Hey Erin, look…I’m drinking a full-sugar soda.
“Turning around I saw one of the athletes who’d heard my Intuitive Eating for Athletes talk just the night before holding up a lemon-lime soda after our long ride. I wasn’t sure if he meant his bragging about drinking contraband as a funny dig at the dietitian ‘food police’!
‘I actually thought this was a bubbly water when I pulled it out of the cooler,’ he explained. ‘Before your talk last night, I would have dumped it…found a way to slyly pour it out so I wasn’t drinking my calories. It’s a rule I’ve held for a long time not to drink full-sugar soda.’
‘But,’ he went on, ‘after hearing your talk I’m committed to being more flexible. It’s just one soda. And I need the calories and carbs to refuel after that ride. You’ve changed my perspective and got me thinking about these things differently.’
I couldn’t hide my beaming smile. This was coming from a 45 year-old former pro cyclist, now pro triathlete with nearly 3 decades of elite athletic experience…and he’s rethinking his nutrition beliefs based on a 45-minute talk I gave at a training camp.
Let’s Talk Intuitive Eating
While some athletes won’t be so quick to jump on the Intuitive Eating bandwagon, I’ve found that many people welcome the notion that they don’t have to eat according to a specific set of rules they’ve learned somewhere along the way. Sports Nutrition tends to be prescriptive and precise. Intuitive Eating is internally focused and flexible. Combining the two is a challenging but valuable meld of art and science.
My goal is to help athletes implement sports nutrition principles while harnessing the power of Intuitive Eating. This approach, built on 10 principles outlined in this 2-part article, emphasizes body feedback and a sustainable relationship with food. Evidence supports its use as a way to improve psychological and physical health markers (1). Let’s explore the ten key principles of Intuitive Eating for a more personalized approach to sports nutrition.
Principle 1 – Reject the Diet Mentality
Say goodbye to the diet industry’s standards and external measures of ‘enoughness.’ Athletes especially can fall victim to specific metrics (weight, body composition, watts per kilogram, etc.) dictating if they measure up. Many people find letting go of this mindset challenging, but you can always return to it if Intuitive Eating doesn’t work for you.
Principle 2 – Honor Your Hunger
Reconnect with your body’s natural hunger and satiety signals. This practice actually helps improve dietary quality and food enjoyment (2,3). Ignoring your hunger can lead to overeating and food distrust.
Athletes often have unpredictable appetite fluctuations related to our training. How many times have you not felt hungry after a hard workout? The key to implementing this is to build awareness around body cues in the context of other information. If your appetite is flat, but you know you’ve had a high-stress day and have a hard workout tomorrow, logic tells you that eating balanced meals is appropriate. Remember that the absence of hunger isn’t the same as not needing nutrition.
Principle 3 – Make Peace with Food
End the war with food. Avoid labeling foods as ‘sinful’ or ‘naughty.’ Food should be enjoyed, not restricted.
Think of my friend’s story above. From his perspective, there was no place for regular soda in his strict diet. Not even after a workout! But by opening up his mind to the possibility that it could fit, and that he enjoyed the refreshing flavor after a hard day on the bike, he was able to begin a friendlier relationship with soda in general. How can you take a step in making food your friend and not the enemy?
Principle 4 – Challenge the Food Police
Stop obsessing over food’s benefits or detriments. Food is not morally driven, and there are no strict rules. Choose foods that work for your body, regardless of what pop culture, social media influencers or fringe experts say.
Athletes need to consider possible negative impacts of food on their performance. For example, eating a lot of fiber the day before a marathon could end badly. Does this mean fiber is toxic? No! It simply means that different foods provide different nutrients and functions in the body. There is more than one way to put together a healthful eating pattern. And if we listened to everything the pundits claim around food and diet, we literally wouldn’t be able to eat anything.
Principle 5 – Feel Your Fullness
This is another reminder to pay attention to body cues. Eating beyond fullness is common when athletes dig a hole nutritionally. One common example of this is athletes who skip or skimp on their breakfast and lunch, then plow through the day’s activities and hit a wall in the afternoon. The pantry looks mighty inviting and all they can think of is diving into the crunchy, sweet/salty carb stash on those shelves. Feeling so out of control, the individual may eat quickly and feel unable to stop, resulting in physical discomfort from overeating (and a subsequent shame spiral).
There are two steps to feeling your fullness. The first is to eat regular, balanced meals and observe how this makes your body feel. Resist the urge to clean your plate or otherwise override your body’s cues. Secondly, slow down, pause during meals, and understand that you can always eat more if your body indicates.”
Stay tuned for Part 2 of Intuitive Eating for Athletes! And if you’d like to chat with Erin about all things food & eating, feel free to email or connect with her through the Let’s Chat button on her website.
Here is a list of past articles written by Erin Green: