Many people come to the anti-diet approach in order to work on their relationship with food. Exhausted with the merry go round of diet-regain-repeat, riddled with food rules, confusion and enormous guilt, those who are brave enough to ditch dieting are seriously READY for something different.
Not dieting isn’t as simple as it seems. Diet rules are hard to unlearn. Contrary to popular belief, stopping dieting with the guidance of a non-diet health professional doesn’t mean that people are encouraged to gorge on hot chips whilst giving the middle finger to their physical health. Instead, people of all sizes shifting to not-dieting undertake a gentle, incredible process of first identifying, understanding, and then UNLEARNING unhelpful food rules. And yes, for many people who have been traumatized by years of feeling like most foods are ‘off limits’ to them, there may indeed come an initial period of defiant eating driven by pure deprivation. This grazing is just a normal part of the process, and once people feel safe with food again, a different way of relating to food becomes possible.
Once food safety is re-established, slowly, the principles of connected, intuitive eating can take hold. People learn to really hear and respond to their body’s needs in the most wonderful way. Intuitive eating means listening to the body’s natural signals of hunger, enjoyment, satisfaction, and fullness, and fostering a connected response to these.
Intuitive eating is not only incredibly supportive of improved health, it’s also enjoyable, relaxed, peaceful, and lovely!
I love helping people reconnect with their intuitive body wisdom around food. But over the years I have noticed that the changes that happen in non-diet guidance impact on MUCH MORE than just people’s relationship with food. The most beautiful opportunities are possible once we let go of the ‘rules’ around food and body. Without all of that noise and deprivation driven preoccupation, suddenly there’s room in our heads to think about what we really want out of life. And we actually have the SPACE and capacity to go after it.
I have had countless clients experience seriously unexpected, life-changing, life-affirming, AWESOME consequences from letting go of dieting! Just some of these include:
- People discovering their creativity, for the first time
- People leaving their husbands, discovering their true sexuality, or starting to date
- People going to university
- People leaving university and going traveling!
- People starting up new businesses
The other day we had our monthly UNTRAPPED Q and A session, and one of our participants was talking about how she really hadn’t expected her life to open up quite as much as it had. Here’s what she had to say –
“Without even trying to focus on it, other aspects of my life have fallen into place. And without trying any harder, things are starting to work.”
And then this….
“I was treading water, now I’m moving forward.”
THIS is what it’s all about!
What kinds of opportunities, possibilities, life changes would be possible for you if you didn’t ‘have’ to worry about your weight? Without all of that noise from food rules and body obsession, what kind of life might await?
