3 Steps to Healing Your Relationship with Food

If you Googled “worlds longest running diet drama series” I’m pretty sure you’d see my smiley face.

On my fifteenth birthday I remember attempting to stretch my over-sized, shoulder pad embellished, eighties fashion jumper down low enough to cover my booty.

By the age of seventeen I had tried (and failed) over twenty different diets and by the age of thirty, I think I had lost and gained the same 10 to 20 kilos over 10 to 20 times.

My entire life history has been one long diet.

It took me a while to figure it out, but after thirty years of torturing myself with diet after diet, the proverbial light bulb in my head FINALLY went off…

DIETS. DON’T. WORK.

That much, I knew. But what I didn’t know, was if I didn’t diet, if I didn’t restrict, if I didn’t deprive… how on earth would I EVER lose the weight I so desperately wanted to lose? How would I get rid of my jelly belly pudge and cottage cheese thunder thighs?

As my fingers caressed the wrapper on ANOTHER block of chocolate, I wondered… was there ANYTHING that could stop me from eating it?

It was off the back of these questions that, out of pure necessity, I learned a new set of actions around ending the war with food.

Because I hated my body so much and because I simply couldn’t stand the struggle with food any longer, I created a set of suggested actions to help me tune out of the drama of emotional eating and tune back in to the TRUE desires of my body.

Want in on my hottest tips to end the war with the refrigerator?

Here we go…

1. You don’t have to be PERFECT

We all want to fix and change the parts of ourselves that we deem imperfect. But seriously, who are WE to heap judgement on our bodies and decide that they are not worthy of our love and acceptance? This is especially difficult if, like me, you have a (strong) tendency towards perfectionism. The catch 22 is that what you see as perfect today will be imperfect tomorrow, so you might as well let that little bag of potato fries go. Life is not black and white. Your body is not RIGHT or WRONG simply because you decide that it is. It’s the body you have right now, so embrace it.

2. Add things IN, rather than take them OUT

In my previous life as a Holistic Health and Weight Loss Coaching, I like to use a concept we woo-woo folk call “crowding out”. Crowding out means that every time you add in something shiny and new, something old and crusty will naturally fall away. So rather than rely of that fickle little beast called “will power” to quit eating chocolate fried steak (eeew!), instead add “in” more of the good stuff (a.k.a. whole foods) to your daily repertoire. As your body gets the vibe of who’s actually in charge of your food making decisions, you’re taste buds will adjust to enjoying more nutritious foods and, just like magic, the not so great stuff naturally falls away…

Try adding in some delicious snacks like my Carrot & Walnut Paleo Muffins or Raw Energy Bars. Fill yourself up with a Coconut Chia Chai Latte or Strawberry Weight Loss Milkshake. And don’t even CONSIDER telling yourself you can’t have the choc chip cookies, it will only end in a full blown binge-fest (along with a free serve of guilt. Yup, that one’s on the house).

Try something new every week. It doesn’t have to be FOOD either. Pick a new activity you will ENJOY and add that into your day. Sometimes just a five minute nap or a moment sitting in the sun or a coffee with a girlfriend is enough to fill the gnawing hole in your stomach.

3. Another diet is NOT the answer

Diets are (A) Not fun and (B) based on fear, deprivation and guilt. Diets don’t teach you how to listen to your body, how to trust yourself or your hunger, or how to even know if you truly ARE hungry? But what a diet WILL do is mess with your head so that you find yourself scarfing down an entire tub of ice cream purely because you found a new diet on Google last night so you need to eat ALL the food in the house.

Remember, every diet is followed by and equal and opposite binge. You cannot restrict yourself in one area without falling out of balance in another. For me, every diet attempt was followed by a huge-ass binge (and also, a huge ass).

My advice to you… Ditch the Diet and end the struggle for good!

Doors are open NOW to the BIGGEST ROUND of Ditch the Diet EVER and the 50% VIP SAVINGS are in full swing!

If you’re ready to join the HUNDREDS OF WOMEN world wide who have already changed their relationship with food, for life… you can join us here.

It’s time.