Diets actually cause food to become extremely important to the dieter. So important, that some people get to the point where all they think about is food, even when they are off the diet. They believe this is because they are not dieting well enough and often seek a different diet. No one is telling them what, exactly, about diets is causing this to happen.
Eventually, a person who restricts their food intake becomes so accustomed to dieting as a way of life, they lose touch with their natural relationship with food. They find it difficult to be comfortable around food, except to diet, which perpetuates the cycle.
The Vicious Cycle
Then they end up gaining weight. It is because of the diet, but they blame themselves. It becomes a vicious circle of weight cycling. Dieters eventually feel guilt and shame about eating even a normal amount of food. It is actually quite common that (over)eating becomes the only way to feel better.
Both of us saw this repeatedly, no matter how skilled we became at planning and directing diets. To save our sanity, and our client's sanity, we had to do something differently.
Shift to Attuned Eating
Slowly, we began to shift our focus to an attuned eating approach. We started telling others about our successes, and found other healthcare practitioners were making these same changes, with equal success.
This attuned eating approach is often called the “nondiet” approach. (Many "nondiets" are actually diets in disguise, including some commercial weight loss programs.)
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The Recovery Journey A labyrinth ... consists of one pathway that loops back repeatedly upon itself, reaches the center and then winds its way back out again. The women on the road to recovery from disordered eating began with a journey that required them to follow a twisting, turning, winding path to their centers. It required them to leave behind old perceptions of themselves that they had adopted from others and to reclaim their own inner authorities. Finding their centers, the essence of who they were as women, was not the end of their journey. They then had to exit the labyrinth, integrating this new vision with a new way of being in the world. -- Dr. Anita Johnston, Eating in the Light of the Moon
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Compare Approaches
Compare the nondiet approach (intuitive eating) with traditional dieting. Nondiet will provide you with the freedom around food and weight that you have been seeking. Our web site is dedicated to bringing you the information that will help you make these changes.
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