Escape The Diet Cycle
By Jenna Free, Intuitive Eating Counsellor and Body Image Coach, Founder of You Ain’t Your Weight
Dieting is pure madness.
95% of people don’t find any success on diets and 2/3 of people gain more weight than they lost in the first place!
Dieting seems to be the only industry that isn’t affected by negative statistics but sadly we live in a diet culture. It is so ingrained in us to always be losing weight that it gets quite the reaction when we say we are no longer dieting.
Regardless, we can still live diet-free even while living in a diet culture.
This simple tool will help you tune into your body so dieting can be a thing of the past.
THE HUNGER SCALE
This is a scale from 1 to 10 or “starving to overly stuffed.” Using this scale allows you to tune back into your hunger signals, which can die off when you’ve been dieting. Your body is so much smarter than your brain when it comes to when and how much you should eat. Instead of following that meal plan that says you can only eat every 4 hours or you can only eat ½ a cup of rice, follow your gut.
Essentially, eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full. I know it sounds simple but it can be a challenge when we have been conditioned to see food as the enemy, hunger as a good thing, and food scales as the boss.
It might feel weird at first but if you’re hungry at 10 AM, don’t question it, just eat something.
“But I just had breakfast 2 hours ago!”
So what? Would you second-guess having to pee? Wouldn’t that be ridiculous? Imagine thinking, I just peed 2 hours ago; I better hold it for another hour.
Taking the emotion out of hunger and letting it just be another body signal will allow you to become intuitive in your eating which in turn will let you be free from meal plans and diets once and for all.
Jenna Free, Intuitive Eating Counsellor and Body Image Coach, Founder of You Ain’t Your Weight
www.youaintyourweight.com
www.instagram.com/youaintyourweight
Photography Credits: Katherine Calnan www.katherinecalnan.com