(This video is recorded from a Facebook LIVE session)
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“The only way that you will come to believe that you will be able to stop eating is to go through the food experience, to actually eat.”
Anything that we resist and push away in life becomes an obsession. In order to make peace with food we have to give ourselves unconditional permission to eat. And through that process you learn to listen to your body’s needs.
The massive problem with dieting is that when you restrict food, you do not experience habituation.
This means food is always magical and always irresistible.
So, here are some awareness questions to ask yourself:
What are your forbidden foods?
Do you find yourself still eating them, or hiding them?
What does forbidding them give you? What’s the benefit?
Food only becomes a problem when we forbid it. But, food is not the enemy.
The mental shift comes when we can look at food as our ally. It starts with treating all food as equal. There are no “good” or “bad” foods. You have permission to eat what you really want.
When you truly free your food choices, without any hidden agenda of restricting them in the future, you eliminate the urgent need to overeat.
6 Steps Peace with Food and Bring Back the Pleasure to Eating:
1. Notice when you are getting hungry
Are you biologically hungry? If so, you have to give yourself permission to eat. No more skipping meals or counting calories.
2. Ask yourself, what sounds good?
What do I really really want to eat? Eventually you’ll be able to ask and determine What does my body need?
3. Give Your Permission
Start at the store or at a restaurant- buy/order anything you want. Give yourself permission to choose anything. If nothing was off limits. No really NOTHING. What does you body want.
4. Include one forbidden food in each meal at the beginning.
5. Make it sacred
Maybe it’s candles or flowers. Make it beautiful. If at a restaurant slow down, order a glass of wine. Pretend you are European.
6. Check in with the process.
Put your fork down between bites – check in, CHEW. Taste your food. Are you satisfied? How full are you feeling? Breathe. Take a break for a second. Without judgement ask “Am I still hungry? Is there anything else that I want?” “Does my old “forbidden” food taste as good as I thought it would?”
Make food pleasurable again (go to the grocery story and enjoy it – buy anything. Don’t read any labels. What do I want. What does my body want?) You have to build trust with yourself.
