My Philosophy at Off-Road Nutrition follows the principles of Intuitive Eating and Health at Every Size. So What exactly are Intuitive Eating and Health at Every Size (HAES)®?
I want you to know that you do not have to diet. That it is okay to be fat. That your weight is not a direct reflection of your health. That no one has the right to shame you for what you weigh or what you eat.
Despite what society and the multi-billion dollar diet culture wants you to believe, there is another way.
You have seen me post about it, describe myself as a practitioner of it, and maybe even personally experienced me ramble on excitedly about it, but I often forget that most people don’t exactly know what Health at Every Size (HAES)® or Intuitive Eating means, if they’ve even heard of it at all. I would like to change that for as many people as I can, and while I am not disillusioned enough to believe that everyone I come into contact with will give up dieting forever, my goal is to spread the information so that you can make your own informed decision.
Let’s start with Intuitive Eating.
Intuitive Eating is a way of eating that supports health, adequate body weight, and gentle nutrition. It teaches you to eat in response to internal cues about hunger and satiety, rather than external cues, diet plans, or emotions. It also teaches one how to help avoid overeating, obsessive food consumption, and harmful dieting.
There are 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating
– Reject the Diet Mentality
– Honor Your Hunger
– Make Peace with Food
– Challenge the Food Police
– Respect Your Fullness
– Discover the Satisfaction Factor
– Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food
– Respect Your Body
– Exercise – Feel the Difference
– Honor Your Health
During your sessions with me, we will discover which of the Principles you most need to work on in order to be an intuitive eater, and I will provide the tools and resources to help you strengthen that area.
So what exactly is HAES®?
Health at Every Size (HAES)® is the weight-inclusive philosophy that all bodies are good bodies and that a person’s weight is not indicative of their health. It includes many of the same components as Intuitive Eating, stressing that people should focus on building healthy habits rather than dieting for weight control.
It is a common misconception that HAES means that a person can be “healthy” at any size; rather, HAES advocates that everyone can pursue better health in personally meaningful ways, regardless of a their size.
Below are the 5 main principles of HAES, taken directly from the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH)1:
– Weight Inclusivity: Accept and respect the inherent diversity of body shapes and sizes and reject the idealizing or pathologizing of specific weights.
– Health Enhancement: Support health policies that improve and equalize access to information and services, and personal practices that improve human well-being, including attention to individual physical, economic, social, spiritual, emotional, and other needs.
– Respectful Care: Acknowledge our biases, and work to end weight discrimination, weight stigma, and weight bias. Provide information and services from an understanding that socio-economic status, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and other identities impact weight stigma, and support environments that address these inequities.
– Eating for Well-being: Promote flexible, individualized eating based on hunger, satiety, nutritional needs, and pleasure, rather than any externally regulated eating plan focused on weight control.
– Life-Enhancing Movement: Support physical activities that allow people of all sizes, abilities, and interests to engage in enjoyable movement, to the degree that they choose.
1. Association for Size Diversity and Health. 2019. “HAES Principles.” Association for Size Diversity and Health. https://www.sizediversityandhealth.org/content.asp?id=76
