Trigger warning: eating disorders, body dysmorphia

Thanksgiving is best known as the holiday where people can unabashedly stuff their faces and eat like there is no tomorrow. Plates are passed around overflowing with turkey, mashed potatoes and one too many buttered rolls. It has become a normalized tradition to eat yourself into a food coma. But does it have to be this way?

This holiday season, the Chapman Wellness Project is encouraging people to intuitively eat during the holiday season. The team of six undergraduate students aim to educate the Chapman community about topics ranging from alcohol and drugs to healthy relationships so they can provide their peers with resources depending on their needs. 

Yasmeen Pardo, an assistant to the Wellness Project and a graduate student studying marriage and family therapy, shared information about intuitive eating with the Chapman community through a post on the CU Wellness Project Instagram. 

“One of the things we discussed is the holidays and the celebrations that can take place around food, eating and things of that nature, and how we can approach that in a way that is not shame-based ... in a way that really allows us to enjoy time with ourselves (and) with our families,” Pardo said. 

According to the Intuitive Eating Pros, registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, there are 10 principles of intuitive eating. While some may opt to follow all the principles, others might choose to select the ones that work best for their lifestyle. Despite this, the main goal of intuitive eating is to empower people to listen to their bodies and unlearn the perceived inherent “goodness” or “badness'' about certain foods. 

The practice is often considered a “non-diet” or “anti-diet.” While there is no restriction on what an individual can or cannot eat, it is still important to understand food-related needs compared to wants. 

Jenna Murray, a freshman animation and visual effects major, told The Panther she has firsthand experience with differentiating food-related needs from wants. As a means to recover from a combination of orthorexia and anorexia,  Murray began counting macronutrients such as carbohydrates, fats and protein to meet her caloric needs. 

Shae Taylor, a freshman undeclared major, also discovered the benefits of intuitive eating on the road to recovery from anorexia, a disorder she developed at 12-years-old. She said a key shift in her mindset was understanding that food wasn’t inherently good or bad. 

“That was a really pivotal moment for me, especially in my recovery — just realizing that your body doesn’t discriminate against certain foods,” Taylor said. “If you have a piece of chocolate cake or you have an apple, that’s just glucose for your body. Your body just sees it as glucose no matter what it is. That has shifted my focus in a positive way for sure.” 

The holidays present a challenging time for Taylor, because while her immediate family is conscious about her triggers, she said her extended family may not know. An example of a trigger might manifest in the form of comments about a recovering individual’s weight or how much they are eating. Taylor’s advice to work through this is to ask someone you trust to check in with you during the event. 

“I found that it’s really helpful if you can have someone else on your team that you're eating with,” Taylor said. “(My brother and sister are) like my best friends, so they know what triggers me. If someone says a comment at the table, they’ll shoot me a look. … After dinner, they’ll be like, ‘Hey, you okay? Do you want to talk about it?’ I feel like that’s really helpful, just kind of having someone on your team if you can.” 

For those interested in practicing intuitive eating, this Thanksgiving and holiday season is the perfect time to experiment, no matter how small. 

“The first thing that you can do is just start by noticing when you are feeling hungry,” Pardo said. “Even just that simple awareness of 'Oh, I feel hunger in my body at this moment’ is a huge part of intuitive eating. Also, extend yourself grace. It’s not necessarily going to be a process that is going easy and not everybody takes to it right away, but continuing to practice and continuing to acknowledge that you are doing your best and that it’s a process can really go a long way.”