Learning How to Listen to Your Intuitive Eater
The following activities are designed to help you recognize the messages you are getting about what to eat. Often, we are so chock full of those messages that we have little room to make sense of them, much less to hear the voice of your own intuition. Exploration is the first step of unlearning and finding that voice. (Hint: You may want to turn off the phone and television and find a quiet corner to complete this activity.)

Imagine yourself in the TV section of a local appliance store, surrounded by television screens full of talking heads, faces clear and voices blaring. On one, a talk show host tells you to do what she has done for her weight; on another, a competing talk show host sells her approach to eating and health; on another, a model demonstrates weight loss exercises you ought to do. Don't miss the screen of your parents, their eyes rolling at even the thought of you wanting seconds of your favorite food. Of course, one screen has your coworkers discussing all the pounds they've lost on their latest regimens. Your spouse is on the next one reminding you what your body could be like if you would just do what he or she does. Competing with these, a screen flashes a magazine listing of low-fat foods you should eat. The next screen babbles on with an interview of a researcher about a new anti-food diet. And, finally, you fill in the rest of the screens with messages you've received that we haven't even suggested. Who else polices your food? What else pressures you to eat a certain way?