Have you ever decided to go on a diet and then found yourself inhaling four blocks of chocolate, 2 egg McMuffins and a serve of cheesy fries… before breakfast?

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

At seventeen I had tried (and failed) over twenty different diets and by the age of thirty I had lost and gained over 300 kilos.

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.

But 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 jiggly belly and thunder thighs?

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 for permanent weight loss?

Here we go…

1. Another diet is NOT the answer

Diets are based on fear, deprivation and guilt. Diets don’t teach you how to listen to your body, how to trust your hunger or how to even know if you truly ARE hungry?

Diets are perfect for messing with your head so that you find yourself scarfing down an entire tub of ice cream purely because your latest diet says you can’t.

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 binge of MAMMOTH proportions. Of course I ended up fatter and more miserable than before I even started the diet.

My advice to you… Ditch the Diet and move on to step number 2

2. Add things IN, rather than take them OUT

If you’ve never heard of the concept called “crowding out”, then your life is about to get a whole lot better in the next 4.2 seconds!

Crowding out means that when you add in something new, something old will naturally fall away.

So rather than use “will power” to cut out the chocolate or fried steak or chocolate covered fried steak (eeek!), instead add “in” more good, nutritious whole foods. As your body starts to crave and enjoy more nutritious foods and you begin to recognize that, 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. Don’t tell yourself you can’t have the choc chip cookies, it will only end in a full blown binge-fest.

Any creature that feels restricted or deprived or “caged in” will naturally want to rebel and that’s exactly what the diet/binge cycle is. Of course it’s topped with a steaming serve of guilt which, in turn, leads to more restriction, more binging and thus the crazy cycle continues.

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.

And if you’re thinking that “healthy” foods won’t taste good, think again, baby!

Add some Quinoa Pumpkin Salad with Roast Chickpeas to your meal or try some Raw Cherry Ripe Brownies next time you get a hankering for something sweet. It’s all about allowing yourself the freedom to experiment with new and natural foods. In time the old cravings will fall along the wayside and a whole new and effortless way of eating will emerge.

3. 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 is perfect today will be imperfect tomorrow, so you might as well let it 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.

If you’re looking for even more weight loss tips that you can slot right into your daily routine, then check out my latest Five Minute Fat Loss Secrets.

Right now you can join the women who are blitzing their weight loss in under 5 minutes a day (yup, amazing but true!)

Seriously! Why WOULDN’T you want to be a part of this?!!

Just hit the link here to find out more.

Are You STILL Struggling With Your Weight?

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to ditching the diet and overcoming emotional eating?

Let me know in the comments below!

Here’s to ditching the diet!