In one of those Christy Harrison podcasts, she had a listener question from someone who believed that eating kosher for religious reasons was incompatible with intuitive eating. They felt that intuitive eating meant no rules or restriction of any kind, zero structure basically, which is not what it means. It's ok to eat meals at the same time every day for convenience, or to plan ahead, or to avoid something that hurts your stomach or conflicts with your values. The idea is to create your own way of eating that works with your real life, not to throw everything into disarray for the heck of it. That was one of my own early interpretations of intuitive eating. Years ago, I thought it meant to confirm hunger by being extremely mindful and not distracted. Then thinking about exactly what I wanted to eat. Then eating exactly the right amount to hit a certain level on the hunger and fullness chart. A traditional breakfast, lunch, and dinner were out. What if it's dinner time and I'm not hungry? Convenience was out. Planning was out. Eating something for the hell of it was inconceivable, as was eating or not eating something based on health or values. I genuinely worried about things like, what if my intuition wants macaroni and cheese and I don't have that in the kitchen? Like I was supposed to choose from the entire world of food possibilities every time I ate, not something practical like what I had in the refrigerator or what I had time for.
It's interesting how my understanding has continued to evolve. Coming right out of dieting, I placed all of that black and white thinking onto my new "intuitive eating diet."
Yes! That irrational fear caused me to rail against intuitive eating for years. I thought I would be at the mercy of vague cravings and have zero say in what or how much I would eat. It's not a lobotomy though. You still think about what's healthy for you and how you want to feel.
I think the irrational fear is that if we listen to the intuition, we can't take into account nutritional knowledge we have. For example I know if I eat only fruit for lunch I will likely be hungry shortly after or if I eat very little fruit and vegetables it is likely I will be constipated, if I eat too much I won't feel very energetic and so on.
That is probably what I love best about IE. I like to keep a pretty well stocked pantry and fridge, so when dinner time comes, I think - What can I be bothered making? What will the kids complain the least about? What do I feel like eating? What can I be bothered making trumps the other things in most cases. I might love the idea of a full roast dinner, but spaghetti bolognese is a lot quicker and easier to get on the table and I still enjoy it and find it satisfying.