4 Stages of Learning

My minister recently described in his sermon the 4 stages of learning. That description reminded me of how I learned to eat intuitively. Here's the stages and how those related to my intuitive eating journey.:

(1) UNCONSCIOUS INCOMPENTENCE: You don't know how to do something and you don't even recognize that you don't know how. You just struggle. You may not even admit to yourself that you struggle.

I struggled with restricting certain foods, bingeing, purging, but I didn't know how to change my disordered eating habits or fears about food and eating. I didn't even know that my beliefs about food and eating perpetuated my disordered habits.

(2) CONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE: You know that you don't know how to do what you want to do. At this stage you are teachable and open to new ideas and change.

I learned about eating intuitively, according to hunger cues, starting when hungry and stopping when comfortably full. I learned that restricting according to external indices like calories, rather than choosing foods that I enjoyed eating, influenced my rebellious bingeing. I learned that people could actually trust their bodies to tell them when, what and how much to eat. However, I didn't know the exact skills I needed to eat intuitively.

(3) CONSCIOUS COMPENTENCE: You get instructions. By imitation or insights, you consciously do something differently. You practice new skills over and over.

I allowed myself freedom to eat whatever I wanted to taste, but also considered what my body wanted. I imagined how foods would feel in my body when I felt hungry. I practiced waiting until I felt hungry before eating. I practiced eating mindfully, slowly and without distractions, to sense my fullness cues so that I could stop eating when I felt comfortably full. I paid attention to how food felt in my body in order to choose foods that felt good after eating as well as tasted good during eating.

(4) UNCONSCIOUS COMPENTENCE: You don't have to think about using the skills. You just do whatever you learned without thinking.

I'm not completely to this point yet. However, I often forget about eating until I feel hunger cues. I prefer eating without distractions and slowly tasting and savoring each bite. I sense my point of 'enough' and then comfortable fullness. However, I still overeat when I'm distracted by conversation while eating with others. With food restrictions from 7 diagnosed food allergies, I still struggle with feeling free to eat anything. Nevertheless, I try to match the qualities I crave (sweet, sour, warm, cold, chewy, creamy, dry, juicy, etc.) to the foods available within my allergy restrictions. I'm somewhere between stages 3 and 4.