Ditching Dieting and Starting Your Intuitive Eating Journey
For years we, as a culture, have dieted - counted calories, tracked minutes of exercise, worried about cupcakes and cocktails. It becomes second nature, a habit, a daily ritual. Dieting provides us safety and the illusion of control. Learning how to stop dieting, after years, requires courage. Learning to listen to your body in order to lose weight requires letting go of that perceived control and THAT also requires grace, lots of grace.
Intuitive eating is based on trusting yourself, your body and the cues it gives you to reconnect with what your BODY WANTS. The hardest part about that is that listening to your body and allowing it to guide you is the only way it will work. If you are thinking “that is the most impossible task, I have been counting and tracking for years on end” that was my initial reaction as well! I felt the same way, but I have learned since that it can be done!
Clinical studies have shown that diets don’t work time and again. In fact, most people gain the weight back — plus some! Yet - because the control feels good, we go back to them. It may sound counter intuitive, but by allowing yourself to stop dieting and change your mindset around food. Though it is not an instant process, it takes time and quite a bit of focus, you will find FOOD FREEDOM.
Below are 4 steps to stop dieting and start eating intuitively:
Give yourself permission to break the rules: In order to remove the feeling of obsession and control around food, you have to escape the “rules.” Eliminating the restrictions and inviting freedom is a really powerful act for your mindset. You are giving yourself permission to have anything you want, which psychologically actually helps you NOT want it. No more calorie counting, macro tracking, weighing, food label memorizing or anything else you’ve learned to do in order to control your body and how it looks. All foods are equal and allowed at all times. NOTHING is off limits to you! This where the grace comes in.
This part can feel really scary, don’t be afraid. You got this.
Honor your hunger and fullness: These are the two pillars of intuitive eating that require your full attention. To reconnect with them try asking yourself, “Do I like this food? Is that what I want to eat? Am I really hungry or am I bored, stressed or feeling emotional? Am I satisfied, or did I eat more than I needed?” Answer yourself honestly. Feel your feelings when you are not hungry. Food won’t address those, but you should.
Be ok with “the feels”: Emotional eating and responding to triggers is one of the biggest reasons why we overeat as well as start diets to begin with. By sitting with your feelings and allowing space to coexist with them you are no longer masking the “uncomfortable feeling” in your stomach that suffocating with food never ends up helping. You will feel better AND lose weight (double win)!
Ditch perfectionism: You will take several steps forward and one step back throughout this entire process. It is a process with stages, just like anything else that is new! You will teeter on the verge of success and at other times feel derailed and completely drained. This is not a linear process and it is OK to struggle. In fact, it is necessary. If you have moments where you want to throw in the towel, go back to your old ways and start another diet- you are doing it right. Don’t give up!
You can start easing into the practice of intuitive eating today - using those four steps to learn how to stop dieting and find your food freedom!
You are filled with courage and grace which will bring you success!