As a Belgian dietitian, Alessia Couvreur spent years trapped in a cycle of restrictive diets and intense workouts to manage her weight. Exhausted, she made a pivotal shift: prioritizing joy in eating and movement while listening to her body's cues. It became her best decision yet.
A naturally slim child, Alessia entered a frustrating spiral of weight fluctuations as a young adult. Desperate for balance and confidence, she experimented with extreme restrictions, heavy exercise, and even homemade plant-based milks. The process felt overwhelmingly stressful.
Deep Disappointment
"I graduated as a dietitian in 2017, eager to guide clients toward weight loss, convinced it defined their worth," Alessia shares in her book Bye, Bye Diet. "But it rang hollow. If clients didn't lose pounds, we both felt defeated. Even successes were fleeting—weight returned once they stopped my prescribed plans."
A Liberating Breakthrough
Skeptical at first about intuitive eating, Alessia dove deeper. "Eating without rules? How could that work?" she wondered. Yet it resonated. Training under U.S. intuitive eating expert Rachel Goodman and studying Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, she unraveled years of diet mentality. "This freed me profoundly—not just from food rules, but from weight obsession. Trusting my body felt revolutionary."
What is Intuitive Eating?
Developed in the 1990s by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, intuitive eating challenges diet ineffectiveness. Reviewing extensive research, they found diets fail long-term and often harm health. Their 10 principles guide a natural food relationship—not rigid rules, but empowering practices that honor your well-being.
Reject diet mentality
Honor your hunger
Make peace with food
Challenge the food police
Discover the satisfaction factor
Feel your fullness
Be kind to your emotions
Respect your body
Movement—feel the difference
Honor your health
We Were Born Intuitive Eaters
Humans, like all animals and infants, naturally tune into hunger and fullness. Yet societal pressures—from forced feeding schedules to 'clean your plate' demands and pervasive diet culture—erode this instinct. By age 10, some children diet or develop disorders. Weight stigma fuels the chase for an 'ideal' body. Intuitive eating counters this: without diet culture, it would simply be how we eat.
In Bye, Bye Diet, Alessia empowers readers to rebuild body trust amid constant external noise. Drawing from her expertise, she covers physical, mental, and emotional aspects of eating, offering practical steps toward food freedom and self-acceptance.
