IFS and Our Eating Parts: How IFS and Intuitive Eating Work Together

<p dir="ltr">Last week, we talked about diet culture being a legacy burden that we can give back to those who gave it to us.  I hope that that episode inspired you to think about the role of dieting in your life, and I hope that you're at least starting to think about letting some or all of it go. </p> <p dir="ltr">Maybe you've already done that!  </p> <p dir="ltr">Or, maybe you're thinking, "Ok Kim, I get that diet culture is toxic and damaging and I'd love to leave it, but I have no idea how!"  I hear that allllllll the time.  Which makes sense! </p> <p dir="ltr">For one thing, most of us have been dieting to some degree for most of our lives.  Dieting is like a safety net that we can't let go of.  It feels terrifying to not be following a "plan" or a "program."  </p> <p dir="ltr">Diet culture has convinced us that we need them.  Without them, we would have no idea what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, etc.  </p> <p dir="ltr">We've also learned from diet culture that we can't trust ourselves with food. We can't trust our bodies to know what type of food is "best" for us, or how much to eat.  We can't trust our own hunger cues because if we let them take over, they'll lead us to binge. </p> <p dir="ltr" data-redactor-style-cache="text-align: center;"> <strong><span data-redactor-span="true" data-redactor-style-cache= "color: rgb(88, 70, 102);">You want to leave diet culture, but how do you DO that? </span></strong></p> <p dir="ltr">The answer to that is twofold: </p> <ol> <li>You use <span data-redactor-span="true" data-redactor-style-cache= "color: rgb(88, 70, 102);"><strong>IFS</strong></span> to keep getting to know the parts of you that use food for emotional reasons or that somehow contribute to your eating patterns as well as the parts of you that don’t feel that your body is good enough; and </li> <li>You adopt an <span data-redactor-span="true" data-redactor-style-cache= "color: rgb(88, 70, 102);"><strong>Intuitive Eating (IE)</strong></span> approach to food.   </li> </ol> <div>The combination of I