Mindful Eating Rules vs. Intuitive Eating

I've read several books which suggest rules and exercises for mindful eating. Judith Beck (daughter of cognitive therapy guru Aaron Beck) in her book "The Beck Diet Solution" suggests ways that dieters can limit when and how much they eat because most dieters don't know how to diet and they do not recognize their hunger or fullness cues. They eat from external or internal triggers, especially sabotaging thoughts. However Ms. Beck also includes a chapter and exercises to help dieters learn to 'tolerate hunger'. She suggests her readers purposely skip lunch so they can realize the 'hunger is not an emergency'. She says "You definitely don't have to eat when you're hungry. Just because you want to eat doesn't mean you always should." Perhaps she confuses physical stomach hunger with mental wanting to eat.

'Eating the Moment' author Pavel G. Somov suggests exercises to limit how much we eat, because he believes most people ignore their stomach cues and eat according to visual cues. He says that we eat to satisfy needs of the body, needs of the mind, and out of habit when triggered by environmental cues. However, he also includes ways to tune into stomach sensations for physical hunger and fullness. So some of his exercises support intuitive eating goals.

Even Judy Halladay, author of "ThinWithin", suggests 8 keys to conscious eating, which include eat only when hungry and stop eating when satsified AS WELL AS eat sitting down, without distractions, eat slowly, etc. or rules to help us eat only when hungry and stop when satisfied, because most people have difficulty recognizing and obeying stomach cues. So those who suggest mindful eating rules assume that people will NOT obey their stomach cues. Rather than let their bodies tell them when and how much to eat, then must make conscious mental decisions about where and how to eat in order to limit when and how much to eat.

In contrast, intuitive eating, by definition, is eating according to physical cues, rather than mental cravings. The longer I practice intuitive eating, the less I want to follow rules about how and where I eat. To me intuitive eating means eatingin response to physical cues of hunger foods which feel good in my body (not just taste good) and keep me unhungry for awhiile (which is why I eat), stopping when I feel physically satisfied and/or comfortably full. I initially needed to eat without distractions while I learned to recognize those stomach cues. However I now wonder: do I need to ALWAYS eat sitting down while focussing only on my food and stomach sensations in order to recognize stomach cues that I am no longer hungry and can stop eating? If I needed to always focus only on my body cues, I could never eat with another person. If I can only eat intuitively when I completely focus on eating, I must always eat in a quiet, uncluttered room lest I be distracted and overlook my physical sensations of fullness and/or satisfaction.

I'm least likely to follow the suggestion that I always eat sitting down. I usually like to eat meals sitting down, because I can use eating utensils and eat messy foods (like peanut butter and fruit on a muffin) over a plate without spilling if I sit at a table. However, I sometimes feel so starved when I finally enter my kitchen to prepare a meal that I want a bite of something to bring up my blood sugar, prevent dizziness and irritability, and make me feel less desperate while I prepare the meal. I like 1-2 cherries, a slice of apple, a chunk of cantaloupe, or a bite or 2 of other fruits which can stabilize my blood sugar without destroying my appetite for the upcoming meal. After a small snack, I may not need to eat a whole plateful of my meal. So I toss or save leftovers for another meal, because my stomach tells me when I no longer need food, not the empty plate.

Likewise, I often want a taste of something sweet after a meal. I don't need a whole dish of dessert. I'm already full, but just want a sweet finish to satisfy a craving for something sweet. So I eat a bite of fruit, 1 date, 1-2 teaspoonfuls of ice cream or a bite of a cookie. If I'm sitting at the table and my husband offers to bring me a dish of ice cream or a container or whole piece of fruit, I decline. I only want a taste, which I can have standing up at the kitchen counter, rather than facing a whole dishful of dessert, when I only need a bite or 2. I can still focus on the tastes and textures of that 1-2 bites while standing in the kitchen. I want to get up from the table to move on to my next activity. I'm done with eating, but I still want a taste. So I eat that taste while standing up, rather serving myself 2 cherries on a plate, which looks rather empty, sitting down at a table and eating. Maybe I'm rationalizing stand up eating. However, if I take the time to serve myself a dish of ice cream, I'm less likely to want to just eat 2 bites.

Perhaps the only advantage of sitting down to eat with my plate of food in front of me is that I can see how much I plan to eat. If I only eat with my 'eyes' or what I think my stomach needs, but disregard my stomach hunger or fullness cues, sitting down with my plate of food could limit how much I eat. However, if I grab food, when I enter the kitchen famished, and eat that food while I prepare more food, my stomach WILL tell me that I'm full, sometimes before I finish what I prepared. I may feel 'deprived' if I choose to obey my full cues and stop eating, unless I remind myself that I also ate while I prepared the food.

Sometimes that deprived feeling motivates me to eat less or not eat the next time I prepare food. However, I never regret eating a few bites while I'm famished while preparing a meal. If I don't eat a few bites, I may think I need to prepare or serve myself a LOT more than I really need to satisfy my hunger. (A few bites of fruit, like 2 cherries, decreases my hunger from intense to moderate.) So even if I forget abou those bites of food while I prepare food, my stomach does not forget and reminds me even before I finish what I prepared. If I honor my fullness cues, whether I eat standing up or sitting down, I stop eating when I feel comfortably full. If I allow the amount on my plate dictate how much I eat, I'm not really eating intuitively.

How many rules do I need in order to eat intuitively? I count 3: (1) Eat when I sense true, physiological stomach hunger; (2) Eat foods which feel good in my body and keep me unhungry for awhile (unless I'm just trying to raise blood sugar for a brief period); and (3) Stop eating when I feel comfortable (no longer hungry but not overly full). Some intuitive nondiet gurus add "Eat consciously or pay attention to the food while you eat." I prefer to pay attention to how the food feels in my STOMACH as well as how the food tastes and feels in my mouth. Enjoying mouth feel while ignoring stomach sensations can influence me to keep eating to prolong mouth pleasure. Nevertheless I believe 'intuitive eating' by definition requires conscious eating or paying attention to stomach cues, before, during and after eating. How can I eat only when hungry, foods that feel good in my body and stop when I feel comfortable full if I DON'T pay attention to my body?

I suspect many intuitive eating writers (like Geneen Roth in "Breaking Free from Emotional Eating" and Karen Koenig in "Rules of Normal Eating") include many exercises to help former dieters and/or overeaters LEARN to eat intuitively. However, they may not always need to follow those learning rules or exercises after intuitive eating becomes their normal eating style. Maybe I've progressed far enough in my intuitive eating that I feel freer to break a few rules and see what happens.