Tag Archive for: food guilt

3 Reasons Why Dieting Will Never Bring You Food Freedom

I was once someone who followed the latest fad diets. From carbohydrate restriction to counting calories, I have tried so many “guaranteed weight loss” trends. Even though I did lose some weight on these diets, I always gained it back. While these diets all had different regimens, one thing they all had in common is that I was miserable when I was on them.

 

Dieting is a way of life for many people. You probably know someone who is always bringing their own food to parties and constantly trying to “slim down,” you may even be one of those people. Perhaps you are reading this after breaking your current diet and you are desperate to find another way. Or you are reading this, and you are at your goal weight, having lost the weight by starving yourself, drinking shakes, or eating “clean” but tasteless food.

 

Dieting is no way to live. Although the diet industry wants you to believe that their “program” is a “way of life”, it’s just not peaceful and is filled with worry about whether you will gain the weight back, or whether there will be food you can eat wherever you go. I know I was tired of that life. And my clients were too.

 

Intuitive Eating is a journey that helps you listen to your body’s inner wisdom that you were born with regarding hunger, fullness and satisfaction around food and eating. This approach to eating will help to bring you mind and body peace.

 

Here are 3 reasons why dieting will never bring you the food freedom you desire:

 

  1. Diets Are Always Centered Around Food

 

Most diets will make you track everything that goes into your mouth. Food will constantly be on your mind. You will be thinking, what did I eat yesterday? What did I eat before? What am I eating now? It’s exhausting. Food should not be the center of your day; food should not encompass your entire brain. There is so much more to life that you can be doing than thinking about food all the time.

 

Diets bring food obsession and worry, not food freedom.

 

  1. Diets Cause You to Feel Guilty

 

Every diet has a list of restrictions with the food you can and cannot eat. But what if you happen to want to eat food that’s on the “avoid” list? Well, what usually happens when you are told you cannot have something? Yep, you want it more. You can deny your desire for only so long. So, you indulge, and the guilty feelings and harsh self-talk start.

 

Diets bring food guilt, not food freedom.

 

  1. Diets Cause You to Lose Trust in Yourself

 

Diets make you believe that you have been choosing the “wrong” foods for years and they cause you to blame yourself when you don’t lose weight. Last I checked, you are the owner of your body, your inner signals, and thoughts. You know your body better than anyone or anything. You alone should be in charge of what food you eat, not the diet.

 

Diets bring loss of self-trust, not food freedom.

 

I know now badly you want to be free of dieting, and you want to be free to have food present in your life with ease.

 

Pop your name and email in the boxes below to Break the Spell of Diets in 3 Days. Then, check your inbox for your Day 1 experience.

 

The Guilt of Food Talk

Woman eating choc guilty lookDo you have a set of unreasonable rules that dieting has created? Is your head constantly filled with chanting words that promote or demote you from eating food that you love? This is the food police voice that is constantly telling you what you should and shouldn’t eat. It’s sort of like the angel and the devil sitting on your shoulders, one telling you it’s okay to eat the chocolate cake, but the other yelling “NO” don’t do it.

 

You decide to have that chocolate cake, while the devil sitting on your shoulder is beaming with pride because you followed his advice. As soon as you eat that cake you feel guilty about the amount of calories and fat that you just consumed. Even though you enjoyed the chocolate cake, you still feel guilty. Most chronic dieters have this sense of guilt each and every time they eat something that the food police is saying they shouldn’t.

 

The media and various companies place thoughts in your head related to nutrition and ways to “cheat” and make yourself feel guiltless because of the way these food items are advertised. The slogans and jingles are created to convince you that this cookie will prevent you from being “bad” on your diet, and will keep you on track. These are the advertisements that cause you to have negative food thoughts and judgments towards food.

 

You are not born with these food judgments, you develop them over the years of dieting and being influenced by the media penetrating these images of good versus. bad in your head.

 

The next time you pick up a food item that you enjoy and you contemplate “should I or shouldn’t I”, take a moment to listen to your body and the food talk going on in your head. Push away the negative thoughts and change the tape that plays in your head. If this is a food that you truly desire, go ahead and enjoy it without guilt in a very mindful way. Realize that this one food eaten in this one moment will not make you gain weight or have a nutritional deficiency. You may actually find that you don’t love the chocolate cake as much as you thought you did.

 

 

Your turn to take action: How will you replace the negative self-talk that plays in your head? Post your comments below!