Intuitive tracking: Blending competing approaches to exercise and eating

Under the conditions of neo-liberal individual responsibilisation, self-tracking has become the predominant model of health management. More recently, though, intuition-based approaches to exercise and eating are also gaining traction. These two approaches are often located in opposition. While self-tracking uses datafication and calculability to structure health decisions, intuitive approaches encourage abandonment of rules and restrictions around exercise and food in favour of corporeal self-awareness and attunement to sensation. Although navigating these competing approaches is a common experience for all populations, the tensions between them are felt particularly acutely by people with complex health histories, such as eating disorders (EDs). In this article, we draw on mixed-methods longitudinal data, analysed using phenomenological analysis, to propose a novel framework - 'intuitive tracking'-which moves beyond understandings of self-tracking as the antithesis of intuitive engagement with exercise and health. Drawing on longitudinal interviews and photo elicitation with 19 women who are in recovery from EDs and using weightlifting as a tool to support their recovery, we demonstrate how attentiveness to bodily and emotional cues is successfully combined with an emphasis on monitoring health behaviours to support wellbeing. We conclude that theoretical understandings of self-tracking can and should make space for intuition-led decision-making.