mind, your emotions and your spirit.

(6) It’s about whole health

Intuitive Eating is for your whole health. This is not just about food and your body. Intuitive Eating is about every facet of health: your physical body, your mind, your emotions and your spirituality.

They don’t go super into the spiritual side of things in the nutrition book itself, but that’s what I do. I’m here to show you how a Christian perspective will make the Intuitive Eating practice even deeper. I will show you how scripture aligns with the 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating.

(7) Prepare yourself to be convicted

As you are diving into the Intuitive Eating material, the first step is rejecting the diet mentality. As you are figuring out what that is, you are most likely going to be made aware of some of your own patterns of thought and behaviors that will show you how Diet Culture has gotten its hooks in you.

Diet Culture is from the devil. Read this post if you want to hear more about that. This first step in the process is going to show you where those Diet Culture LIES have taken root in your life, and how you’re believing those lies and living them out in your life in the place of God’s word. If that’s true for you, you’re going to be made aware of that in the process. So you need to be ready to feel a little conviction. 

I would encourage you to pray (as I did) and ask for the Holy Spirit to convict you as you are going through the process of learning Intuitive Eating. My prayer, in case you want to pray it too:

Lord, show me where the blind spots are, where the lies are hiding in my heart, where they have taken root in my life and poisoned me, where they have pulled me off the path You have for my life. Lord, reveal to me how I’ve been distracted with dieting and show me what I can let go of to move forward.

I was majorly convicted after reading Intuitive Eating, so much so that I gave up dieting altogether, went all in with Intuitive Eating, and am now writing and blogging about it.

My prayer now as I share this with you now is that the Holy Spirit will shine a light and move the hearts that need moving.

(8) It can be part of your spiritual practice

Intuitive Eating can be part of your daily communion with God. There are so many ways this can play out. I’m here to tell you that Intuitive Eating can enrich your faith. It is a way to live out some of God’s word on a day to day basis in the way you are approaching food, in the way you are eating, in the way you are moving your body, in the way that you’re thinking about yourself.

Those are all areas that might be struggles now, but as you implement Intuitive Eating with a faith-based approach you will have a richer faith walk in the day-to-day eating, drinking, walking and thinking.

(9) It requires a leap of faith

This is yet another way that the practice of Intuitive Eating can deepen your faith. You have to surrender dieting, you have to surrender your body, you have to surrender what could be a lifelong goal of being a size 4, or whatever it is for you.

With Intuitive Eating, you are giving control back to your Creator. You are saying Lord, I’m going to trust you with my body, I’m going to trust you with my food choices, I’m going to trust you with my health. And you LET GO. And that is scary. That takes a leap of faith.

You have to face all your fears that are on the other side of that, all the fears that made you control in the first place, all those fears that made you hold your health so tightly in the first place. Maybe it’s a fear of being fat or a fear of gaining weight or a fear of some unforseen health thing that’s caused by eating the “wrong” food. Giving those fears to God and trusting Him as you let go and take the leap of faith into life after dieting is SO powerful for your walk with the Lord.

(10) It has the power to change your life

If you go through the process of learning Intuitive Eating and implementing its principles in your life, your are going to open yourself up to amazing transformation potential. The possibility that your life will be radically changed from this is pretty good.

Because if you do it properly, and especially if you do it with God as part of your daily walk with the Lord, you are most likely going to find your way into incredible freedom and peace. When you are not distracted with dieting, you are going to be able to enjoy the life you have so much more and give God the glory for that.

This process will make you better able to hear and see what God’s best for your life is really about. Because it’s not about counting calories or hitting your 10k steps today, it’s about fulfilling your true purpose.

Weight loss is not your purpose. Read the full post on that here. You could be finding your purpose on the other side of your Intuitive Eating journey. I did.

That about wraps it up for Intuitive Eating: 10 things every Christian Woman needs to know.

What’s something you still want to know about Intuitive Eating? What question do you still have? What concern do you still have?

Let me know. I want to help you figure out if this is right for you!

If you’re like me – sick of dieting, tired of hating the way you look and longing for peace with food and your body – Intuitive Eating might be the answer to your prayers. And it’s even more empowering and freeing to do it WITH God.

Start praying about Intuitive Eating and whether this is something God is leading you to do. If you have any questions please let me know!