One of the many things that I dislike about diets is that they’re so all-consuming.
Personally, I think that dieters need to think and talk about their diets all the time because it’s really not a natural thing to be on a diet. I know that when I stopped dieting 5 years ago, I started noticing that my mind felt less cluttered. It took some time, but it was lovely to have a meal and not think about how many points or calories I was eating. It’s a wonderfully freeing feeling.
In honor of my upcoming talk at The Lose the Diet, Gain Yourself Telesummit, I’m sharing the excerpt below from my book Stop Dieting Now: 25 Reasons To Stop, 25 Ways To Heal. I hope you find it helpful!
So here’s Reason #16: Diets Don’t Let You Think About Anything Other Than Diets.
Diets cause dieters (who are often women) to build their lives around food rather than other things that may really matter to them (relationships, careers, social issues.)
When you’re on a diet, how much time do you spend thinking and talking about dieting? Do you talk to you friends about points, calories, carbs and fat grams? Do you find yourself working out complicated math equations in your head just to decide what to eat?
Now, imagine a world where you talked to your friends about their lives, their dreams, and their desires. Take a moment to think about how much time per day you think about dieting, how much time you take to weigh or measure your food, how much time you spend thinking about fat grams, carbs, calories, points, etc. Add that to how much time you spend worrying about what you ate or what you will eat and whether you’ve gone off your diet or not. How much time per day is that? If you’re like most dieters, you probably spend at least an hour a day, if not more, thinking about, talking about and feeling guilty about your diet.
Tip #16: Envision Your Diet-Free Life
If you’re a dieter, imagine what you could do with all the time that is taken up by dieting. You might use it to meditate, to get your work done more efficiently, to spend time enjoying your friends, or to think about causes and concerns that are really meaningful. In other words, imagine spending that time envisioning and creating a better life for yourself—one that doesn’t revolve around diets. Keep envisioning your world without dieting until your reality and your vision become one.
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.
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““Imagine what you could do with all the time that is taken up by dieting.”” http://t.co/MOE0DmBKfv
““Imagine what you could do with all the time that is taken up by dieting.”” http://t.co/4ju4EjFp
So true advise, thanks!
“Imagine what you could do with all the time that is taken up by dieting.” – @bodylovewellnes http://t.co/Qk3T5op5
“Imagine what you could do with all the time that is taken up by dieting.” – @bodylovewellnes http://t.co/HTJ0oQLW
Thank you. I thought that I was the only person that felt that way. It is not wanting to eat that makes me fail at every diet, it is not wanting to think about food constantly. It is too much pressure. How many calories, how many points, how many carbs. And keeeping a journal of everything you eat is overwhelming. It takes me a few days and it is in the trashcan. I am so happy to hear that it is not just me.
I had an interesting experience about a month ago regarding this. On New Years Eve I made a cake and then had a piece of that cake and for some reason I totally felt I deserved that piece of cake. It made me realize that I have spent almost all of my teen an adult life with the sense that I don’t deserve to eat the food in front of me and as a result I shovel it down, as if it might be taken away from me at any minute or that this might be the last time I see it. I know this is slightly different then not thinking about dieting, but the effect is similar because I realize that I have been clogging up my brain with thoughts that I am unworthy and am not really allowed to eat and therefore enjoy food. So now I am reminding myself that I am allowed to eat what I want and that has begun to take the urgency out of it for me.
It’s really odd what our brains do in terms of deeming us worthy or not and it is completely up to us to give ourselves that permission….it’s just that often we don’t even know it.
Whenever I was on a DIE-t, I thought about nothing but food, day and night. When I took a psychology course, I learned that this is a completely normal reaction to being deprived of food. There was a study done with a group of men who were put on a very restrictive diet. All they could think of or talk about was food.
I’m not saying that my relationship with food is perfect. It probably never will be. It was badly damaged early on. (I became bulimic at 12.) But I will never diet again. I eat or I don’t eat, but I don’t diet. Consequently, I’m not constantly obsessing on food, even if I do still ruminate over it far more than I would like to.
“Imagine what you could do with all the time that is taken up by dieting.” – @bodylovewellnes http://t.co/aKUBKiiC #fb
I’ve had a couple of times in my life where I was truly diet free (not just NOT on a diet). I am currently working through the Intuitive Eating program to try to permanently embrace listening to my body not a meal plan. It is liberating.
“Imagine what you could do with all the time that is taken up by dieting.” – @bodylovewellnes http://t.co/P1ijY2t3 http://t.co/DrDT4J9v
“Imagine what you could do with all the time that is taken up by dieting.” – @bodylovewellnes http://t.co/URNkS9wf
great advice and oh so true, struggling a bit with it all at the minute, any advice please x
Envision Your Diet-Free Life http://t.co/Rch917WM