Principle #1 Ditch the Diet Mentality
The holidays are officially among us and as I sit here writing it is December 1st! With the holidays can come food guilt, body anxiety and a ton of pressure and stress. It is the time of year when we can feel “crazy out of control” around food and weight gain fear is at its highest. A client told me this last week there are companies all over the country doing “challenges” with their employees to “minimize weight gain over the holidays.” This makes me want to scream as we are creating even more fear around food and weight.
INTUITIVE EATING
If you are unfamiliar with intuitive eating it was developed by Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch who are two dietitians who found their meal plans were only leaving clients frustrated and crazier around food. So they developed 10 principles to help eaters listen to their body, challenge the cultural ideals and basically learn how to eat normally again.
You can check out these to posts for a more comprehensive Intuitive eating overview:
DITCH THE DIET MENTALITY
The first and MOST IMPORTANT principle is ditching the diet mentality.
I have written a ton about the harmful effects of dieting on the blog so I wanted to expand a little more into why this is so important. Check out this great blog about Why Diets Hurt Us.
We live in a culture saturated with diets.
We diet because we fear weight gain above all other things. The thin ideal, as well as fatphobia, is in our faces every day via television, social media, magazines, books and more.
Diets are harmful on a physical, emotional, psychological, relational and even spiritual level. 98% of diets fail. Need I say more…probably not, but I’m going to anyway.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
Diets leave you hungry physically and psychologically. I mean you are depriving yourself and your caveman brain can’t tell the difference between a diet and famine. Your diet brain is going to turn on you and leave you craving ALL. THE. THINGS. Don’t do this to your poor brain. A quick note if you struggle with binging on food in any compacity it is likely because you are depriving and restricting yourself of certain foods so your body feels like it needs to make up for it in some form or fashion.
PHYSICAL
Diets cause weight gain and can cause a host of other issues with hormones, metabolism and it increases binges and cravings.
EMOTIONAL
Diets make you feel like you are the problem and this cannot be farther from the truth. The diet is the problem, not you!! Diets make us feel like a failure when the weight doesn’t come off or it comes back on so easy. Diets make you feel like you can’t trust your body.
RELATIONAL
When we diet we withdraw. Everyday life is not conducive to dieting. That work party is next week and they are going to have all the treats and you can’t eat a single one - so you choose not to go because why put yourself through the misery. Girlfriend, you are missing out on your life because you are dieting.
SPIRITUAL
I’m a spiritual person and my spirituality is very important to me. I believe God designed our bodies and they are a gift we are given to take care of. When we diet we are harming our bodies in the short and long term. Perhaps ask yourself how your own spiritual beliefs cohen side with your relationship with your body.
Diets cause crazy feelings around food and insecurity about our bodies. We want to “lose weight to feel good enough and improve our insecurity.” Diets or even weight loss is not the answer to your insecurity and hatred of your body. Diets only make things worse.
If you would like to learn more about how intuitive eating might be able to help you with chronic dieting, disordered eating, body image, and more please reach out! We would love to help.
In Freedom,
Chelsea
Encounter Counseling offers in-person counseling in Grand Junction and online counseling state-wide in Colorado including Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins and Colorado Springs.