Food Psych #79: Intuitive Eating & the Satisfaction Factor with Elyse Resch

Intuitive Eating co-author Elyse Resch shares her history of emotional eating as a child, how going on a diet in her 20s triggered an eating disorder, why studying nutrition science and becoming a dietitian helped her recover, how she got the idea to write an anti-diet book, why satisfaction is so central to intuitive eating, how to raise kids as intuitive eaters, and lots more!

Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDRD has been in private practice in Beverly Hills as a Nutrition Therapist for 34 years, specializing in eating disorders, Intuitive Eating, and preventative nutrition. She is the co-author of Intuitive Eating (St. Martin's Press, 1995, 1996, 2003, third edition--2012), and is the co-author of Intuitive Eating, audio version, 2009 (Sounds True). She has published journal articles and does regular speaking engagements and extensive press, radio, and internet interviews. She is nationally known for her work in helping patients break free from the diet mentality through the Intuitive Eating process.

Elyse's philosophy embraces the goal of reconnecting with your internal wisdom about eating. This is the wisdom with which you were born but from which you have become distracted. A reconnection with your intuitive wisdom will help you develop a healthy and satisfying relationship with food and your body. Elyse’s work has been profiled on CNN, KABC, NBC, AP Press, and KTTV television. She is a certified child and adolescent obesity expert, a Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian, and a Fellow of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals. She was also the treatment team nutritionist on the Eating Disorder Unit at Beverly Hills Medical Center. Find her online at ElyseResch.com, and pre-order her Intuitive Eating Workbook.

We Discuss:

Reflections on the election, and validating any and all of our difficult, confusing feelings
Elyse’s relationship with food growing up, including a generally neutral relationship to food as a child that eventually developed into an eating disorder due to outside influences from peers and loved ones later in life
Elyse’s experience in graduate school and how it helped her in her eating disorder recovery
How Elyse’s clients’ experiences with weight regain and her exploration of food and psychology prompted a shift to explore weight-neutral nutrition and Health at Every Size (HAES)
Christy and Elyse’s reflections on being a part of diet culture at one time in their careers, and how to help nutritionists and dietitians embrace HAES and intuitive eating and let go of the diet mentality
Elyse’s approach to advocating for ourselves in the doctor’s office to ensure a non-triggering visit for those in eating disorder recovery
The book Intuitive Eating and the concepts of rejecting the diet mentality, understanding diet culture, and letting go of the dream of weight loss
Elyse’s experience being an intuitive eating nutritionist in Hollywood, where image is so important and clients are often urged to be underweight
How removing magazines and other forms of body-focused media is an important step in removing eating disorder and negative body-image triggers
Elyse’s supervision work with counselors training for the Intuitive Eating Certification, including confronting weight bias and diet mentality among professionals
Radical acceptance and self-compassion in eating disorder recovery
The importance of confronting our own mental health struggles when we decide to enter a field such as counseling that requires us to delve into the mental health of others
Raising children as intuitive eaters, including empowering children in their own autonomy and engendering trust to promote food intuition
The gray area that is intuitive eating, including the importance of intention rather than perfection
Elyse’s evolving relationship with perfectionism, which eventually led to the idea that falling back into diet behavior is never “wrong,” but rather an opportunity to learn and grow
The pros and cons of social media, including the issue of comparison and promoting only the best moments of our lives, as well as changing your feed to remove triggering material
The new Intuitive Eating Workbook, including how important exercises can be to such a theoretical practice
How important satisfaction is in the eating experience, and how we can think about satisfaction as a gentle way into intuitive eating