For a while now, I’ve been following the different voices in the Intuitive Eating world. This movement has been growing in strength, and for good reason. After decades of suffering through punishing, restrictive diets, thousands are embracing Intuitive Eating as a way to get back to the basics. To actually listen to our body rather than tormenting it. It’s a movement that, for the most part, I firmly endorse and believe in.
But I do have a few reservations as well. Because I believe so strongly in a gospel-centered approach to health and wellness, I think we need to be very careful when it comes to the way we apply the Intuitive Eating mindset in our own hearts and minds.
The most important reason may seem pretty obvious: I can’t always trust my own intuition. I don’t know about you, but for a long time, I struggled with a very messed-up relationship with food. And that struggle included that quiet little voice in my head. Again and again, my “intuition” told me I needed chocolate–and LOTS of it–to be happy and fulfilled. I just accepted it as a part of my everyday life.
But eventually, the Lord helped me see that, deep down, my beliefs around food and dieting and body image all needed to be HEALED–not heeded. With time, He completely transformed the way I thought about these things, and revolutionized my mental and emotional relationship with food (especially sugar). Now, with His help, I really can trust my intuition. I can eat “intuitively” because I know HE is directing my little inner voice, not my own misguided thoughts and feelings and addiction to my favorite comfort food.
I love the way author Richard Rohr explains it:
“We can never engineer or guide our own transformation or conversion. If we try, it will be a self-centered and well-controlled version of conversion, with most of my preferences and addictions still fully in place but now well disguised. Any attempts at self-conversion would be like an active alcoholic trying to determine his own rules for sobriety. God has to radically change the central reference point of our lives.” (Breathing Under Water, p. 63).
In this video, I explain a little more about applying a gospel-centered perspective to Intuitive Eating. Hope it helps you find your own footing as you move toward a powerful faith-based approach to health and wellness.
