What to expect in your first year of intuitive eating?

During your first year of intuitive eating, you will experience a magnitude of emotions. Change is hard, but the outcome is worth it. Even though our old eating disorder habits are harmful, we may still try to cling to them because it's all we know. Throughout the beginning of this journey, you can experience resistance, weight gain, self doubt. But will also experience self-confidence, self-worth, self-compassion, and find a new support group. Any journey has ups and downs but finding beauty in the journey will help keep you going so you can finally free from dieting. 

Resistance:

It’s normal to be resistant to change. Even though our old eating disorder habits are harmful, we may try to cling to them because that’s all we know. We can resist change because they’re new from what we’re familiar with. It will get easier once intuitive eating is practiced but try to embrace the resistance you experience during the early stages of your journey.

Self-doubt:

You might question whether you’re strong enough to overcome your previous harmful diet or not. You may doubt if recovery is even possible. It may seem like your ability to stop dieting and having a negative relationship with food is impossible, and that every time you try to repair your relationship with food, it never works. 

Weight gain:

Once you start nourishing your body with the nutrients it was deprived of, you can gain weight or feel physically uncomfortable. Adding back foods that you’ve restricted for years can cause moments where you indulge in that food. During the first year, these moments will happen, and you will be able to control your eating habits. 

Self-confidence:

You will start to realize you are worthy of good things no matter what you look like or how much you weigh. Beauty does not depend on size. You will start to understand how much your body does for you, and start becoming grateful for that. 

Self-worth:

You will disassociate with the thought that your self worth depends on your size, and how much food. you are able to restrict. You will start to discover more about yourself and start to really figure out what makes you, you? 

Self-Compassion:

You will learn how to reframe your negative thoughts, taking on a more compassionate approach. You will learn not to be so hard on yourself, and to stop beating yourself up over the amount of weight lost or the restrictive diet you keep breaking. As you overcome your body image issues, you will realize that the journey is not all up but it has many ups and downs. Instead of beating yourself up about the downs in the journey, embrace it and move forward. 

New Support Group:

You may find new friends that support you and are on the intuitive eating journey with you. You could realize that the group you're around isn’t supportive and happy that you have found a practice that works for you. There are many online intuitive eating support groups, so if you are struggling with your journey and don’t have anyone around you on an intuitive eating journey,  you can join one of these support groups and find your people.