Freedom from dieting
Do you remember your first diet? Better yet, the first time you thought, “Oh, I shouldn’t eat that?”
I was 11. I was at a friend’s house. We went into the kitchen to get a snack and she said, “I only eat snacks with less than 120 calories”.
“Excuse me? What is a calorie?”, I remember thinking.
Her mom was a blonde bombshell and she was just as gorgeous. If she was already dieting, I thought I should definitely be dieting. And so I did. From that point I think I spent at least 10 years on a diet. I tried paleo, low carb, no sugar, weight watchers, to name a few. Were these diets necessary? Nope. Were they helpful in losing weight or feeling better? Definitely not.
Any woman that has been on a diet will agree: Dieting sucks. The food we ‘can’t’ have is all of a sudden instantly appealing. We end up caving in to the cravings and binge eating every carbohydrate left in the house. Diets aren’t sustainable long term which is why many women find themselves eating pints of ice cream at 9pm. For myself, and many of my clients, dieting is the cause of binge eating. Often times when we diet, we end up thinking about food all day and then end up going crazy at night; tearing through food like wild boars. We find ourselves yoyo-ing between diet, binge, diet and binge.
Wouldn’t it be nice to stop binge and emotional eating and instead eat for hunger? I discovered an immeasurable amount of freedom when I stopped dieting. I started to notice physical hunger cues and overcame binge and emotional eating. I was able to finally lose those last ten pounds and let go of the control food had over me. Most importantly, I felt relief from obsessing about food constantly.
I know it can be super scary to ditch the diet mentality; especially if you’ve been dieting for what seems like an eternity. I’ve outlined 5 steps to guide you through the process. Follow these steps and you’ll be able to overcome the dieters mentality and achieve your health and emotional goals.
Step 1: Accept that dieting has never provided you any long term benefit. Sure, you’ve lost some weight after crazy diets, but you’ve probably always gained it right back. Additionally, it’s a major contributor to emotional eating.
Step 2: Let go of the separation between good or bad foods. Food is just food. Obviously some foods will make you feel bad physically, but it doesn’t mean they are bad and forbidden foods. It simply means if you eat a bunch of them, you won’t feel good.
Step 3: Eat what you want to eat, when you’re physically hungry! If you despise salads – stop eating them! If you love chocolate, allow yourself to enjoy it. This isn’t a green light to eat everything in sight. It simply means there are no foods that you are forbidden from eating (because remember, when we don’t allow ourselves to have certain foods – we crave them more).
Step 4: Be mindful of the food you eat. Mindfulness is key when it comes to successfully letting go of the diet mentality. Mindfulness is a fancy word for being present and aware of what you are eating. Being mindful eliminates a lot of comfort eating, which is a major contributor to weight gain.
Step 5: Breathe and let go of guilt. Forgive yourself if you go on a binge eating rampage. There is nothing worse than letting guilt seep in and ruining what was otherwise a beautiful day. Beating the cycle of dieting and binging is a process, not a sprint.
Once you kick dieting to the curb, you’ll be on your way to food freedom. Not only will your relationship with food become more positive, but you’ll feel in control, instead of allowing food to control you. Life is beautiful in the diet free zone.
For more tips to ditch the diet and make peace with food, visit JessicaBartram.com