How to Love Your Body: The Official UNdiet Online Podcast

Today we are rating and reviewing the 3 worst diets disguised as intuitive eating in 2021.

Lets dive right in because we have lots to discuss:

Coming in third place:

 

2B Mindset

This is a diet (yes a diet) from Beachbody.

The creator has her own weight loss story and uses this to sell the program. 

A lot of the messaging does sound so appealing – never be hungry and still lose weight, live your life and still lose weight, it sounds so good. Honestly even when I read it I have a moment of hope. But then the truth comes crashing in.

Here are some other things that it says:

 

What to eat first at every meal to lose weight 

What to order first at a restaurant to lose weight 

“Dozens of my proven weight loss secrets” , if anyone ever promotes their weight loss program or tips as secrets – they lying. Anything that actually worked would be such big news it would not be a secret. 

Then it says “results may vary based on starting point, effort and following Beachbody’s exercise and healthy eating plan” – okay soooo a diet.

Then it says it again – get my secrets to results that last a lifetime. If its a secret its a lie. 

Then as we go into the website you see that she also has packages that include the beachbody shakes – it gets more diety the deeper you dig.

 

And this is all to say: WE KNOW this sounds appealing for many, this is the problem. Diets disguise themselves as not diets, as something different and this is what leads people down the road an extra 5 years thinking – oh maybe this ones the answer, maybe this one….

It’s really harmful.

We want to confirm that this is a diet and pursuing weight loss leads to the same results no matter the name of it. 

Runner up is:

 

Intuitive Fasting

 

It is advertised as: “A clear but flexible, four week plan combining intuitive eating with intermittent fasting and Ketotarian foods. It’s designed to optimize our wellbeing and set us up to feel our best for all the other weeks to come. This is not a book of dogma. It will not punish you or restrict you. “

You’ll notice these are ALL buzz words and this description doesn’t really say anything.

Dr. Will Cole, the author of this book (who is not a medical doctor by the way, he is a quote “leader in functional medicine – his bio on instagram says intuitive fasting + ketotarian + inflammation spectrum (the buzz words that mean nothing.. honestly). 

The contradictions here are astounding:

Dr. Will Cole says – Not everyone is created equal- The realization that everyone is created differently. There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to getting well. What works for one person can flare other’s triggers. To treat symptoms and ailments, functional medicine uses herbal botanical medicine, lifestyle modifications, supplements and medications when needed to regain health.

Yet I have written a 4 week plan that you should all BUY!

There is no such thing as intuitive fasting. This is like saying be a vegetarian and eat meat – nope not possible. No matter how hard you sell it. 

The word intuitive is used here because they know that intuitive eating is on the rise in popularity and strict diets are on the outs. 

What it actually is: 

This program is actually just 3 of the more popular ways of eating right now, intermittent fasting, intuitive eating and keto (obviously one of these things is not like the other) – and smashing them together to sell something.

This program is nothing new, there is nothing intuitive about it and it’s in fact very harmful.

Diets suck. We know that.

AND the reason these specific diets are the most harmful is because they are a wolf in sheep’s clothing. People who are embarking on the journey to become an intuitive eater often still want to lose weight – so someone coming along and saying Hey, don’t worry you can be intuitive-ish and still fast and eat keto, don’t worry. You can be intuitive AND lose weight.

This is predatory and honestly really scary.

The key issue here is knowing how to determine if something is le

Honoring fullness:

We get many people who say I can’t seem to honor my fullness, I often go past being full and I just cannot seem to control myself! What is going on?

These people often are allowing all food, honoring their hunger and they are doing the work so what is going on? Why does this piece feel so difficult? 

There are a few reasons this could be happening and we will go through them today and chat about what you can do to take steps in the direction of being at ease with fullness and having it feel much more simple.

The top 3 reasons you might not feel like you can honor your fullness is:

 

Reason #1: We say this all the time but it is the sneakiest part of this work - mental restriction.

 

What does mental restriction sound like:

It's thoughts like:

 “oh i really shouldnt be eating bread again”  

“I’ll just try to be more intuitive tomorrow” 

“I shouldn’t be hungry already!”

All of these judgements can lead to overeating because your body reacts almost the same to mental restriction as it does to physical restriction. This is why people can continue to struggle even though they’re allowing “all the foods”.

So what can happen if you mentally restrict?

 

last suppers (body is still expecting to be restricted at some point)

Feeling more urgent with food (eating it all now - EVEN THOUGH you technically know you could eat more tomorrow)

Consistently overeating

 

How can you begin easing this?

 

Listen to your thoughts - do they contain shoulds? What are these shoulds about? Time (I really shouldn't have to eat for a few hours), types of food (I shouldn't be eating carbs again today), amounts (1 cookie is plenty, I shouldn't have eaten 3!!) or other rules?

These are then rules that you want to begin shifting even if they rule is just in your brain. If you think you SHOULD only eat one cookie that’s a rule AND ironically it’s more likely to lead you to eat more than one cookie every time because of the restriction. If you TRULY tuned in and said, I can eat as many cookies as I like, let’s start with 1 and see how I feel, if I want more I can have more. Sometimes maybe 3 is awesome, sometimes 1, sometimes maybe none! When true mental and physical permission is present you can then truly listen to your body and let your intuitive eating muscles get stronger!

Reason #2: Clean plate club

 

 

You might be familiar with the term and you might feel like a veteran member at this point. People can be a part of the clean plate club for various reasons:

 

They were always told to clear their plate as a kid and now they fear wasting food etc.

As dieters we often would plate what we were ALLOWED to have so of course we were going to eat it all, this is all we can have. Now as an UnDieter this tendency may be following you even though you are allowing more food now.

You may not be paying attention at all to how you’re feeling when eating and you use the plate being cleared as a signal that you’re done

 

It is FINE to clean your plate but if you find yourself with an empty plate and a stuffed stomach at every meal it’s absolutely something you can look into some more.

How to begin shifting this:

 

Dive into what the motivator is for you. Does your clearing of the plate come from childhood? Were you told to never waste food because other children were starving? Do you feel guilt if you throw food away or “waste” it by not eating it?

Are you still feeling a scarcity mindset around food and your body just eats whenever food is available because of this?

Are you using an empty plate as a signal that the meal is done?

 

Now that you’re more aware of why this is happening you can begin to question your thoughts around this.

Does it really help anyone if I eat food I don’t want? Will it create less waste? How can I save leftovers even if it’s small amounts? Would this be more enjoyable tomorrow when I am less stuffed?

Why do I feel like I can’t just finish this later? I could even eat it before bed if I want? - add thoughts of abun

Welcome to How to Love Your Body - I’m Lauren and this is Jenna. On today’s episode we are going to be talking about eating at night when you’re alone. We wanted to talk about this because this specific theme has come up a handful of times in our community in The UnDiet Collective Intuitive Eating App. 

We get why eating at night when you’re alone feels like a “habit” you want to stop. Maybe there is even some shame that comes up around night time eating - it might feel secretive and like you’re getting away with something that is “bad” and “wrong.”

First, it’s not bad, it’s not wrong, and by no means do you need to guilt and shame yourself every single time this scenario happens.

We want to share ways in which we can help alleviate this situation and make you feel like it’s okay to eat at night but also maybe help you get to the bottom of why this feels like such a problem for you - here are different areas you can explore that you may find helpful.

1st - What do you make “night time eating” mean? What is the energy around it? What is your experience with it? Most likely it’s coming from a place of “I shouldn't be doing this, it’s bad to eat this at night, why do I do this to myself, I told myself I wasn’t going to feel this sick again” etc - there is not only guilt but a lot of judgement.

So the first step to this process around night time eating is to see it in a different light - let’s create some new energy around it, gentle, kind, compassionate energy.

Can you see it as a sacred time for yourself - when you can actually have some time to relax - where you can “turn off” and mentally unload from the day. This is a time to recharge.

If you love to eat during this time - ALLOW yourself to truly enjoy it. Make an empowered choice rather than an effort in trying to stop this nighttime eating. If you allow yourself and embrace this time - it won’t feel so powerful.

Instead of telling yourself “I’m NOT eating at night tomorrow” - say to yourself - “I EXPECT to eat at night tomorrow.” - If I want to eat, I will eat - and I will listen to my body and give myself permission to enjoy.

Here’s a little activity - Get a journal or notebook - write out your old experience with night time eating - talk about the shame, guilt, judgement, whatever comes up for you. Once you are completed with that - rip it up into tiny pieces and throw it away - NEXT - write your new story around night time eating - talk about the allowing, the enjoyment, the sacred time to yourself - write about how compassionate you are for yourself. Create a new loving experience when it comes to night time eating and hold that energy within you..

Okay now - let’s talk about some practical areas in which we can explore to help you see this night time eating in a new light ---

What may be going on in your day  -

Are you eating enough during the day? Eating at night is absolutely okay and if you feel like you are eating more than you’d like - this could be that you’re famished because you didn’t eat enough during the day. You may not even realize it but it’s important to ask yourself if you are feeling satisfied and full after your meals during the day without having the feeling of grazing or like you’re still hungry. At night, once all the distractions are gone - like the kids are in bed, your work day is over, and you get some time to yourself to just relax - you feel the desire to eat because you may just be really hungry!! There’s other things that may be going on which is fine and absolutely “normal”- such as emotional eating or maybe just the desire to enjoy some food and watch some tv - but start becoming aware of how you feel during the day and making sure you are eating enough for your body to feel good and satisfied!

Another question to ask yourself:

Are you allowing the same food during the day that you eat at night? If you only allow certain foods at a certain time of day/ restrict them at times you want - this could very much be why they feel so

Welcome to How to Love Your Body - this is Lauren and Jenna - on today’s episode we are going to be talking all about our Body Image and Intuitive Eating App that is officially LIVE as of Feb 1st, 2021 called The UnDiet Collective!

We want to share the elements of the app and how it will help support you 365 days out of the year.

There are 4 levels of support. 

1st level - UnDiet Dailies

2nd level - Community Support groups 

3rd level - Living Coaching 

4th level - Monthly bonuses and guest expert speakers 

We’ll share more about each level so you can get a feel for what this type of support entails.

 

1.UnDiet Dailies.

 

The intention of the UnDiet Dailies are to give you quick/ simple UnDiet action steps and tips every single day of the week. This is long term work as UnDieters and we want to make it valuable content without the overwhelm. No more feeling “behind” in a course with lots of content to dive through each week. This is about small daily action steps that you can choose to take on or not any day of the week.

Here is the schedule: 

Mondays - UnDiet Prompts 

Tuesdays- Live Coaching 

Wednesdays- UnDiet Action Step 

Thursdays- Live Coaching 

Fridays- FAQ Video 

Saturdays- Weekly check in 

Sundays- Positive Affirmation

Everyday of the week you’ll have something different sent right to your phone. 

How does this help?

This work requires consistency and long term engagement. Meaning doing a 6 week course doesn’t cut it. Think of this work as a slow burn instead of a sprint. You want to be consistently reframing your thoughts, questioning your beliefs and learning about your body and how to best care for it in an intuitive way. That’s what these dailies will help you do!

2. Community Support Groups 

 

This is a place where the entire Collective can build connections/ friendships and also ask any questions that will be answered by us each day. The best part about these groups is that you don’t have to have a Facebook anymore to be a part of it!

How does this help?

It is so important to be in community when you’re doing this work. Why? Because everyone in your real life in likely a dieter and when you’re doing something that no one around you is doing (and that often goes against what mainstream thinks is right) you can get stuck in continually questioning if this work is the right thing to do. When you’re in a community who is doing the same work with counsellors who have expertise in UnDieting and Intuitive eating you can find solace in knowing you’re on the right path.

3. Live Coaching 

 

You’ll be able to submit your questions through our intuitive eating app and we will be going live on Tuesdays and Thursdays to answer your questions. They will be housed in a group called “Live Coaching” so if you can’t watch it live you’ll be able to go into this group and have access to all the live recordings - we will have the questions that are being answered in the post and what time they are being answered so if you don’t feel like watching the whole thing you can skip to the questions you do want to watch. 

How does this help?

Getting your questions answered in real time can be so helpful. Your counsellors are in the group every weekday answering your questions but a typed answer can only provide so much information. When we can interact and talk things through this is when we can share more of the nuance and complexities of this work! Getting this twice a week will be hugely beneficial in moving your forward to being a confident UnDieter.

 

4. Monthly Bonuses and Guest Experts 

 

Every month there will be a unique experience such as a 5 day intensive, Exclusive Workshops, Guest expert speakers, and more! The month of Feb we will be doing a 5 Day Self Love Intensive starting Feb 15th-19th. 

How does this help?

Diving deeper into 1 specific area of UnDieting every month will give you the depth needed to transform your relationship with food and your body without being overwhelming. We can’t all dedicate hrs every wee

4 Common Barriers Preventing You from Becoming an Intuitive Eater

Hi Welcome to How to love your body. I'm Lauren McAulay and this is Jenna Free and we are intuitive eating counsellors from The Body Love Society and the app The UnDiet Collective.

This podcast is for you if you are working to take action in becoming an intuitive eater and undieter instead of just constantly learning about it and listening to 100652 interviews.

This podcast is brought to you by our NEW intuitive eating quiz that you can take at bit.ly/undietquiz

Take the quick quiz to know what your barrier is in the way that you’re tackling this journey.

Lets dive in to todays episode.

We are talking about 4 barriers that can hold people up from finding food and body freedom. We are talking about the WAY that you’re going about it.

UnDieting is SO different than dieting that we really need to tackle it in a different way and this might not even occur to a dieter because its just the way we think!

1. The first barrier is:

Consistency and Longevity

This is the #1 thing that gets people stuck in limbo, not dieting but not getting to where they want to go (feeling like food is easy and theyre at peace in their bodies).

Where dieters get stuck:

We’ve been used to hard sprints and then falling off the wagon. Think 30 day challenges, having a personal trainer for 3 months or starting weight watchers with all your efforts just to quit a month later.

This is NOT the energy that will work in becoming an intuitive eater.

The way you need to tackle this work is to truly understand that this is the rest of your life - don’t obsess over this thinking you’re going to crack the code in 2 months, everything will be perfect and you can then stop thinking about it at all.

It’s a slow burn.

It’s about daily, small steps forward. 

You NEED the time to explore what works for you, to dive deep into the mindset work and to let time reveal to you where your struggles are and what you still need to work on.

If you go too hard too fast you will burn out, think - this doesn’t work and move on, probably back to another diet and that is the last thing we want for you.

So the next time you’re freaking out about this not happening fast enough remember - I’ve got the rest of my life to continue to work on this (of course it gets easier with time and you’ll master certain things but there will always be something you’re working on especially when it comes to mindset). 

Also reflect, am I doing something daily to get me to where I want to go? THIS is a key component of this work.

2. The second barrier is:

Community

This is a lonely road to take. I’m sure you’ve noticed that, everyone around you is counting their points and talking about how they need to be good today --- and you’re pulling your hair out. 

Here’s why this might be holding up your progress.

When no one around you gets it, and might be actively pushing against or disagreeing with what you’re doing it’s difficult to be confident enough in what you’re doing to move forward. If you keep thinking - am I crazy? Is this not the right thing? Maybe I should be doing that program with my friend, look how good she looks?

It keeps you in limbo. You need a group that GETS IT. People who can reassure you when it’s tough and celebrate your wins because we KNOW what a win it is to be able to have cookies in the house and not eat them all the first day.

Community will give you the time and space to build up your conviction enough to be able to set and hold your boundaries with the dieters around you.

So if you are feeling in limbo or are often questioning what you’re doing look around you - do you have community to reach out to and get support from?

3. The third barrier is:

Action (or lack there of)

Information overload is a HUGE trap that UnDieters can get stuck in. Dieting taught us just learn all the things, know the foods to eat that are good and bad and you will master your body!

This is not how Intuitive Eating or UnDieting works

Welcome to How to Love Your Body on Today’s episode we are going to be talking about how to tell if you are listening to your body or listening to your head. There are so many tiny nuances in IE and this is one of them.

This is actually a really important distinction between the two. Yes our body and our brains come together and make decisions - so really we are using both when choosing what we want to eat. 

But if we skip our body's input when choosing food that is when we most likely hear “I’m so full, why do I always do that, I’m allowing all food but this doesn’t feel good.” Of course there is nothing wrong with any of that - you can be full, it’s okay if you “do that”, and it’s also okay not to feel good - yeah it’s not comfortable but it doesn’t mean you're horrible and a failure. 

Lauren's story: 

So we talk about this often but really how this came to be is that I experienced this first hand just a couple of nights ago- I kinda had an off day with eating, I ate enough but it just wasn’t as satisfying because xyz and all the things that don’t really matter - when it came to dinner time - I was feeding the kids and also sitting to eat myself and although I was eating something I enjoyed my brain was grazing. I was wondering if I should eat more of the same thing or get something sweet or when the kids go to bed to make myself another snack or something - I was searching and searching and was quite annoyed because this isn’t something that usually happens to me after dinner - usually after dinner I feel complete - I’ve eaten enough that satisfies me, i get the kids to bed, and after that I usually have some chocolate or ice cream and that feels great. So when my “typical” night wasn’t happening - I was annoyed! I was checking in and asking myself what I need? If I need to go eat something sweet right now - just go and do it. I can also have something after the kids go to bed - I was allowing but it still didn't feel “right” - I was in my head. I also realized that i was feeling a little off that night - I was home with the kids alone - I was feeling certain emotions about certain things - which is fine - and then I was like okay well maybe I’m feeling some feelings and I just need some food to comfort me - I then said, okay well if you need to eat that’s fine - go ahead and do it! There’s nothing wrong with that - I was giving myself full permission to do whatever I needed to do - and then I asked myself how does my body feel? And that was the shift right there. I literally felt myself drop from my head into my body. I realized all the chatter was all going on up in my head. I wasn’t considering my body at all. When I dropped into my body I could tell that I actually felt content and wasn’t actually hungry - I still gave myself permission to eat whatever I wanted / emotionally eat if I wanted to but since I was back in my body I realized eating something wouldn’t “fix” anything - because I wasn’t actually hungry - it would have not made me feel good in my body because actually my dinner was satisfying and filling. 

This may seem like a story that has an intention of getting yourself not to eat something - that’s not the case here - because later when the kids went to bed I went and got an ice cream because I was ready for it (taste buds and body!)

So why share this - I felt the shift between my head and my body so intensely - like it was a visceral AH HA moment that I was like “ohhhhhh wooooow I didn’t even realize how stuck I was in my head” - dropping into your body is so important when Intuitive Eating… 

Jenna’s story: 

I vividly remember one time when I was at Starbucks - of course and I was in line (pre pandemic) and I was waiting thinking … ugh I don't feel like a coffee but I want one,,, and I was debating if i should leave or stay. Starbucks is my favorite and I did want a coffee but it was like my body was screaming at me, no thank you that would not feel good.

But I stayed in line, my mind thinking h

Hello and welcome to How to love your body, welcome to our first episode of 2021! Today we are talking about new year’s resolutions why we keep doing them even when they don’t work and what we can do instead!

1. We’re sold the idea of a fresh start when the calendar turns to January, we think things will be different this time, the things in our life we don’t like will shift and we will be new people! (Also being told that weight loss is life changing doesn’t help)

The first step here is just realizing this isn't true. The best way to do this is to look at your own evidence. How have the new year’s of your past been? Were they profound shifts that gave you a new life every year? Probably not. … And there isn’t something you haven't figured out yet that will make it different. It’s just that a change in the calendar year doesn't actually have an effect on anything at all. If you want to make changes in an area of your life, just do it when you want to do it. No need to wait for new years. This just leads to the whole “Ill start again on Monday effect”, especially when it comes to dieting, new years is the ultimate Monday. This leads people to having a last supper for ALL of december with the promise of a fresh new start on Jan 1 ! This all or nothing thinking is not helpful. Step 1 in getting out of the new years resolution rut is to stop giving January so much significance!

2. The New Year seems like a good time to get motivated and dive into something that gives us purpose and feelings of success. This is a HUGE driver of why people continue dieting long after it feels good and we trudge through even with all of the negative side effects.

With a lot of people we work with . they share that not dieting just feels complacent, it’s boring, it’s stagnant, it can feel like giving up or letting yourself go. We are used to drama and so called accomplishments when it comes to what we eat and what we weigh. This can be addicting even when its negatively affecting you..

The key here is to foster these natural desires of achievement, success, progression and purpose into something more worthwhile (and effective). 

This doesn’t mean shifting one obsession for another but having something you’re working towards or working on can give us so much energy and excitement. For Lauren and I that definitely shifted from dieting to this work. Instead of feeling like I always want to improve and be working on my body, I have this amazing work to continue getting better at, to share new things and create new things for you and it does give me a sense of purpose and progress that dieting used to (but in a much healthier way).

What about finding that for yourself this year? What is something you want to work towards that takes effort and time? It can be simple like learning to play the ukulele or learning how to knit, it could be starting a business or going back to school. Whatever it is, pick something that sounds exciting to you, makes you want to keep working at it, and gives you joy and a sense of accomplishment as you continue to work towards something.

3. Most resolutions are fear based/ have a fixing energy. Our society runs like this so this is how we make resolutions - media tells us to buy this and buy that to fix these things about yourself so that is how we tackle resolutions. That never works long term - so we are motivated to make a resolution from a sense of lack and needing to fix something that is negative about ourselves but this burns out quickly. 

You can still do something new in the new year without it being about fixing, instead it can be about self exploration and adding good things into your life.

A great new resource we have for this is our UnDiet January Calendar, it gives you one small thing to do each day to work towards being an UnDieter. It includes intuitive eating, body image, self care and gentle movement. 

You can grab that at bit.ly/undietjan 

PS - We started a new instagram account for our upcoming app

Welcome to How to Love Your Body - on today’s episode we are going to bring it back to the basics and talk about What is Intuitive Eating? We want to share the 10 principles with you that were created by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch - These are amazing principles! We also want to share that there is more to these principles in this work.

In the work that we do at the body love society we use two terms, UnDieting and intuitive eating. In essence they’re really the same thing, getting away from dieting and listening to your body so you can take great care of yourself without the focus being on weight.

At the core it’s really about thinking in a new way that is based on science, compassion and sustainability. A life of wellness that isn’t fuelled by diet culture’s obsession with thinness.

The reason this is important work is because it can be so easy to live in diet culture, diet decade after decade, have it not work long term, feel like a failure and keep going around and around in the diet cycle without ever KNOWING there’s another way, without questioning if this is actually damaging our bodies and mental health.

That being said - what is intuitive eating? It is the base of our work so it’s important to talk about.

Intuitive Eating is a concept by registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, first published in 1995. They put it together into ten principles and laid it out so people understand it but it TRULY is intuitive. Many people do these things naturally if diet culture didn’t mess them up too much. So it is a naturally occurring way of being but Evelyn and Elyse put it together beautifully so we can all benefit from it.

The 10 principles of IE are:

Reject the Diet Mentality (THE MOST IMPORTANT!)

Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you the false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at diet culture that promotes weight loss and the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet or food plan might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating.

2. Honor Your Hunger

Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for rebuilding trust in yourself and in food.

3. Make Peace with Food

Call a truce; stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can’t or shouldn’t have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, bingeing. When you finally “give in” to your forbidden foods, eating will be experienced with such intensity it usually results in Last Supper overeating and overwhelming guilt.

4. Challenge the Food Police

Scream a loud no to thoughts in your head that declare you’re “good” for eating minimal calories or “bad” because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The food police monitor the unreasonable rules that diet culture has created. The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loudspeaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the food police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating. 

5. Discover the Satisfaction Factor

The Japanese have the wisdom to keep pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living. In our compulsion to comply with diet culture, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence—the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force i

Welcome to how to love your body, on today’s episode we are talking about nutrition knowledge.

One thing people comment to us often is “shouldn’t people still know about nutrition though? Isn’t it important to know what’s in your food etc”? And in theory yes that would make sense.

But let’s look at how things are right now. As a dieter how much nutrition “information” do you have? Do you know a lot about food, what’s “healthy” and what is “best” to eat?

And how has that been for you?

Has it helped or just complicated things and made it so confusing?

If you think you need to teach a dieter or past dieter anything about nutrition you haven’t been a dieter. We know TOO MUCH!

We know about calories, macros, what’s healthy, best options, ingredients to avoid, ingredients to add….. And it’s brought us here. To a place where we can’t just eat, everything is a mathematical and nutritional equation.

A lack of nutrition information is not the problem. If KNOWING what were supposed to eat fixed things we wouldn’t all be here right now.

As an intuitive eater, the majority of the time, it is best to step away from the so-called nutrition knowledge and into your body’s knowing.

None of us need to be told it’s good to eat fruits, vegetables and a variety of foods from all the food groups. We KNOW THAT! What we do need is a complete transformation in how we think about food, how we relate to it, and how we use it.

Food is not just fuel, food isn’t medicine, food is something we need to live, it can be fuel and it can be nourishing but it’s also social, enjoyable and even emotional.

These are the aspects of nutrition, food and eating that we need to focus on when coming out of being a dieter, not more information.

Here are 3 things you can do in order to honor the nourishment of food while working on food mindset:

When you are working on allowing all foods, do just that allow ALL foods. Broaden your view of what this means. Many people just think of the foods they didn’t allow before but allowing all food can also include fruit, veg, and any other foods that feel “healthier” to you. You can also experiment in eating them in ways you didn’t allow yourself before, like with butter or on a dessert etc. Just begin exploring all foods, this is a great step in making food neutral, realizing there is a place for donuts and there's a place for salad and it’s all wonderful.

When people feel crappy on this journey (these phases are absolutely normal) the reaction is often - now I want to go back on a diet, this feels crappy right now. Get out of that all or nothing thinking and ask yourself, what can I add into my meals that would FEEL good? Don’t be afraid of nourishment now that you aren’t dieting, its not either diet and be perfect or eat donuts and pasta all day every day forever. You can have it all. AND you don’t need to know anything more about food other than variety is lovely so you can get a variety of nutrients.

Understand that your body doesn’t process food in 24 hr increments. Diet culture teaches us that each day needs to look a certain way and everyday needs to look the same.  Get x amount of fruit a day, x amount of calories or x amount of macros. THAT IS NOT HOW BODIES WORK. There isn’t a reset button that gets pushed at midnight. Think of nourishment on more of a weekly or even monthly basis. Get a wide variety of foods in overtime, it doesn’t all have to be today! Some days I eat very few fruit and veg and other days I’ll eat more and it’s all good!

These three things will allow you to be more flexible and easy going with your food while also getting variety and nutrients in! 

This is really just about trusting yourself and your body and knowing that there isn’t some magical combination of foods or way of eating that will make everything amazing. It’s just food. You got this. Your body knows so much more than you give it credit for. Listen in today and honor that amazing body of yours - including rest and doing things you

On today’s episode we are going to be talking about how to avoid the New Year, New You diet talk and not get sucked into the messages about losing the “quarantine weight for 2021” and all that BS.

People already have a lot of feels around 2020. It’s be a rough year. And yes, many people have already shared that it’s been even harder with food and body image because of quarantine, stay at home orders, etc - being totally out of your normal routine. When you aren’t used to being home all day it definitely can bring up a lot of food and body stuff. And even if you haven’t been home all day because you’ve been able to work as an essential business / reopening of businesses - food and body image are still a challenge of course! 

We want to shed some light on this topic because you better believe that diet culture and all people who have a business rooted in diet culture will be coming after everyone now that the new year is right around the corner. They will start to bring up pain points such as “the quarantine 15” as a tactic to drag people into their latest diet program. 

You know the drill (eye roll) - we’ve all been through many holiday seasons and new years and the marketing from diet culture starts to get absurd. And we’re over it. 

So how can you avoid the predictable messages that diet culture is going to start spewing at us. 

 

We can’t stress this one enough - we say it often so you’ve most likely already done this but if you haven’t - time to clean up that social media / time to tighten it up and get rid of accounts that send you a message that doesn't align with you. Even if it’s friends who are sharing their own diet plans for the new year - unfollow and be done with it. If you scroll through your social media and you feel worse than when you started scrolling - let this be a sign to you that you have some clean up to do. Also, make sure you give yourself some time away from social media - we all can get caught scrolling through the bottomless pit where you swear you tell yourself you’re just going to look for a few minutes before bed and two hours later you're still wide eyed and mesmerized by the screen - we know we’re guilty of that! No matter how feel good/ positive you make your IG - being on it too much can have a negative effect too. Listen to your body. Ha, you knew we were going to say that! :)

Predict the future! We know you may feel the slightest bit of temptation to diet - it looks so shiny - like it will solve all your problems if you just lose a little weight and you tell yourself after your quick little diet you promise you’ll go back to IE - We understand the desire - and you aren’t wrong for it - but seriously - we’ve always known until now that there’s no way to predict the future unless you’re talking about going on another diet - you can ABSOLUTELY predict what will happen if you go on another diet - even if it feels harmless and it won’t be too long - you even promise yourself that you’ll try not to restrict too much - you know whatever makes it sound like it will be different this time - but the thing is - no matter what - it won’t be different. A diet is a diet is a diet - and as we preach all the time - diets don’t work. SO - do a little prediction - write out what will happen if you did decide to go on a diet. Write out how you prepare for the diet that starts Monday - does it involve having a last supper? Most likely. Does it involve grocery shopping and stocking up on all the “clean” food that are “allowed” on this diet - most likely. And there won’t be any of your favorite desserts of snacks in that shopping cart - that’s for sure. You know the deal. It will last x amount of days before you feel miserable about it and you inevitably binge and you tell yourself you’ll start again on monday but before then you’ll just eat whatever. Does this sound familiar? It does to us! We did it too! So do your own future prediction and see if it’s worth it to go on another diet. This isn’t to