If you read our blog post on intuitive eating, you would have noticed that the first principle of intuitive eating is ditching the diet mentality. Sounds great right? But how many of us actually know what the diet mentality is and how to get rid of it for good? In order to help you live your healthiest and happiest life, we have broken down exactly what the diet mentality is and how you can ditch it and finally make peace with food.
What is the diet mentality?
To understand the diet mentality, we first have to understand what a diet really is. As most of us are aware, a diet is a set of rules for consumption. It is a structure for when, how, and why you eat. After following many restrictive diets over the years, we begin to accept and internalize some of the individual rules of each diet and carry that with us throughout all of our eating experiences.
Often when you eat, you will make your choices based on these rules, or food filters, that you have learned from dieting. A diet mentality chooses your food for you without taking hunger, cravings, food preferences, or daily life into account. Eventually, you will have a harder time tuning into your body’s natural cues, such as hunger and satiety.
A diet mentality is often associated with negative self-talk and feelings of guilt or shame after indulging or eating foods that are deemed “bad” or unhealthy. This can be emotionally draining when everyday you are faced with the inner conflict of deciding between eating what you want and eating what you think you need to eat in order to look or feel a certain way.
How to ditch the diet mentality
Here at Kaizen Naturals® we believe that living your best and healthiest life, means living a life that you actually enjoy, a life without food fear and guilt. We believe in replacing the diet mentality with a lifestyle approach to weight management through improved eating behaviour and exercise for increased energy, stress alleviation, and improved health.
This doesn’t mean restricting foods that you love or forcing yourself to workout extra hard after a “bad” meal. It means listening to your body, eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full. It means that no foods are off limits and there is no reason to feel guilty after eating something that you love.
In order to get to this happy place free of food fear, we suggest trying to recognize your own food filters. Do you restrict bread? Do you avoid food with 12 grams of sugar or more? Do you only eat low-fat options? As you recognize a filter, write it down. You will likely end up with a list of many food restrictions that you follow. Tackle that list one at a time; try to work through each one and get rid of them for good.
We also suggest doing your research, learning how to make a balanced meal full of micronutrients, finding delicious recipes that you love and that make your body feel good, and finally, never feeling guilty for enjoying food and enjoying life.
You deserve to be happy, healthy, and at peace with food.