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Social Media: Is it Helpful or Harmful When Practicing Intuitive Eating?

There are many different places that people find out about the world of Intuitive Eating. These include:

A family member
A friend
A HAES aligned health professional
The internet
Social media**

Nowadays, social media is the new way of sending and receiving all kinds of information—from keeping tabs on your long distance friends to being up to date on the latest news.

Social media is here to stay and while on one hand it may appear to be a very fun and engaging place to be, it’s important to understand the “not so fun” side of social media.

In terms of Intuitive Eating, social media can send many mixed messages—both helpful and harmful to your Intuitive Eating journey and understanding of Intuitive Eating.

How Social Media is Helpful

1.It gives a voice to qualified well-educated people to speak on important Intuitive Eating and other nutrition-related topics.

Social media gives Registered Dietitians and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselors a place to promote real, evidenced-based information about Intuitive Eating. Meaning, it allows Intuitive Eating to be represented CORRECTLY.

It also gives them a place to advocate against diet culture and for a more non-diet approach when it comes to mending relationships with food and your body.

2.It provides a starting point, or baseline, for Intuitive Eater newbies.

As mentioned before, especially nowadays, many people come into the world of Intuitive Eating because of social media posts they see online, or information they see circulating on their newsfeeds.

With this being said, social media provides just a starting point, providing baseline information, for Intuitive Eating newbies to being their journey toward mending their relationship with food and body.

Check out Intuitive Eating Basics, a self-paced course to give you a taste of Intuitive Eating and begin to reject your diet mentality and reconnect with your inner signals.

3.It helps challenge, tackle, and stand up against the toxic messages of diet culture.

With many influential RDNs and other Intuitive Eating Counselors and experts on social media, this allows for

4.It provides an environment for Intuitive Eaters to share stories, feel supported and connect with others going through similar experiences.

Social media can provide a large sense of community, accountability and relatability—especially for those who are struggling or just starting out on their Intuitive Eating journey.

How Social Media is Harmful

1.There’s lots and lots of mixed messages.

Social media can be a confusing place filled with misinformation. While one account is telling you one thing, another account could tell you the exact opposite—so beware!

My recommendation to you is to only consume content from qualified “social media influencers”, like Registered Dietitians, Certified Intuitive Eating Counselors, and other health care professionals that are HAES aligned (Health at Every Size) and are committed to weight neutral practice.

2.You might be influenced to listen to (and follow) the “wrong” social media voices.

With so many different kinds of accounts to follow on social media, there are bound to be ones that claim to be supportive for your Intuitive Eating journey, but in reality are not.

Be sure to follow accounts that support a non-diet approach, align with your personal Intuitive Eating values, and advocate against diet culture.

3.It enables anyone and everyone to create a “brand”.

Anyone with a phone and a WIFI signal can create a social media platform and claim to be an expert in just about anything! Be cautious with following accounts that simply have a lot of followers, or generate a lot of likes, thumbs up, etc.—this does NOT mean the information they are sharing is valid, correct or helpful for you!

4.It promotes diet culture messages but claims they’re Intuitive Eating.

The messages of Intuitive Eating are often misinterpreted or twisted by diet culture.

For example, social media accounts that…

Claim Intuitive Eating is a way to lose weight
Push the thin ideal
Promote a certain way of eating
Claim a way of eating or living is a form of “lifestyle” or for “wellness”

>>>All of these examples are diet culture in disguise!

Do your due diligence. Check out the accounts you follow, look into the people behind the accounts, and be alert to misguided information.

For up to date, reliable information on Intuitive Eating, check out my website here.

How to Change Your Diet Mindset in 3 Steps

Let’s face it, the way we think determines what we do. This is true of most any area of our life à food, weight, relationships, career etc.

In the world of dieting, your thoughts play a big role in the actions you take, or don’t take.

“I’ll never be able to lose weight.”

“I can’t change my eating habits; I’ve tried and always fail.”

“I’m a loser, a failure, not even worthy of spending time and money on myself.”

These are examples of negative self-talk. Very destructive thoughts and words that keep you cycling in despair.

You’re probably all too familiar with the negative self-criticism that perpetuates the vicious cycle of dieting.

The same holds true if you’ve been working on Intuitive Eating.

Each time you think you can’t succeed at learning to be an Intuitive Eater, you are strengthening a self-fulfilling prophecy so that you don’t.

If you think you can’t, you won’t. If you think you can, you will.

3 Steps to Changing Your Mindset

Step 1: Become Aware.

Take the time to consider what your thoughts are relating to food, body, weight, etc. Are you even aware of these thoughts? Is this the first time you’re stopping to think about them? Are these thoughts on autopilot?

Once you become aware and identify your thought patterns, consider how they have been impacting your relationship with food and your body. How has these thoughts affected your feelings, your behaviors and ultimately your results?

Step 2: Assess Importance.

You are in charge of your thoughts and your actions. No one else. Now that you have become more aware of them, you’ll want to take time to consider if this is something worth your time to invest in changing them.

Is it important to you if you change your mindset? Why, or why not?

Step 3: Do the Work.

Now what do you do with the info you gathered from steps 1 and 2? You do the work to make the change you so desire. And it will take work. But it is work that will change your life. As you practice changing your thoughts, you will see that your beliefs change, your feelings change, your behaviors change, and your results change.

But you’ve got to do the work.

Mind Your Language While Doing the Work

Ever notice how often you say “I’ll try”? “I’ll try not to eat when I’m upset”, “I’ll try not to say “I should have” or “I shouldn’t have”.

Using the word “I’ll try” gives the message that you will less likely follow through, versus saying “I will”.

Replace “I can’t” with “I can”.

Replace “I’ll try” with “I will”.

Support is a Click Away

Click video graphic below to access Free Support.

Intuitive Eating for a Diet Free Life Online Community – Free Facebook Group!

What it Feels Like to Not Diet

Imagine getting up in the morning and your first thought is “I am really looking forward to today”, and NOT “I am going to be really good today”.

Imagine getting dressed for the day and feeling confident in the clothes you put on (the first outfit, NOT the tenth).

Imagine walking into the kitchen to prepare breakfast and knowing intuitively what you want to eat to fuel your body for the start of the day, and NOT skip breakfast so you save your calories for later.

Imagine going out with co-workers for lunch and choosing what YOU want to eat, NOT a choice based on what someone else thinks you should eat (i.e. ordering the burger because that’s what YOU want and not the salad because you’re expected to eat a salad).

Imagine coming home after a long day’s work and taking 20 minutes to unwind and care for yourself, and NOT heading to the kitchen and mindlessly look in the fridge for something to throw in your mouth.

Imagine going out to dinner with your partner and enjoying the conversation and time together, and NOT stressing about what you’re eating.

THIS is how it feels to not diet!

This is …

FREEDOM to eat WITHOUT GUILT.

FREEDOM to be you!

FREEDOM to live your life unapologetically.

FREEDOM to respect all the wonders your body does for you

…instead of trying to shrink it over and over and over again.

This is what it feels like to never diet again.

To really learn to trust yourself that you are fully capable of making food choices to honor your health and your body.

Regaining Trust

Regaining trust in your body and yourself doesn’t happen overnight. But with each positive eating and body experience, you build another thread of trust, and soon, that trust becomes a rope and ultimately a bridge to regaining WholeBody Trust™.

Now’s Your Chance

You can start the process right now by …

…making the decision to stop dieting

…making the decision to take a leap of faith

…and making the decision to say yes to my offer of investing in yourself with the Freedom to Eat Forever™ Intuitive Eating Program.

Freedom to Eat Forever™ is my signature online program that will walk you through 5 steps towards becoming an Intuitive Eater and leaving dieting behind for good.

This program is now 75% off and won’t be available EVER after August 31^st because I will be releasing a brand-new Intuitive Eating Program shortly.

You might think “great, I’ll wait for the new program”. Well, of course you can, but that program will launch at a much higher investment. But it will be yours FREE when you purchase Freedom to Eat Forever™ now.

Why am I offering this? Because I want you to get started on your journey now. I don’t want you to waste another minute of your life dieting and being disappointed, again.

Support is Waiting

Freedom to Eat Forever is a self-paced online program. However, because I know how important support is, I have started a WhatsApp Support Community. This is a group of amazing people who are on the same intuitive eating journey, and its where you can get your questions answered. I, of course, am in that group every day commenting and supporting everyone as well.

Won’t you join us?

Click HERE to learn more and to start your Intuitive Eating Journey today.

3 Steps to Stop Overeating on Vacation

Summer is in full swing, it’s my favorite season! There’s less stress, no school carpools or tutors to schedule and it’s a time when my husband and I take some much needed time off.

In the days when I was dieting, I would often be apprehensive about an upcoming vacation. It would start with the thought of trying on all the summer clothes in my closet to see what “looked good” and have them piled high on my bed until I narrowed it down to what would make it into my suitcase.

Then of course it was the thought of what I would eat on vacation. Would the restaurants have food that was “on my diet”? What would happen to my weight if I ate out at a restaurant each evening? And what about the drinks? I don’t mean water, that I have no problem drinking. I mean the cocktails that I may want to enjoy at the pool or at dinner. How many calories and how much sugar will it have and how will it affect the number on the scale?

Oh my, this is just so exhausting, so forget it! I’ll just enjoy my vacation and start my diet again when I get home.

Does this sound familiar to you? Have you done this, or thought these same things? (Please comment below the blog in the comment section….)

The above scenario depicts what I call the “Vacation Diet Mindset”. Yep, there’s a name for this. You are so good on your diet all week/month/year long, but vacation comes and all that “goodness” gets tossed out the window. Why?

Well, since you’ve been depriving yourself of the food you love while dieting, you figure that when you are away on vacation and enjoying yourself, you might as well enjoy yourself with food too. But the problem is it leads you to overeating and overindulging and quite honestly, not respecting your body.

Here’s the thing. If you were not restricting all week/month/year before your vacation, you’d be enjoying all the food you love all the time and you wouldn’t have to go into “Vacation Diet Mindset” when you went away.

So how do you shift out of this mindset? Here’s 3 steps to get started:

Commit to no longer dieting. And by dieting, I also mean your own self-designed diets and food rules you put into affect for yourself. I know that’s a tall order, but until you are able to give yourself unconditional permission to eat what you desire, you will restrict and deprive and fall into the Vacation Diet Mindset on your next vacation.

Take the Mindful Eating Pledge. Basically, this means promising yourself that you will be mindful of the food choices you make and you will maintain an awareness so you can fully savor and enjoy the food you are eating. When you do this, you will find that it will be easier to recognize fullness and stop before you get overfull.

Ask for Support. The journey towards returning to being an intuitive eater and achieving WholeBody Trust™ of your mind, your hunger and your food takes time and requires support. There is no reason you need to do this alone. Seek support from your loved ones, a registered dietitian nutritionist-certified intuitive eating counselor and a community of like-minded women on the same journey as you. It’s powerful!

Are you struggling with your intuitive eating journey and want to take it to the next level? Join us in the Intuitive Eating Mastery Circle. Learn more here.

You Don’t Need to Walk the Intuitive Eating Journey Alone

Dieting is lonely. You are at a party and everyone is eating what they want without a worry in the world. You, well – you either fall into one of two categories:

Category 1: You are on a diet and are feeling deprived because you “can’t” eat the party food that everyone else is. You put on a happy face, but inside you are miserable. You and I both know what will happen when you get home (let’s be honest because that’s how I rock…you’ll probably raid the kitchen cabinets…)

Category 2: You were on a diet until you got to the party and then saw all the great food you’d be missing out on. So you say “forget the diet”, and you indulge and promise to start over in the morning.

Isn’t it time to leave all this behind you? Yes, of course it is. That’s why you are reading my blog and following my work in intuitive eating. I’m so proud of you!

But here’s where it gets sticky. You still want to lose weight, but you really want to learn to be an intuitive eater. In order to do that, you must commit to a diet-free life. Well, who of your friends will understand when you tell them that you have decided never to diet again?

They say “girl, what did you say? You are never going to diet again?” They are amazed but really think you’ve lost your marbles. You, however, are committed to this new way of living and learning, but you would love to talk to other women who get it and are on the same journey as you.

Well, I’ve got the perfect solution for you!

The Diet Free Radiant Me™ (DFRM) Online Community.

What is the Diet Free Radiant Me™ (DFRM) Online Community?

This is a Private Exclusive Facebook Group filled with women who have committed to giving up dieting just like you!

Who is it for?

This group is for you if you are a woman who is a chronic dieter and/or an emotional eater struggling to lose weight and you want to break free of the pain of dieting to get the healthy body you love more than anything. You realize that dieting isn’t the answer but you need guidance and support as you embark on a new journey.

Purpose of the group

The DFRM private Facebook Group is a place for you to leave dieting behind and to embrace intuitive eating while learning to love your body.

What goes on in our group?

Some of the things we do in my group are (a) Theme days around the 3 essential ingredients to long-lasting weight loss (healthy mindset, caring support and nutrition education), (b) Free challenges, and (c) Ongoing caring support in a nonjudgmental way.

This is a WIN-WIN for you! It’s a no-cost way for you to get the support you need on your journey and to meet and connect with like-minded women.

Join us by clicking HERE. I’ll be waiting for you with open arms!

(When you arrive at the private Facebook group, please click the green Join Group Button.)

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