✨If your diet isn’t working for you and the advice that you get is to…Keto harder. Paleo harder. Vegan harder. Count harder. WHATEVER harder. Run. There are lots of things that *can* work, but everyone is so different. Just telling you to “diet harder” puts the blame on you, assuming that the diet should work and feel good for you and everyone on the planet. Not the case. If the way you are eating doesn’t feel good or right for you, the answer probably isn’t to be more strict with that approach. Often, what’s much more helpful is making some gentle adjustments to fit YOUR body’s needs, goals, lifestyle, and values.Just like we can’t expect all clothes to fit us perfectly off the rack, nutrition needs to be tailored to you as an individual as well. Certainly, there are some basic foundational principles of nutrition that are important for everyone, but how you fit the pieces of the puzzle together can look different.Taking the time to learn to listen to how it feels eating certain types and amounts food will help you not only feel more informed, but help empower you to fuel your body well and meet the varying nutritional wants and needs in your life.If you’d like some tips for for how to start becoming more attune with your body and how foods make you feel, I’ve got a tool that you can use! It is an exercise I like to call “The Satiety Experiment.”Remember, “dieting harder” doesn’t automatically equate to better health and more awareness. It often just creates more restriction.💛Practicing mindfulness can help you learn what types and amounts of food help you feel amazing. The key here is practice and practice makes progress.
If you’re constantly thinking about food…I remember those days. All I thought about was food…Not in a quaint “I’m such a foodie” type of way. No, I thought about food constantly trying to carefully calculate the bare minimum I could eat to make sure I kept getting skinnier.I constantly felt stressed that any amount felt like “too much.”At that time, food felt evil. My mind spiraled and this was my constant inner self talk,“I am undisciplined and weak if I eat that.”“I am dumb, ugly, and worthless, so why should I reward myself with something that looks so good?”“I just don’t deserve to eat that.”Day in and day out, those thoughts constantly bombarded my mind.It’s hard to “listen to your body” when your mind won’t shut up.Nutrition is both a science and an art. The art of eating can often feel the most challenging. That’s why most people tend to focus on the diets because the science feels tangible and like something you can control.Nutrients and science are important, but they don’t have to rule your life to be a healthy person.Learning the art of eating is essential, so you don’t have to battle the constant negative noise bombarding your head about food and your body. When that dark cloud is lifted by repairing your relationship with food, listening to your body becomes a REAL lifestyle and not some woo-woo, mystical fantasy.✨
