The biggest fear I hear is this: ‘If I stop, I’ll just eat all the time and put on weight.’
It makes sense you’d think that. Because right now, that’s exactly what it feels like would happen.
But that’s not because you can’t be trusted around food. It’s because of what dieting has been doing to you.
Why Restriction Backfires
When you’ve been restricting, holding back, trying to be ‘good’, of course you think about food all the time. Of course you end up overeating. Of course it feels like once you start, you can’t stop.
Your body thinks food is inconsistent. So when food is available, it pushes you to eat more.
This is because your body is trying to protect you from a famine, which is what restriction looks like to it. So when food is abundant, it wants you to eat as much as it can, because it doesn’t know when your next meal is coming.
What Happens When You Stop Dieting
– You naturally eat less because you’re not bingeing, and over time, if you have weight to lose, you lose weight.
– You enjoy your food more. There’s no guilt about eating certain foods.
– You choose whether you want to eat, instead of feeling driven to keep going.
– You learn to eat, enjoy it, and move on.
A Simple Place To Start
Stop trying to fix yesterday. You don’t have to make up for what you ate then.
You don’t need to skip meals to save calories. You don’t have to be ‘good’ 100% of the time.
Because every time you try to ‘fix it’, you are actually setting yourself up for the next overeating episode.
Instead, just make your next meal as nutritious as you can, the same as you would on any other day.
