How To Eat Intuitively Like You’re French
Staying at my in-laws-to-be for a few weeks at the (hopefully) end of the pandemic (in addition to cohabitating with my French partner for 5 years) has make a few things click around food for me. As I’ve written about before, the French approach to taking care of yourself is really hard to beat.
Being exposed to a European approach to eating has been almost as much of a blessing as meeting my actual partner, and changed my life just as much.
To be very clear, France has just as much of a fat-phobia problem as the US, and disordered eating is an issue everywhere- just ask my friend, full-figure model and CEO of The All Womxn Project, Clémentine Desseaux whom I chatted with in last month’s Body Neutrality Salon. My point here is that I wonder how much better off would we at a starting point be if we didn’t have to unlearn so much body shame? I won’t glorify the French to the point that I ignore the reality of the fact that while nudity isn’t a major taboo there- it’s still only not taboo for CERTAIN bodies.
However, these are some principles to eating with a French mindset (speaking in broad generalizations, of course!) that have been life changing for me in my own intuitive eating journey.
Intuitive Eating The French Way
Or as French people call it: “Eating”!
Take your time
Pleasure is the name of the game. It’s not pleasurable to scarf down a smoothie running late to a meeting without tasting it, and it’s not pleasurable to eat “health” foods that you don’t genuinely enjoy or make you fixate on what you aren’t letting yourself have. Eating should be a
Pace yourself and enjoy what you’re eating
Eating should be a multi-sensory experience. You set the table, you pair it with wine, you anticipate the next course. This applies to drinking too—for what it’s worth, in my 6 years with Yannick, I’ve never seen him drunk because it’s hard to get drunk if you’re taking your time. Similarly, he didn’t have to go through a rebellious college binge drinking phase because he could go to any brasserie he wanted and it was okay. The French are also VERY proud of their cultural dishes, making cooking recipes passed down through family nostalgic, comforting, and joyful.
Save room for dessert, because there’s ALWAYS dessert!
If you’ve ever dieted and restricted your intake of “pleasure foods” you know how out of control and ravenous you feel around a pain au chocolat when you finally come in contact with it. Eating until you’re way past full to the point of discomfort is decidedly NOT a pleasure, and IYKYK. Allowing yourself to have the fun foods can be scary in the beginning, you might worry that that’s all you’ll ever eat— but you’ll find that off limits foods lose some of their allure. If you’re new to intuitive eating that might sound impossible (it did to me) but once you stop with the rules around food, you can follow what your actual cravings are without guilt or shame (and without stomach pains!).
Conclusion
Moral of the story is: find yourself a Frenchie on the internet to marry! I highly recommend it. Truthfully, there is a LOT we can adopt from the French re: our relationship with our bodies, shame, and pleasure. It’s with this same influence that I program my Helen Phelan Studio classes to help you enjoy being in your body and to feel joy during movement- because life’s too short to skip the cheese course or do punishing workouts! You can check out the 10 day free trial to HPS here!