Belgian dietitian Alessia Couvreur spent years cycling through diets and intense workouts to manage her weight. She finally broke free, embracing eating and exercise that feel joyful and natural. Ditching restrictive dieting for intuitive eating became her best decision yet.
As a child, Alessia was naturally slim, but as a young adult, she fell into a cycle of yo-yo dieting. Desperate for weight stability and self-confidence, she tried it all: extreme calorie cuts, grueling sports regimens, even homemade plant-based milks. It left her stressed and exhausted.
Deeply Disappointed
"I graduated as a dietitian in 2017, ready to guide clients toward weight loss, convinced that pounds on the scale defined success," Alessia shares in her book Bye, Bye Diet. "But it never felt right. If a client didn't lose weight, we were both disappointed. Even when they did, results were fleeting—weight returned as soon as they stopped following my plans."
Liberating Discovery
Alessia was skeptical when she first encountered intuitive eating. "Eating without any rules? How could that possibly work?" Yet, it sparked curiosity. She dove deeper, trained under American intuitive eating expert Rachel Goodman, and studied Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. Step by step, she untangled herself from diet mentality and rediscovered her innate intuitive eater. "This was one of the best decisions I've made," she says. "It fostered a healthy food relationship and beyond. It's challenging, but trusting your body over scale numbers is profoundly freeing."
What Is Intuitive Eating?
Developed in the 1990s by U.S. dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, intuitive eating challenges diet effectiveness. Reviewing countless studies, they found diets fail long-term and often harm health. Instead, they outlined 10 principles—not rigid rules, but gentle guides that enhance well-being. Slip-ups aren't failures; they're part of trusting yourself.
Reject the diet mentality
Honor your hunger
Make peace with food
Challenge the food police
Discover satisfaction
Honor your fullness
Gentle nutrition
Respect your body
Movement—feel the difference
Honor your health
Born Intuitive Eaters
We're all born intuitive eaters. Consider animals or infants—they respond perfectly to internal cues without external rules. Humans sense hunger, fullness, temperature, or bathroom needs instinctively. Yet, from childhood, we're taught to override these signals: scheduled feedings for babies, plate-cleaning mandates, vegetable ultimatums, or dismissals of hunger. Diet culture amplifies this, with children as young as 10 dieting or developing disorders. Ignoring our bodies distances us further, fueling weight stigma and body ideals. Intuitive eating counters this—if diet culture never arose, it would simply be normal eating.
Alessia wrote Bye, Bye Diet to empower readers to trust their bodies amid constant external pressures. Drawing from her expertise as a registered dietitian, she explores food's physical, mental, and emotional dimensions, offering practical tips for eating freedom and positive self-image.
