Trust Your Gut - Eat For Satisfaction No Perfection Here
Whoooah! Did you feel a breath of fresh air with that title?
Or did ‘no perfection’ cause some anxiety and discomfort?
Quick Disclaimer: This series explores Intuitive Eating from a chef’s perspective. This is not meant to provide specific medical advice. If these topics interest you, please consult a registered dietitian and/or healthcare provider for personalized guidance and education.
From the time we’re children, we feel a pressure to be perfect. This pressure can come from family, caregivers, school, employers, friends, partners, and even broad pressure from societal and cultural norms and expectations. Most importantly, many of us develop our own internal pressure to achieve perfection. This pressure can be damaging to our health and well being by causing stress and creating feelings of disappointment and unworthiness. Giving up the pursuit of perfection can be liberating and calming and scary and challenging and rewarding and a whole mix of emotions.
Why is IMPERFECTION important to our Intuitive Eating Journey?
Intuitive Eating guides us to give ourselves unconditional permission to eat and to listen to our unique body’s cues. And well, let’s face it, it’s damn near impossible to perfectly listen to our bodies. Especially when there are times when our bodies aren’t even sure what they want. Intuitive Eating cannot operate in the pursuit of perfection because ‘perfect’ contradicts the principles of IE. Intuitive Eating is anti-diet and anti-perfection.
A challenging part of giving up the pursuit for perfection is that we find comfort in clear pathways, rules to keep us on the path, and the certainty that comes with right/wrong, black/white thinking. But, our bodies exist in the whole spectrum of greys - in fact, even in the beautiful rainbow of all colors. Our bodies, our needs, and our desires don’t fit into the constrictive structure of black vs white. Diet culture, and the systems and products they sell, try to align our bodies in this constrictive structure of requiring perfection and that’s why they don’t work. Nobody is meant to be perfect and the pursuit of perfection is a fool’s game.
*hint: no mention of perfection!
What are some examples of imperfection we may encounter?
I started feeling my hunger cues and I wasn’t able to satisfy them quickly, so I felt primal hunger.
I still want to fit into clothes one size smaller than my current size.
My body felt like it wanted rest, but I went to that nonrefundable exercise class.
I was eating dessert with friends and only had three bites, not because I was satisfied but because nobody else at the table had more than three bites.
I ate one of my favorite foods for the first time in awhile and I ate way past fullness.
I labeled a food that I was eating as ‘bad’ and made myself eat a ‘good’ food after.
I was weighed at the doctor and felt happy that I weighed less than last time.
and so, so many more - truly an entire lifetime of more!
How to react to our imperfection?
It’s ok. Our journey with intuitive eating is exactly that - a journey. What journey do you know of that has a perfect path? Our bodies are constantly changing and desiring different things. Each day is an opportunity to listen to our bodies and accept that we may not hear exactly what its trying to tell us. We experiment to see what feels good today and remember that what feels good today might not feel good tomorrow. We don’t need to strive to anticipate our bodies’ needs perfectly. It’s all about progress to learning and loving our bodies - progress, not perfection.
