Victoria Yates is a Registered Nurse, Whole Health Educator, and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor through Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch. Victoria helps women identify and overcome patterns of disordered eating, chronic dieting, and poor body image as well as manage hormonal conditions such as hypothalamic amenorrhea.
I've been seeing the term “Intuitive Eating” pop up a lot in the wellness space and on social media. What is intuitive eating exactly?
Intuitive Eating is a research-based approach that teaches people how to tune into their body’s natural signals for how to eat as opposed to dieting. It consists of 10 principles that work to guide a person in approaching their health from a place of self care rather than self-deprivation. The 10 principles are: Reject Diet Mentality, Honor Your Hunger, Make Peace with Food, Challenge the Food Police, Feel Your Fullness, Discover the Satisfaction Factor, Cope with Your Emotions Without Using Food, Respect Your Body, Joyful Movement, and Honor Your Health With Gentle Nutrition.
Can you share a little of your journey and what led you to become an intuitive eating coach?
I’ve always had a fascination for health and nutrition. But starting in high school, this seemingly innocent love of learning turned into an obsession with my health that led to many years of disordered eating. I’d say now that I had some combination of anorexia and orthorexia which is an unhealthy obsession with being healthy. I was constantly adding up my calories throughout the day to make sure I didn’t go above my “safe” amount and exercising solely out of fear of weight gain.
My long list of “off-limits” food prevented me from being truly present when dining out with friends or family. My relationship with food was causing me tremendous anxiety and fear, and preventing me from really living. Another indicator that my health was suffering was that I lost my period. The stress from my unhealthy relationship with food and overexercising led to my body shutting down one of it’s important systems. Even though I never skipped a meal and ate what I thought was a decent amount of food, my body showed me otherwise.
Fast forward a few years and quite a few meetings with therapists, doctors, and dietitians, I discovered intuitive eating. And just like that, everything I’d been working through and fighting for clicked. I learned through intuitive eating how to trust my body with food, rather than approach it with fear. I learned how to eat “normally” and enough for me. I learned that I could still eat healthy without rigid rules.
I knew I was not the only woman who struggled with food and body image: I felt called upon to help women break free from dieting and restrictive eating and to find peace and joy around food and their bodies. So here I am today! I absolutely love the work I do and love hearing my clients tell me how working together has transformed their lives.
Why do you think Intuitive Eating works for people who struggle with body image and dieting?
Intuitive Eating is research-based. Studies show that eating intuitively helps people find and maintain a weight that is normal for them. It is important to note here that everyone’s healthy weight is different and is influenced by different factors, including age, activity level, and body type. Our bodies are way smarter than we make them out to be when it comes to managing our health and weight. Intuitive eating teaches you how to eat for your unique body, as opposed to following a restrictive diet that won't be sustainable long term..
And as for body image, one of the main principles of intuitive eating is to “respect your body”. Intuitive eating helps you learn how to respect and honor your body, allowing you to care for it in ways you wouldn’t be able to if you didn’t give it the respect and love it deserves. Eating intuitively encourages you to choose to eat a certain way because your body deserves it. You’re able to choose to exercise out of respect for your body, rather than to simply burn calories. You’re able to eat a comfortable amount of food out of respect for your body, rather than weighing food and rationing out strict portions to boost weight loss. Learning self love and body respect helps you drown out diet messaging that tells you to change your body. The motivation is completely different and that’s why it works!
Without food rules and guidelines, how do you coach clients to make strong food choices?
My personal approach is to let the client be the expert on their own body. I empower them to tune in. If you were to ask a random person on the street how to eat healthily, most people know the answer already. The problem is that we equate health with dieting...and dieting isn’t enjoyable. So instead of giving someone a strict plan, we do a lot of talking and I do a lot of listening to help them find the “answers” for themselves. And this all depends on what the person’s goal is. For instance, if someone comes to me with the goal of wanting to eat healthier, we work together to understand their “why”: Why do they want to eat healthier? What does eating healthy mean to them? Then we work to discover how food makes them feel. Do they feel good when they eat carb-heavy meals three times a day? If the answer is “no” and it usually is, we work from there to discover what foods and meals make them feel their best! This is how clients are able to actually create lasting changes and eat in ways that are empowering!
As an Intuitive Eating Coach, how do you help people manage cravings for unhealthy food and beverages, while still honoring their craving/desire to eat these foods?
Cravings, I believe, aren’t a bad thing. Even cravings for some less than healthy options aren’t bad if eaten occasionally. But, the problem comes when we have rigid rules about foods being either “good” or “bad”. When we label foods as “bad”, which is often the case for unhealthy foods and beverages, we psychologically have more of a drive to eat them and eat unhealthy quantities of them. We often think to ourselves, “I already failed, so might as well just eat the whole thing”. I have found that for those who work through a mindset of foods being only “good” or “bad”, they discover that when they actually taste the food without guilt, they may not even really enjoy the food they used to crave. By getting rid of the “good” label, they’re able to more fully enjoy foods that they used to label as “diet-foods”. Nothing tastes as good with the word diet pinned to it, in my opinion.
Can you explain the concept of “Gentle Nutrition”, and how this applies to eating intuitively?
Gentle nutrition is the last principle of intuitive eating and it combines all of the other principles, plus adds in the knowledge of good nutrition. In practice this may mean you anticipate and plan for hunger mid-afternoon, understanding that something with protein and fat is going to help boost your energy without giving you the rush and crash that comes from eating a carb heavy (pretzels/muffins) snack. When you put the concept of gentle nutrition into play, you can “honor your hunger” and make a strong food choice. The mindset is one of self-care and thoughtfulness, which is empowering.
What does a day of intuitive eating look like?
For me, intuitive eating works best most days when I have some sort of plan or rhythm that I stick to because, let’s be honest, we can’t always just go and eat exactly what we want all the time. There’s also an element of practicality that we have to address. So for me, I always have ingredients for a few of my favorite breakfasts on hand. Something like oatmeal with some chopped apples and peanut butter on top or some scrambled eggs, roasted veggies, and sprouted toast with grass-fed butter. I always eat something for breakfast (in fact, for most meals) which includes protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fat because I know that these components help me feel full, satisfied, and energized.
I like to have ingredients prepped for a big lunch salad, so that I can quickly throw it together. I also recommend having some regular snacks on hand that you love and that are satisfying. Snacking on something with some protein and fat between meals is going to help curb hunger and keep you focused until you’re ready for a full meal.
For dinner, I love encouraging people to have fun! Get creative, but feel free to keep things simple. Make dinner a time to really enjoy the food you’re eating as best you can, whether that’s through setting the table, turning off the television, or serving foods with lots of colors on your plate. The more enjoyable your eating experience, the more likely you are to pay attention to how the food feels in your body.
Can you share 4 things we can all do right now to tune into our bodies and become more intuitive eaters?
Get rid of your scale. If you don’t want to throw it away, hide it or put it away. Weighing yourself regularly takes away from your ability to tune into your body. I encourage clients to trust their body, not the numbers on the scale.
Start practicing having an inner dialogue with yourself: Ask yourself how you feel before, during, and after a meal.
As often as you can, make your eating environment calm and enjoyable, maybe add in a few deep breaths before eating to get your body ready for digestion as well as your mind ready to pay attention.
Approach every meal as an opportunity to learn something about your body and your relationship with food.
If readers want to learn more and connect with you, where can they find you?
Come say hi on Instagram (@yates_victoria_), over on the blog at www.victoria-yates.com, or you can tune into the Embracing Balance Podcast where I co-host!