Are You Eating With "Last Supper" Mentality?

I took a week off of writing for Thanksgiving last week. If you're in the states with me, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. I know this year the holidays, in general, look a lot different for most of us. But I hope it was nonetheless special in it's own way.So something that's come up a lot lately as I've been talking with clients and girls in The Nourish Lab, my intuitive eating membership site, is this concept of "last supper mentality".Have you heard of it?It's just as it sounds.Last supper mentality is the mindset we get when we're about to go on a diet, a cleanse, a way of eating that includes food rules. It's the mentality of, "I won't be able to eat any of these foods soon, so I may as well go all out right now." It's saying, "I already blew it by eating a cookie so I may as well eat the whole pan."Maybe for you it's right before you go on another round of Whole30, you down a whole carton of ice cream..."bring on all the dairy and refined sugar!". Or maybe it's how you eat every weekend..."Gotta be 'good' on Monday, so I can eat another couple slices of pizza."The problem with this mindset is that it keeps us stuck in something called the Diet-Binge Cycle. And it keeps us from being able to feel calm and confident around food.Which is why we're here talking about it.Maybe you feel like you can't trust yourself around food...you binge every weekend. Or the second you go off a diet you go hay-wire with all the foods, feeling like you can't trust yourself around food, like you have no control or willpower. Hey, guess what? The problem isn't that you have no control or willpower. It's that you are living with "last supper mentality". Imagine with me, instead, what it looks like to say goodbye to last supper mentality...You eat what you want (with knowledge of what sounds good & what will feel good for your body) whether it's a weekday or a weekend. There are no "cheat days", so you can enjoy dessert on a weekday and end the night with just a cup of tea on a weekend. You flow through each day with ease. Honoring your hunger and fullness feels easy. Sometimes you crave something salty or sweet. Sometimes you crave something indulgent, and other times, something fresh and nourishing. There are no more late-night binges, you feel calm and satisfied at the end of the day and rest well at night. This (above) can be your reality, too! I promise! The first principle of intuitive eating is "Reject Diet Mentality". Most of the principles of intuitive eating can be worked through interchangeably, but this one's the first for a reason. It sets the foundation for all of the other principles.The way to get out of last supper mentality is to start by rejecting diet mentality. This means...Committing to not go on another diet.Creating an "intuitive eating & body positive" bubble for yourself as you learn to trust your body.Challenging beliefs that certain foods are "good" and others are "bad".Ditching your scale (so you can focus on what healthy feels like for you as opposed to just a number).Eating "normally" after a day of eating "imperfectly". The second most important principle for breaking this cycle is making peace with food.Have you noticed food rules you have for yourself? Things like, "I won't eat anything made with refined flour or sugar" or "I can't eat past 7 pm".Food rules take away from our ability to tune into our body and prevent us from eating intuitively. They put our focus on something outward (the rule we created...something we believe will help us feel safe and healthy) instead of focusing inward on what our body actually needs.The reason food rules lead to last supper mentality is that they #1 are hard to keep (our bodies are 'rule rebels' and rebel against food rules... this is why you may find yourself craving carbs even more when you're on a low carb diet) and #2 they set us up for throwing the towel and totally disregarding our rules because our expectation is perfection. If you want to begin the road towards making peace with food, a big first step would be to recognize what food rules you have. And then second, begin to challenge those food rules. If you don't usually let yourself have ice cream during the week, pick a weekday and give yourself permission to enjoy ice cream. With working on both rejecting diet mentality & making peace with food, you'll start to notice you don't have the need to participate in "last supper eating" and food will begin to feel less stressful.  If you find yourself working on getting rid of last supper mentality, but are struggling to get traction on it by yourself, I want to invite you to The Nourish Lab, my intuitive eating membership site. Inside you'll have everything you need to finally feel calm around food. We'd love to have you!