In a couple of weeks, I’ll begin meeting with people from around the world (online) to begin a ten week journey of mindful and intuitive eating. This journey is not just about food, but it’s about your entire life. Who you are as a person shows up at the dinner table, so when you learn how to eat mindfully and intuitively, you can’t avoid taking a look at the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that you engage in both at the meal and in the rest of your life.

Often people are a little confused about the differences between mindful and intuitive eating. I have taught both of them together for the past twelve years and believe they support and assist one another mainly by simply approaching the same ideas from a slightly different angle. Of course, mindfulness practice is at the foundation of my program and was shown, in my research, to be the necessary component for improvements in intuitive eating, body appreciation, and binge eating behavior.

Both mindful and intuitive eating have the same opinion about dieting and the diet culture we live in.  The Center for Mindful Eating recently published a position statement that indicates it “does not endorse any philosophy or program that includes or promotes weight loss measures or procedures because evidence does not support that it deepens or improves an individual’s mindful eating practice.” Along the same lines, Intuitive Eating has ten principles which start with Reject the Diet Mentality. Both mindful and intuitive eating professionals believe deeply that the diet culture has done much to create enormous suffering and very little to help people understand their struggle with food and their bodies.

According to my research, people that showed up in my class were actively on a diet for an average of 39 percent of their lives—some starting their diets as young as five years old! And, the negative impact from this early indoctrination to dieting ranged from complete confusion about what and how to eat to feeling miserable about themselves.

If you’re tired of yo-yo dieting (losing weight but then gaining it back after you’re off the diet), want to end overeating, or simply want to learn how mindfulness can help you be more at peace with your body and with the food you eat, join me for my next round of classes starting September 3 and 4.  There is more information about my class and registration links here.

My classes include both professionals in the field of nutrition, psychology, and other health-related areas as well as members of the general public. This combination of people in the class provides a rich learning environment for everyone. If you are a professional, CE credits are available for many professions.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at MindfulRossy(at)gmail.com.