Welcome to this week’s episode of How to Love Your Body.

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Today we are talking about a very common fear and that is keeping food in the house (anything “bad” of course).

Why do we fear this?

Because we feel out of control around food, like we cant be trusted around it, we just think about it until we give in, say screw it, eat it all, and then promise we won't buy it again.

Is this food addiction? Is this a lack of willpower? How come other people can keep chips in their pantry and ice cream in their freezer and it’s not gone in a day? They can just eat it in a normal way? There must be something wrong with me, I’ll just have to control myself forever, I’m just different and that’s the way it is.

This is not food addiction, has nothing to do with willpower and you aren’t different - you’re just restricting.

Dieting, trying to be “healthy” or good, eating in moderation, being sensible, WW, or Keto, whatever you call it - not allowing all food and listening to your body is considered restriction.

NOTE: Some people ask, I’m eating the food, why isn’t it getting better? - mental allowing is key too, having a healthy relationship with food is also needed! If you feel bad for eating the food or are stuck in retaliation of dieting, there are still some steps to take to get to freedom.

All this is being said so that you KNOW it can be different, you aren’t different or weird or just lack will power and you are NOT addicted to food, yes even you :).

Diet culture teaches us that we need to control MORE that it’s our fault if we’re weird with food - but it isn’t and that just makes it worse - making you more likely to run back to another diet next week - the diet industry is brilliant. It causes a problem and then sells the solution, over and over and over until we die.

Well we’ve seen the truth - ALLOWING food and repairing your relationship with food and your body is the key to being normal with food and be that person who can have the chips in the pantry and the ice cream in the freezer and eat them like any other food - enjoying it when you want and not worrying about it when you don’t.

Here are 3 steps to take to move towards being comfortable having any foods in your house with ease and enjoyment:

Like Jenna always says - she could live in a grocery store and would eat the same.

Step 1: Know, understand and believe that you aren’t weird with food, these fears and food obsessions have nothing to do with you as a person, you’re just another cog in the diet culture machine! Know and believe that allowing food and ditching diet culture, and repairing your relationship with food and your body will heal this. 100%, yes even you.

In order to move forward with confidence you need to know that this is possible, or when it takes a bit of time and experimentation, it makes it really easy to say SEE ITS ME! I’m just like this.

Step 2: Start slowly allowing all foods - this is a step that you may already be doing, if not start introducing a few things you’ve been wanting to eat. Such as bread, real salad dressing cheese, chocolate, peanut butter, ice cream, etc. 

If you ARE physically allowing food, start assessing your beliefs around the food/ your relationship with these foods - do you feel like you really SHOULDN’T be eating this food? Not eating this much of it? Really SHOULDN’T be having dessert every night? This is still going to feel restrictive and the effects of allowing won’t be in full effect. Work on identifying shoulds and start questioning them! What if I do want dessert every night for the rest of my life? What if that lets me live a life that is less about food and my body and more about living? Does trying to restrict dessert work? What do I end up doing when I don’t let myself enjoy the things I want (binge eating, food preoccupation etc)

Step 3: Start listening to your body when eating these wonderful foods. We ignore our bodies when w