How to Stop Mealtime Battles

Do you look forward to your meals? Or are they often a battleground?

What about the buffet at a party?  Or the smorg at a wedding? Or just plain old Thursday night pizza night?

Do you constantly hear yourself say…

•  “should I or shouldn’t I?”
• “I can have, I can’t have?”
• ” I want it, but I shouldn’t have it”
• “darn, I can’t believe I ate that”

The inner voices of the chronic dieter are constantly shouting rules about what you should or shouldn’t eat. It makes food the enemy and mealtimes a battle ground. All in the name of weight loss!

But it shouldn’t be this way. In fact –

Food is supposed to bring us pleasure!

Yes, we are supposed to walk away from a meal feeling satisfied and happy. But all to often, if a dieter enjoys their meal, it comes with a side of guilt.

Ending the Battle with Food

So, how do you end the battle with food and regain the pleasure in eating?

By practicing food freedom.

Food freedom means YOU are in charge of the food choices you make and what you choose to eat, instead of letting outside food rules dictate this to you!

The goal is simple: decouple the act of eating from the thought that you need to be losing weight.

If you keep making food decisions with the end goal of weight loss, you will not recapture food freedom and experience the ultimate pleasure in your meals.

4 Ways to Start Practicing Food Freedom

1.Decide to commit:

Commit to not following food rules anymore. Commit to throwing them out the window. Commit to doing the best you can at this moment to start taking charge of your eating.

You will have to be tough with yourself on this one. It’s all too easy to fall back to another diet when you’re just not feeling great one day.

Nope. Draw that line in the sand that symbolized that today is the day that you won’t fall prey to the dieting messages anymore. YOU are in charge of your food choices and your eating! YAY!

2.Slowly start to eat one “forbidden” food at a time.

You know all those foods you fight with at mealtime? No more! There are no good or bad foods, remember that.

Slowly, begin to enjoy once-forbidden foods again and again until they lose the power they once had over you

This is not easy, I know!! If you need help, just reach out to me HERE.

3.Write a letter to yourself as to why you are choosing food freedom

 I’m sure there’s a LOT you could write in this letter. So go ahead and give it a try.

Why are you choosing food freedom now?

Here are some examples to get you started:

• “Dieting has never worked for me in the past.”
• “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life focusing on food.”
• “I might “overeat” once it a while, and that is okay. It’s a choice I am making, and it does not define me”

4. Join us!

Come on over to the Intuitive Eating for a Diet Free Life private Facebook Group. Join other women on the journey towards food freedom. It’s free!