"From there, I think the steps get kind of messy and nonlinear, and where you go next really depends on your individual struggles and beliefs," Christy said. But a couple of additional steps that can help, not in any particular order, are:
"Start honouring your hunger instead of suppressing it." Christy explained that intuitive eating is not about only eating when you're hungry; that's just turning it into another diet. But it is about honouring your hunger whenever you notice it, to the greatest extent possible given your economic circumstances, rather than trying to delay or talk yourself out of eating for diet-culture reasons.
"It can be difficult to notice or connect to signs of hunger when you've been restricting your eating for a long time, but just know that hunger doesn't always manifest as growling in the stomach," Christy said. "In fact, many people don't have stomach sensations of hunger until they're famished."
She exampled that more subtle signs of hunger include persistent thoughts of food, difficulty concentrating, and fatigue. Christy said to try to get used to eating at subtler signs of hunger and you'll likely find that you feel steadier and more energized throughout the day. She added that "honouring your hunger does not mean eating diet food or a diet-size portion."