The 5th principle of Intuitive Eating is: Discover the Satisfaction Factor. Often when you find yourself in a dieting pattern, you adopt the belief that eating healthy is bland and boring. Dieting often leaves you feeling deprived of pleasure from your food. When you are in a pattern of restriction you are depriving yourself not only from pleasure but from feeling satisfied and satiated. When you don’t feel these necessary elements from the food you eat, your body and your mind know that they have been duped! This is where thoughts about food and strong cravings can begin and become seriously problematic.
Food is intended to be pleasurable. We need to eat to survive and so foods that are delicious make us want to return to them to feel satisfied and satiated. When you deprive yourself of this basic need you will suffer.
To begin to integrate this principle and create a greater satisfaction factor with your food, first it is helpful to know more specifically what foods you truly enjoy. What flavors do you love? What spices and seasonings are enjoyable to your palette? What textures do you enjoy, what aromas? When you know what brings you a sense of feelings satisfied with food, you can create meals that are balanced, enjoyable, delicious and pleasurable.
Mindful eating is an extremely beneficial aspect of this awareness. When you are truly present with the food you are eating you will know if you feel satisfied or not. When you find yourself mindlessly eating and not receiving any satisfaction from your food choices it may be because you weren’t present while eating and forgot to taste and enjoy your food. If you are emotionally eating, even if the food tastes good, usually there is some negative self-talk and shame surrounding the process of eating and so you don’t truly derive the pleasure from eating that you deserve.
The concept of savoring is super helpful in this principle of discovering the satisfaction factor. If you allow yourself to smell, taste, chew slowly and thoroughly and pay attention while eating you will create the satisfaction factor quite naturally. If you are rushing, distracted or eating some “diet” friendly food just as a means to an end to be “good” you will most likely not feel satisfied. This only sets you up to crave, feel resentful and can possibly lead to overeating or binge eating at some point in the future.
To begin to integrate this step of discovering the satisfaction factor into your daily life, follow these steps:
· Write down a list of all of the foods and flavors you know you love and enjoy eating
· Write down some of the favorite meals you remember having throughout your life
· Write down what tastes and qualities you often crave such as sweet, salty, crunchy, spicy, pungent, warm, cold, sour…
· Break down foods you enjoy from each the primary nutrients including foods that provide fiber, vitamins, minerals, healthy fat, carbohydrates and protein
· Review your list and write down if you remember the last time you ate each of these particular foods and if you have any stories or judgments about each of these foods
Get curious about any food stories that you’ve created in your mind about these foods that you enjoy. If you have been restricting any of them, can you allow yourself to eat one of those foods, when you are hungry and not emotionally charged? As you eat it, do so mindfully. Allow yourself to savor the aromas, tastes, textures and the process of eating. Pay attention and be present and notice any judgments that may arise and let any judgments go. Just eat, let your food be food and feel satisfying. Note how you feel after eating this food and any messages your body sends you in the way of your energy, physical responses and digestion. This is where you become the expert in knowing what your body wants and needs. This is where you are engaging in the process and integration of mindful and intuitive eating.