One of the most common problems I hear from folks is the struggle of depriving yourself of food, only to end up overdoing it. Our culture has taught us that we cannot trust ourselves and that the way to stop overeating and start to ‘lose weight’ is by depriving and restricting ourselves, and that is simply not true.

A Positive Relationship With Food Is Possible

I want you to honor your body by breaking the cycle between guilt and deprivation, and stop feeling like you are failing. Instead of ‘last supper eating’ or starting again on Monday, you can allow yourself to make peace with the presence of food and start to experience your food on a deeper level. A positive relationship with food is possible when you can gain an outline of the process of making peace with food, which is what this episode will teach you how to do.

Have you been struggling with depriving yourself of food and are ready to start feeling at peace with food instead? Share how you are working to turn your situation around and embrace a more peaceful way of eating with us in the comments on the episode page.

In This Episode

• Ways that you can start making peace with food in your own daily life (2:21)
• How to identify the foods that you don’t allow yourself to eat for no good reason (8:50)
• The psychological and physical effects that come from depriving yourself (13:10)
• Tips for breaking the cycle between guilt and deprivation and avoiding overwhelm (16:45)
• Why you should take your time and slow down when experiencing food (21:10)

Quotes

“[Intuitive Eating] is not a yes/no list, it is not a list of hard and fast rules that need to be done in a specific order or for a specific amount of time and all of a sudden things are going to be completely better. It’s applying it to a living breathing human, which is you, and all of your uniqueness.” (3:50)

“The more you say ‘don’t do this, don’t think about it’, the more you think about it. So in order to stop the bingeing, to stop the overeating, to stop the ‘last supper eating’, and ultimately to stop the guilt, is to systematically make peace with food.” (18:43)

“When you start to relax into the idea that the food is going to be there, the shininess of that object wears off, the novelty wears off. A novelty in our brains and dopamine go together, but if the food is there, or we are allowing ourselves to have it, it looses that forbidden fruit value.” (19:36)

“We always think we have to earn and burn our food… we have to let go of the idea of ‘making up for it’. Because that is a condition, it is not unconditional.” (25:35)

“Every time you take that step toward making peace with food, giving yourself that permission, checking in with your body, you are building bricks of trust.” (28:38)

Links

LTYB 288: How To Ditch Dieting (Intuitive Eating Principle 1)

LTYB 289: Honoring Your Hunger (Intuitive Eating Principle 2)

Join the Listen To Your Body Newsletter

Check out the full show notes here!

Follow Steph on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Pinterest

I'd really love it if you would take 1 min and leave us a rating and review on iTunes!