No more cheat days for me, I prefer intuitive eating
I have to admit, I was shocked that this Instagram reel went viral. Well, viral for me anyway. There’s no singing or dancing or lip syncing, just me speaking my truth about old (dieting) me and new (intuitive eating) me.
But there is a lot going on in a seemingly simple video:
Performative eating
many people who are on diets or have disordered eating patterns eat performatively. This means that they always order something very healthy when they are eating with others, or they eat less than they might if they were alone. This happens because people feel like they’ve got to put on a show of health to others to appear healthy and therefore worthy.
Diet bonding
the “old me” in the video is trying to bond with “new me” by asking me if I am having a cheat day. Many people get stuck in a cycle of dieting and putting weight back on because they bond with friends and family over the shared experience of restriction. Over 50% of the adult population at any given time are dieting so its fair to assume that the people around you are restricting what they eat.
Satisfaction with food
one of the important tenets of intuitive eating is “discovering the satisfaction factor.” One of the reasons why diets don’t work in the long term is the lack of satisfaction when it comes to food. Let’s say we compare a burger to a salad. If the person eating the salad has done a full workout in the morning and worked all day and only eaten a few small snacks, the salad is just not going to cut it. The salad eater will be hungry again very quickly. Or if a person is craving potato chips and they allow themselves some rice crackers instead, it’s very likely that they’ll eat a lot more of the rice crackers until they feel overstuffed because it’s not actually what they want. Or they’ll eat the rice crackers AND they’ll eat potato chips and they’ll feel stuffed.
Dieting fatigue
although old me doesn’t expressly say it, when she asks new what my new eating habits are called, she is showing curiosity in this non-diet lifestyle. Research shows that people do get dieting fatigue. Over time diets get harder to stick to and eventually they become impossible to even start (for most of us).
Intuitive Eating changed my life
it might sound a bit far fetched but it’s true. When I was a dieter all I seemed to think about was my next meal. What was I “allowed” to have? How much? Could I afford a little cheat? And then there’d be all the shame and guilt if I somehow failed (see point 4). Now days I have lot more brain space for other things and my mental health has improved significantly.