Intuitive Eating Principle #1: Ditch Diet Mentality

Ditch diet mentality is the first principle of intuitive eating… for very good reason.

Dieting conditions our brains to think very opposite of intuitive eating. It conditions you to NOT trust your body, to rely on external cues vs. internal cues.

Imagine that you’re at a concert and the music is blaring. And your friend who’s literally right next to you tries to talk to you… and even though she’s right next to you, you can’t hear a word she’s saying.

It’s the same with our bodies. If you still have a lot of inner diet talk and beliefs, it’s really challenging to listen to your inner voice with eating.

So, the first principle… ditch diet mentality… is all about letting go of diet beliefs and habits. Because when you do this, you’ll have such an easier time eating intuitively and listening to your body’s biologic cues.

How to do this:

The first step is acknowledging the harm and ineffectiveness of dieting. Dieting works against our bodies. When you go on a diet, your body’s primal instinct for survival kicks in and it thinks “we’re in a famine”. So even though your pantry may be stocked and the grocery store is right down the road, your body will change to accommodate for this perceived “famine”.

Your metabolism decreases, fat storage (particularly in the abdominal area which is associated with cardiovascular disease) increases, and hunger drive increases, all to hold onto and conserve energy and keep you safe. And with each diet you go on, your body gets more and more primed to this response which is why you may have seen weight loss with initial dieting but with time your body stops responding no matter how “hard” you diet.

It’s the leading cause of eating disorders. Is associated with decreased self-worth and self-trust.

Dieting isn’t benign. So vow to be done with dieting.

The second step is to get rid of diet mentality. Work on making peace with food and not labeling foods as “good” or “bad”. Let go of the “I’m bad” mentality with eating certain foods. Practice self-compassion and grace and letting go of perfection, all mindsets that I see dieting instilling in women and keeping them from eating intuitively.

And lastly, get rid of diet tools. These are, just like the analogy of the concert, just noise that keep you from listening to your body. Get rid of your scale, your fitness trackers, your diet books… all of it.

This is what it looks like to ditch diet mentality.

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