The 25 Best Intuitive Eating Affirmations

Are you having trouble staying positive and focused on your Intuitive Eating journey?

I totally understand the struggle. I’ve been there, too.

In this post, you’ll learn what affirmations are and how you can use them to stay on track with your Intuitive Eating practice. You’ll learn four ways to use affirmations to stay motivated to keep ditching diets. And I’ll give you multiple Intuitive Eating affirmations to try for each of the 10 Intuitive Eating principles.

Let’s get started.

What are affirmations?

Affirmations are positive statements that provide support or encouragement. Examples in their most simple form include “You’ve got this” and “You’re worth it.” Affirmations inspire, cheer and motivate us. 

As a registered dietitian, I specialize in helping women improve their relationship with food and body image. I use affirmations just like the ones below with clients to help support positive self-esteem, reduce stress, and improve health. These words of encouragement are a part of helping clients staying on track with their Intuitive Eating journey.

How To Use Intuitive Eating affirmations

Using the affirmations below can be like having your own personal Intuitive Eating coach at home – YOU! They can help set your thoughts on the right track for the day or encourage you if you’re struggling with one of the 10 Intuitive Eating Principles. Here are four ways to use these intuitive eating affirmations:

1. TO SET AN INTENTION: 

Choose an affirmation as an intention for your day. Write it in your daily planner or in a prominent place where you’ll see it multiple times a day, like on a sticky note on your computer or mirror. Repeat it a few times each time you see the note to keep it on the top of your mind throughout the day.

2. TO FOCUS ON ONE PRINCIPLE OF INTUITIVE EATING:

Let the affirmation help you focus on one of the Intuitive Eating principles or on something you want to strengthen in yourself. The affirmations are grouped by principle to help you choose one that aligns with the work you’re doing.

Let’s take a look at a real example. Say you notice you are hungry an hour after eating breakfast and you think, “I just ate, I shouldn’t be hungry already!”

In this case, you may want to get curious about your hunger. This is what principle 2, Honor Your Hunger is all about. To help support getting curious, you can use an intuitive eating affirmation.

When clients have experienced the scenario above, the following affirmation has been quite helpful: “When I feel hungry, I will listen to my body with curiosity instead of judgement.” Moving away from judging your hunger can be key to uncovering what you really need while keeping your self-esteem intact.

3. IN EATING DISORDER RECOVERY: 

Use these affirmations as journal prompts in eating disorder recovery. Write the affirmation at the top of your journal page and write down your feelings and reactions to the statement. You can use these challenge questions if you’re stuck:

4. IN YOUR MINDFULNESS PRACTICE: 

Last but not least, Intuitive Eating affirmations are perfect inspirational phrases to repeat during a mindfulness practice like yoga or on a walk. Also, these affirmations can have quite an impact when we repeat them over and over during a self-compassion meditation.

See my 5 DBT Mindfulness Exercises for Food Freedom post for easy mindfulness practices you can use with your affirmations.

Remember: You ARE your inner voice. Let that voice say something supportive.  Something loving. Something a best friend would say. Take control of the narrative and bring positive energy to yourself today! Let these affirmations get you started..

Intuitive Eating Affirmations

Reject the Diet Mentality

1. Dieting harms my self-esteem and I can let go of things that harm me.

2. My weight has nothing to do with my worth. I decide how worthy I am, and I am worthy.

3. Knowing my body weight tells me nothing about what I am capable of, who I am or what makes me special. Weight is a number, not a reflection of my value.

4. I do not need a diet to tell me how or what to eat. I can learn to trust my body again.

Honor Your Hunger

5. I can pay attention to and respond to hunger without judgment.

6. I will use my energy to pay attention to what my body needs. 

Make Peace With Food

7. Food is not the enemy. Food gives me energy, stabilizes my mood, and helps me focus on what matters most.

8. Food is neither good nor bad. Assigning morality to food doesn’t serve me. 

Challenge The Food Police

9. I can refrain from “should-ing” myself around food. Having food rules keeps me stuck in the diet mentality. I can let myself be free.

10. I eat for energy and nourishment. I eat for community and connection. I eat for flavor and satisfaction. All are equally valid reasons to eat.

Discover The Satisfaction Factor

11. I deserve to eat delicious, satisfying food and savor every bite.

12. Eating foods I really want and enjoy helps me feel satisfied and find pleasure in eating.

Feel Your Fullness

13. By connecting to what’s happening in my body, I can better feel my fullness and stop eating when I’m comfortably full and satisfied.

14. Sometimes I will eat past comfortably full, and that’s ok.

Cope With Your Emotions With Kindness

15. I can practice identifying my emotions and asking myself what I need in the moment. 

16. I can be kind to myself even if I’m having a difficult body image day.

Respect Your Body

17. My well-being is the most important thing to me. I can choose to support both my physical and mental well-being.

18. I am learning to accept my body at its current size.

19. I don’t have to love my body to respect it and nourish it daily.

20. When I take care of myself, I have more energy to handle life’s ups and downs.

Movement – Feel The Difference

21. I will listen to my intuition and let it guide my movement choices.

22. I care for myself with both movement and rest.

23. Focusing on movement that makes me feel alive and invigorated is more important than exercising to burn a certain number of calories.

Honor Your Health – Gentle Nutrition

24. When I pay attention to how foods make me feel, it helps me make good choices.

25. My health is valuable to me. Eating a variety of foods supports this value. All foods can fit in a healthy lifestyle.

Do affirmations really work?

Yes. Studies have shown that repeating daily affirmations can have a positive effect on us by lowering stress levels and depressive symptoms. One study showed that using affirmations can lower stress hormone levels in the blood. 

Benefits like these have been seen by people of all walks of life: pregnant and postpartum women, athletes, menopausal women, college students, and more. 

Do affirmations have to be said out loud?

I encourage you to try your affirmation silently first and then out loud. While it might seem silly at first, hearing the words out loud can feel different than saying them in your head. See how each method makes you feel. If one works better than the other, go with it.

Parting Words

Support and encouragement are vital for improving your relationship with food and body image. Use these affirmation as intentions, as journal prompts, or as mindfulness mantras to support wherever you are in your Intuitive Eating journey. You’ve got this!

I hope you found many affirmations in this article that speak to you. Let me know which ones were most helpful! If you need more support, I am a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor who provides Intuitive Eating coaching and eating disorder nutrition therapy. I look forward to helping you on your path to food freedom.