What has been your most significant intuitive eating learning?

There are so many things that I've learned since I began my journey into intuitive eating that it would be very difficult to identify the most significant, because my whole attempt to ditch the diet has numerous factors that all intertwine with each other.

However, I think the thing that has really struck home with me is learning that I can stop regimenting my diet and food intake, without suddenly losing control over eating altogether. To stop planning what I'll eat for the day, stop counting fat grams, carbohydrates and calories, and end the futile task of balancing one food off against another, does not mean that all of a sudden, I will end up with food taking over completely.

I am amazed at how little I think about food in those ways anymore. Never checking packets for calorie content, choosing a tasty morsel because I want it rather than because it is low-fat (and therefore likely to be not tasty), no longer writing out a whole week of meal plans, and never worrying anymore that I'll get to party and there won't be any food I 'can eat' (because it is all 'too fattening').

I stopped controlling food in all these ways, and I have not suffered because of it. I'm not a skinny little svelte-like thing, admittedly, but squeezing myself into drainpipe jeans was never the goal of this path. Being mentally and emotionally free from food control and diet-obsession was my goal - and I'm getting increasingly closer to achieving that.

So, the learning that I don't have to control food to be in control of my eating has been a major epiphany for me.