By Stephanie Tucker, LPC, MBA, CADC I
For the past year I have been on a professional and personal journey to explore intuitive eating. You may have heard of this as the “Moderation Movement” or “Health at Every Size”. I started my journey working with a well-respected dietician who works exclusively on intuitive eating.
As both an educated person and one who specializes in addiction, needing guidance with food issues is difficult. I am an overachiever. I can lose a lot of weight. The problem for me is living in extremes. So, when I swing back the other way, it’s just as dramatic. I needed to find balance.
My dietician made me feel instantly comfortable and when she told me that there is a 95% failure rate for weight loss, it helped give me some perspective. What other treatment modality has a 95% failure rate and yet is continually prescribed? In addition, when you’re not one of the 5%, you’re blamed personally. How does this make sense?
This led to my exploration of intuitive eating and working to get back to trusting my body. It’s not an easy journey, learning to trust something that at times you haven’t even liked. How do you do that? It’s a slow process. Reprogramming. Lots of reprogramming. Going back, starting over. Trying to get behind something that most of society doesn’t understand or agree with.
I gave up all food rules. That meant that at times I used food to cope and worked to be understanding with myself. That meant that when I found a love for salads, that I embraced it. And when I wanted a cookie, I ate it. I continue to work through this personally and have read many books and taken educational classes to enhance my clinical work with clients. How’s it working out? It is still a work in progress, but no more obsessing about food rules or a weight fluctuation of 5 pounds up or down along the journey. If you would like to explore this concept, please contact me. I would love to help others looking to find their balance with food.
