How to let go of the diet mentality
Have you been on diet, after diet, so many times you’ve lost count? Have you lost weight only to have put it back on again? Or do the diets only last for so long before you fall off the wagon, ending up more frustrated then when you started off? This means diets are not the answer and it might be time to let go of the diet mentality.
How do you stop dieting when that’s all you know? If you follow intuitive eating, you will know principle no.1 is to reject the diet mentality. Well getting out of the diet mentality means some mindset and behavioral changes. This can be easier than you think when you know how.
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Dieting will not solve your problems
Sam is eating the wrong foods and putting on weight ever so slowly. She does not like her body or the way she looks. She wants to wear nice clothes that are not oversized, she wants to get intimate with her husband. What’s the answer? Well lose weight of course. Now yes losing weight, does, of course, lead to you feeling fantastic and then that enables you to do all of those things. However if only it was that easy.
We have these expectations that once we are at a certain weight we will feel amazing all of the time and that we will stay like that. But underneath the body we will still be us. If you have had issues in your past which has caused upset, trauma or anger, they will still be there. Yes, we will no doubt feel better, but we will still have sad and angry days. The key is to work within and your problems will get easier to handle.
Stop the dieting tactics
This is stopping the weighing of food, counting the calories, and measuring out portion sizes. Anything to do with dieting rules. Whilst this may be helpful in the beginning if you are a total overeater and you have no idea what a good amount is to eat, it’s not good when we rely on this all the time. This is typical diet mentality. Instead we want to go by our experience and intuition. Get to know the amount our body likes and what we need to eat to stay at a stable weight.
Stop worrying about putting on weight
I would say this is the biggest reason that keeps us in that diet mentality. It’s because we are worried about putting on weight. We think if we are not on a diet and we continue eating as we do then we will put on weight. I agree, yes if we keep eating the same and we are putting on weight now, then yes we are likely to keep putting on weight.
The whole idea of going on a diet is indeed to lose weight. However, they have been proven that they do not work in the long term.
But a diet is not the answer. It is not the answer because by being on a diet, we do not learn how to change our eating patterns in a way that is sustainable. We do not learn what our triggers are that are causing us to eat the way we do, to be able to change them.
When we go on a diet it is like putting that fresh coat of paint over the cracked wall and not knowing how to stop the cracks or what’s causing them. Because once we have painted over them and have not addressed the cause, the cracks will still be there.
Find out your eating patterns
To get away from the diet mentality, we have to learn about our eating patterns so we can escape the habitual patterns that we don’t even know we are doing. We have to know what is causing us to eat the way we do. Is it stress or or boredom? Are you a constant over-eater and the weight is slowly piling on?
They may be the small things that we do every day, the things that we say one won’t hurt, but doing them every day over time does cause us to put on weight. When we go on a diet, what causes us to fall off the wagon? List out your patterns so you can see all the things that you do. Then work on them one by one.
Self-love gets rid of diet mentality
This is about having some compassion for ourselves. We can be quite harsh with ourselves. Start giving ourselves some slack, especially the way we talk to ourselves. Start treating ourselves like our own best friends, like we really like and love ourselves, that is a good start. When we are championing ourselves it gives us the confidence to change our habits.
10 principles of Intuitive Eating
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