Intuitive Eating in Real Life: Sabrina
- Sabrina Stadelman
- Apr 25
- 3 min read
A personal story of how Intuitive Eating works in real life.
Written by Sabrina Stadelman. Edited by Cristina Luibil, MS, RD, LDN
When I was a kid, I never really gave food a second thought. I didn’t think of labeling foods as “healthy” or “unhealthy”; I just ate the foods that I enjoyed. As I got older, that started to change. As I grew up, I became aware of how foods were often labeled as “good” or “bad” and how common it was to hear people talk about feeling guilty for eating certain foods. I also became more serious about sports, and I started to feel the pressure to eat “healthy”.
At first, my focus on eating “healthy” was about learning how to fuel my body correctly with the nutrients that it needed. However, this soon turned into an intense focus on eating the “perfect” diet, with the “right” amounts of protein, carbs, and fats. I started to feel guilty for eating foods like chocolate, chips, crackers, or ice cream, which all of the diets and nutrition tips that I tried to follow labeled as “bad” or “unhealthy”. I thought that I was being healthy, but I didn’t realize that being so strict about the foods that I allowed myself to eat was actually a form of restriction. It also didn’t work, because I would only end up craving the foods that I had deemed off limits more. When I did allow myself to eat those foods, I would feel guilty for it. It felt like I was always running calculations in my brain, and eating started to feel more like a math problem than an enjoyable experience or an act of self-care. I thought that following a “healthy” diet would lead to a feeling of accomplishment. Instead, it just made me feel worse. I felt like I was failing when, in reality, I was striving for a level of perfection that was never sustainable in the first place.
When I started learning more about nutrition and taking nutrition classes, I eventually came to realize that becoming so focused on counting and tracking everything that I ate wasn’t necessary or realistic. I learned what it meant to actually have a healthy relationship with food. I learned about how eating and enjoying a variety of foods is actually really important, and that no food needs to be labeled as “good” or “bad”, as different foods provide us with different nutrients. I also realized that food is more than just the nutrients it contains, and that it is normal and healthy to choose foods for enjoyment.
It took me a while to realize that the problem was never the food that I ate, but the all-or-nothing mindset that I had around it. I eventually learned that what I chose to eat was not something that I was going to be graded on. I didn’t need to be perfect. This was when I started learning about Intuitive Eating. I started working on learning to trust my body to tell me what it needed, instead of constantly keeping mental calculations based on what or how much I thought I should eat.
Intuitive Eating is something I’m still learning, and something that takes time. I’m still learning to be more in tune with my own body and listen to what it needs. With Intuitive Eating, I remind myself that enjoying a variety of foods supports a healthy relationship with food and that I don’t have to eat “perfectly” to take care of my body.
If you are looking to break free from diet culture or are curious about how Intuitive Eating can work for you, Aterra can help. If you would like to get in touch with our dietitians or access more of our resources, check out the links below!
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Disclaimer: The information shared in this blog is for general educational and informational purposes only. It may not be tailored to your specific health needs as it is written here. This content is not intended to replace personalized medical advice, nutrition counseling, or medical nutrition therapy. Any recipes or suggestions provided are meant to inspire and should be used at your discretion. Always consult with your own registered dietitian, physician, or healthcare provider before making changes to your nutrition, lifestyle, or treatment plan. If you choose, Aterra Nutrition would be happy to help you in your own, individual nutrition and intuitive eating journey.