Intuitive Eating – OYE Podcast EP 38

Hey Jason and Roz,

I listened to your Girls Gone WOD interview, and soon after listened to a recent episode of the Dear Sugars podcast that dealt with body image, dieting and “trusting your body.” They had experts in “intuitive eating” on the show.

The Girls Gone WOD hosts had some real concerns with counting macros–one of them developed a kind of eating disorder, right? and needed to stop counting her macros and start listening to her hunger cues to figure out how to be more sane about her eating. By the way, I liked how you responded to them–you didn’t tell they they were wrong or whatever–you were good listeners and were supportive, and I hope they came away from the interview with a better understanding of the way you do flexible eating.

Similarly, in the Dear Sugars podcast, they talked about learning to be more compassionate and generous with yourself, and the need to move away from “diet culture,” how damaging it is, how it doesn’t work. How focusing on what we eat, quantities, counting calories, etc, is counterproductive and emotionally damaging.

So what do you think about all this? How does Own Your Eating fit into this universe?  That’s my question for you.

Here’s some of my thoughts.  On the one hand, I found myself agreeing with a lot of these points. I don’t think it’s good to be obsessive about foods. Counting lemons in your water and all that. I do think diet culture and focusing on having the perfect body or whatever is corrosive to the soul. And on the other hand I know “listening to my body” didn’t work. And I know counting macros does work–at least for now–at helping me know how much and what I need to eat. So long as I can do it with a lot of self-compassion and curiosity, and as little judgment as possible, especially when I don’t follow through on my plan for the day or I struggle or whatever.