The Intersection of Intuitive Eating and Athletics
As a run coach and certified intuitive eating professional, I firmly believe in the intersection of intuitive eating and athletics. Learning to reject diet culture is HARD, and when you have strategies to make that process more manageable it’s likely you’ll stick with the lasting effects of reconnecting with your body for longer (if not forever).
For many dietitians and fellow intuitive eating pros the principle of movement comes later on in the journey. Reminder: there are 10 principles of intuitive eating, one of which is called, “Movement: Feel the Difference.”
As a coach, I work with athletes who are (generally speaking) committed to the lasting effects of movement, and already have a firm (albeit potentially tumultuous) relationship with it. So I make sure to ask my athletes the following question: if exercise didn’t have the ability to change or alter your weight, would you still do it?
A number of my athletes are training for big goals -a 100 mile race, sub 4 hour marathon, completing their first 5k- and while none of these actions justify being “allowed” to eat a cookie, the more you practice giving yourself permission to eat the cookie after a workout, the more it ingrains in your psyche that YES, you are ALLOWED to eat the cookie. In my opinion even if you have to “allow” the cookie, it’s better than not eating it at all.
So yes, the nuance is there, but remember that with intuitive eating the journey is not linear. There will be moments in your food freedom experience(s) that feel really easy, and other times it feels hard. The true work comes with giving yourself unconditional permission to experience those feelings, and approach the learning with a neutral perspective. There will be days where you don’t eat enough, and there will be a series of weeks that you might eat past fullness often.
The beauty of intuitive eating and athletics is that you have a singular mission. Eat enough, always. Stay focused on your goal. When you achieve success in one area, it will strengthen your ability to see success in the other.
Athlete Anecdote: An athlete of mine recently shared that she used to not keep any grain based carbs in the house for fear of bingeing on them. Over the past few weeks we’ve been working on strategies to dismantle that fear, and refocus the knowledge she has on nutrition not from a place of restriction, but one of helping to fuel her endeavors. She is training for a massive upcoming race, and it’s critically important for her to fuel her body!
Yes - there is comfort in eating a bagel when you know you’re going out for a long run. But I’d rather you eat the bagel (even if it’s predicated on that sense of being “allowed”) than not. The intersection in this instance is similar to exposure therapy: do what you need to do to feel safe enough to approach what feels scary. When you do it often enough, that thing no longer feels scary.
Sure, the race will come and go. But the practice of eating a bagel won’t feel as intimidating as it would have starting from a place of even deeper vulnerability. If running is a safety blanket for eating, sure, we’ll need to address that. But overcoming anxieties with food isn’t about asking you to jump into the lake without learning how to swim first.
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