Intuitive Eating and Sport Series - Principle One: Reject Diet Culture

Hey there! I'm Rebekah. I am a Registered Dietitian, Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, former athlete, and mama. I live and work in Ottawa, Ontario as the owner of Rebekah De Couvreur Dietitian, a virtual private practice. I have decided to start a new series here on my blog. I want to bring the principles of Intuitive Eating to you and help you discover how it will help you thrive as an athlete and human. Why is this important? As a former athlete, my nutrition journey has been a tumultuous one. When I began my nutrition career, I knew I needed to find ways to better support and protect athletes from going down paths of dietary restriction and misinformation. I came across Intuitive Eating and it just clicked for me and I knew I needed to learn more.

Besides the athlete population, we know that so many folks struggle to remove themselves from diet culture. Research suggests that 95% of people who diet, gain the weight back within 2 years. Whether it is through dietary restriction, medical intervention, or medications, dieting DOES NOT WORK. Not only does dieting not work, but it comes with a host of negative consequences. Here are a few for you...

• Physical: food cravings, mood swings, increased risk of bone fractures, loss of muscle mass, gallstones, hair loss,  high blood pressure, weight gain, blood sugar swings, slowing of metabolism.

• Psychological: Increased risk of eating disorders, reduced self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, disconnect from body cues

• Social: withdrawal, avoiding eating in front of others, relationship conflicts

• Behavioural: exercising excessively, avoiding physical intimacy

Athletes are at increased risk of restrictive eating behaviours and falling victim to diet culture. Misinformation around nutrition can come from coaches, teammates, family, and even other health professionals. Often athletes are given advice and ideas with their best interest in mind but without the background and knowledge of knowing how deeply these comments can affect an individual.

For example, I once worked with a figure skater whose disordered eating behaviours started at just 8 years old when a coach nonchalantly mentioned that she was getting "a little big for her partner".

Or the number of times I hear about a trainer at the gym who's suggested to a post-menopausal woman to try intermittent fasting when this can actually hinder her muscle growth and increase her risk of developing osteoporosis.

Intuitive Eating, created by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, rejects dieting, diet culture, and food restriction. It honours your body's innate cues and helps you find peace and joy with food, movement, and your body. If you think this sounds a little too loosy goosy for you, stay with me. As you go through each principle you will find things that speak to you. I want to take you on a journey through each principle of Intuitive Eating and show you how this can be such a supportive mindset through sport.

https://www.intuitiveeating.org/our-books/

Principle 1: Reject Diet Culture

The first principle to intuitive eating is rejecting diet culture. Rejecting diet culture is unlearning years, sometimes decades worth of misinformation and rules that we have subjected our bodies to. 

Have you ever stopped and scrutinized the diet industry? Dieting is prescribed with little thought about the consequences of repeated weight loss efforts. If dieting were put to the test like other prescription medications, it would never pass. Why? Because dieting doesn’t work. It is like prescribing a medication that works for the first few weeks, then stops but meanwhile it's causing harm. Remember all those consequences of dieting? That is your side effect list and it can be pretty intense. Athletes can get sucked into diet culture in the same way but often disguised as necessary manipulations for their sport. I am not suggesting we ignore the science and forgo sports nutrition. Rather, I wish for athletes to be encouraged to incorporate sports nutrition efforts in a more relaxed and balanced way. A way that fosters and respects the connection between your body's physiological and emotional needs.

This principle requires deep work in improving body kindness, self-compassion and curiosity. To work on getting rid of diet culture, start by thinking about all the food rules that you hold on to at this time. Maybe you step on the scale every day. Maybe you track your macros for every meal. Maybe you restrict sweets and save up for "cheat days". Whatever it may be, try letting go of one or more of those rules. Throw out the scale, delete the app, and enjoy the bowl of ice cream when you are craving it.

Now, before you start asking, the point of Intuitive Eating is not to eat whatever you want, whenever you want. Intuitive Eating is not about forgoing healthful food choices. It is about using this knowledge with your body's signals while also considering what you really want to eat. Sometimes that might be chocolate cake, other times that might be a smoothie. The beauty of Intuitive Eating is that when we have food freedom, we do not feel morally good or bad for choosing one over the other. We also don't feel restricted from the chocolate cake so we can enjoy it in a relaxed manner without fear, guilt, shame or the feeling that we screwed up our diet - cue the binge and diet reset tomorrow. We can use outside information while still being tuned in to our body's wants and needs.

For example:

• It is recommended to get protein and carbs in after your training session. It was a long training session in which you were using carb gels throughout. You aren't feeling that hungry and don't want to see anything sweet for a while so you choose to have a small bowl of cottage cheese with some crackers with a plan to eat a larger meal once your appetite improves.

For the next few months, I will be sharing more about Intuitive Eating in sport nutrition, taking you through each of the 10 principles. I hope you will join me for this ride in unlearning diet culture and finding food freedom.

If you'd like to learn more and get started on your own nutrition journey, booke your FREE DISCOVERY CALL. I am so excited to meet you.

Talk soon!