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by Golda Poretsky, HHC
http://www.bodylovewellness.com

To tell the absolute truth, I’ve been a little overwhelmed this week.  So I’ve decided to share another snippet of my book, Stop Dieting Now: 25 Reasons To Stop, 25 Ways To Heal.  Please enjoy!

Reason #9: Diets Teach You Not To Trust Yourself And Reward You For Not Thinking For Yourself

The way we relate to food and our bodies colors other aspects of our lives. If you’re accustomed to dieting, you’re accustomed to feeling as though you need a system of outside rules to control your life. This is particularly dangerous considering that at any given time, 115 million Americans are on a diet, the majority of whom are women. What does this mean for women when we’re constantly being told that we can’t be trusted to perform the basic bodily function of feeding ourselves properly?

The diet system reinforces low self esteem in dieters by making them feel like they have no “willpower” when they have diet lapses. In actuality, diets encourage people to ignore their internal will in exchange for the perceived will of the diet industry. Dieting gives dieters the message that they cannot trust their internal sense of what nourishes them. This distrust of internal signals affects other aspects of a dieter’s life, where they seek external approval and control of their non-food related actions.

Tip #9: Actively Listening To Yourself

The way to move out of this type of thinking is to begin to trust yourself and your intuition. Start listening to your inner voice, and accept what it tells you. Act upon your inner voice. For example, if your inner voice tells you to take a different route to work or wear a different outfit than you had planned, follow it and see where it takes you. Eventually, your inner voice will speak up in relation to food choices too. With practice, you’ll find your inner voice becoming louder and clearer in every facet of your life. Hearing this inner voice will help you to move out of a dieting mentality and support you in becoming an intuitive eater.

If you feel like your inner voice is too quiet to hear, just guess at what she would say and act upon that guess. You will be right more than you expect. In time and with practice, you will hear your inner voice loudly and clearly.

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.