If you have been dieting your whole life, counting calories and restricting food groups such as carbs, it can be almost impossible to imagine having freedom around food and not dieting. But it is possible to create a free and healthy relationship with food as I have.

 

A relationship where you are in control and healthy decisions are no longer a mental effort to make.

 

It also creates space for you to enjoy the foods that are your favourites without feeling bad about it later.

 

Not dieting doesn’t mean you don’t have to do anything differently. It doesn’t mean you can keep eating how you’re eating and expect a different result.

 

Patience is Key:

 

The problem I see most often is that people who have been stuck in a diet cycle find it hard to have patience. Learning a mental and emotional approach to eating that goes against what they have spent their lives doing. This can be extremely frustrating when they don’t see results immediately. Rather than looking at the scale every week, it is important to learn to measure other benefits of your healthy new lifestyle.

 

You have to be willing to commit to the change and not just the fat loss:

 

Many people who have been dieting forever want to rush the process and think they are committing but really their core goal is just to lose weight. They aren’t really committed to the change, just the weight loss. This doesn’t work because they take on nutritional changes without doing the mental work. Usually trying to implement too many at once…..Suddenly it feels like a diet rather than a change in your approach to food. Big difference!

 

You have to be willing to change your eating habits:

 

Not dieting is also not a license to binge. You don’t lose weight by doing what you’ve always done. There are changes of course that have to happen. But how you make those changes and how slowly you introduce them plays a key role in your success. One of the biggest problems I see with dieters is that they want to introduce all the changes at once, they can’t see how these changes will add up in one month, two months, three months and beyond.

 

If you aren’t ready to truly change your mental approach, and all you want is fat loss then it probably isn’t the approach for you.

 

If you aren’t ready, you aren’t ready. There are lots of things you can do to start to prepare yourself for this approach. It is important to try and get into the headspace for it before you begin. Are you willing to set aside your focus on fat loss? Ask yourself what your expectations truly are. How do you feel about not dieting anymore? It can be a massive life change for you if you have spent your whole life restricting and dieting.

 

You have to trust the process and be willing to let go:

 

It can be the biggest challenge to just let go of everything you have learned from every diet book you ever tried. Over the years you probably have decided that everything is bad for you. Perhaps you don’t eat enough throughout the day so by the evening you binge. If you have spent your life restricting foods then it can be really hard to break the associations you have with ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods. This can cause you to put up resistance, decide this isn’t working for you and give up. You have to believe that you can do this and not hold back.

 

The good news is that once you have made the changes, amazing things start to happen!

 

The foods that you once felt guilty about will hold no power over you because you are in control.

 

You will lose weight and not feel deprived. You can enjoy your food without feeling greedy. There will no longer be room for habits that supported your weight gain. Quite simply you will enjoy food again on your own terms without feeling like it has a hold over you!

 

If you are thinking of learning to stop dieting then I would love to hear from you about your biggest challenges.

 

As always, drop me comment below, plus don’t forget to join my private Facebook Group if you haven’t done so already……and remember The Full-Bodied Evolution Members Club has a wealth of materials and a growing community of like-minded people to help you on your weight loss journey! Plus, you can always find me on both Instagram and Pinterest for more lifestyle food and fitness tips!

….and don’t forget to listen to The Full-Bodied Evolution Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!