Regan Wilson, RD

“Intuitive Eating” Reject the Diet Mentality

This is actually the first principle put forth by the authors of the book, but I wanted you to get a feel for what Intuitive Eating is so I started off by talking about unconditional permission to eat.  Not everyone who would benefit from learning to be an Intuitive Eater is a chronic dieter, or at least they don’t view themselves that way.  Maybe you do limit certain foods or consider some foods “bad” or “good” or “forbidden” but you don’t “diet,” per se.  You know that the cabbage diet or the grapefruit diet is ridiculous and you understand that real weight loss comes from a permanent lifestyle change, yada, yada, yada.  Yes, if you’ve done Weight Watchers a zillion times and you’re still not taking or keeping the weight off, Weight Watchers would be a diet.  (It can be a tool for those people who need to learn what portion sizes are and how much they need to be eating, but for chronic dieters, it’s a diet.)

So, if you are a chronic dieter, let’s talk about rejecting the diet mentality.

First, you have to hit “diet rock bottom.”  You’ve realized it’s not working and that there is not one single diet that’s going to “fix” you.  You stop believing that there’s a magic cure just around the corner.  You don’t go to the crazy acai berry sales pitch at a friend’s house.  You reject the idea that some magic powder that you sprinkle on your food will save you.  You are done with injections, potions and pills.  Maybe your spiritual side says, “God made this body, He must’ve known what He was doing.  I must have the power inside of me to nourish my body the way it needs to be nourished.”  Maybe your logical side says, “I was born knowing how to eat what my body needs and how to recognize and honor my hunger.  I can uncover or relearn what I knew when I was a toddler.”

So what are some things that might interfere with Rejecting the Diet Mentality?

The Diet Void

Many people diet as a way to control life.  Will your life feel chaotic without a diet?  Do you think that “this will be the one that will change my life forever!”?  Dieting can give you that rush, that belief that your life will be transformed because of the diet.  Do you “diet bond” with friends or family or co-workers?  You may need to recognize that giving up dieting might leave a hole in your life that you may need to fill with other things.

The One-Last-Diet Trap

This is it, this is the one, I will NEVER, EVER, EVER gain the weight back with this one.  This time the changes will be permanent.  “Just let me lose the weight this time and I’ll figure out how to keep it off later.”  You know that diets don’t work, don’t get sucked in. This one kind of makes me think of Valerie Bertinelli on that one prepackaged meal plan.  They sell it as if you’ll lose the weight and then LEARN how to keep it off.  You don’t learn how to eat from tasteless, portion controlled, prepackaged foods.  Realize that it happens the other way around.  You figure it out first.  (I’m going to be a nurse and then I’ll go to school to figure out how to do it.  Wait, what?)

Pseudo-Dieting

Ah yes, this is one of my favorites!  This is when people aren’t “on a diet” but still count carbohydrates or eat only “safe” foods or eat only before 6:00 pm or restrict whole groups of food or become a vegetarian just to lose weight.  Maybe you’ve decided that a “cleanse” isn’t a diet.  It’s all about losing weight and temporarily restricting calories, but it’s not a diet.  MmmHmmm.  Let me put it this way, unless you plan to live the rest of your life this way, it’s a diet.

The Dieter’s Dilemma

You probably understand this, but you may not have decided to reject it yet.  Two psychologists, John P. Foreyt and G. Ken Goodrick created the “Dieter’s Dilemma Model.”  It’s a cycle of Desiring to be Thin, Dieting, Cravings, Loss of Control, Regaining Lost Weight, Desiring to be Thin, Dieting, Cravings, Overeating, Regaining Lost Weight…  You get the picture.

What do you do?  You decide to give up dieting.

But HOW?

1. Recognize the biological damage dieting causes.  It slows our metabolism, we store more fat, it increases binges and cravings, it increases the risk of premature death and heart disease (Pardon me?  Yup, independent of all other factors, participants in the Framingham Heart Study who were chronic dieters and regardless of initial weight had “higher overall death rate and twice the normal risk of dying from heart disease [than nondieters].”)  (pg. 49)  Dieting also causes satiety cues to atrophy (In English, please…Dieting makes it so we don’t notice that we’re not hungry anymore.)  And drum roll please, dieting causes us to regain weight in our midsection, you know, the bad place to carry extra weight.
2. Recognize the psychological and emotional damage dieting does.  Eating disorders, stress, lowered self-esteem, erosion of self-trust and confidence.
3. Be aware of “diet mentality.”  Intuitive eating doesn’t require willpower, dieting does.  Talking about or thinking about willpower means you’re in “diet mentality.”
4. Forget about “being obedient.”  You may want to have the grilled chicken instead of the ribeye, but if your wife tells you to, you’re going to want to rebel.  With Intuitive Eating, you are in charge.
5. Get rid of the dieter’s tools.  Do you use the scale to weigh your self-worth?  Does that number have hold on you for good or bad?  Get rid of it.  (I know, I had this as one of my myths, but I also said that the scale does more damage than good when dealing with disordered eating and body image.  This is one of those times.  Chronic dieting is disordered eating.)  Get rid of your food journal if it’s tying you down to “diet thinking.”  (pgs. 46-58)

I get that rejecting the diet mentality is incredibly difficult.  We live in a society that almost assumes that “we’re on a diet.”  Well, actually, society’s gotten more clever and has agreed to call “dieting” a bad thing.  So we live in a society that assumes we’re being restrictive and exerting enormous willpower to achieve “good health” that will be best demonstrated in new jeans and fabulous bikini.  As my 7th grade self says, “Same dif.”

Next time I’ll talk about Honoring Your Hunger.  Yep, I’m going to tell you to eat when you’re hungry.

May you be happy and healthy,

Regan