Welcome to How to Love Your Body, the podcast that guides you out of diet culture, into a lifestyle of intuitive eating and towards a life of wellness without the obsession.

A big concern for many people is that the first phase of this work can feel a little “unhealthy” at times. Eating more than usual and often foods that you didn't allow yourself to eat before. Many people take a break from working out as well. All of this PLUS the idea that you’re letting go of the ideal body you've been working towards for the past 10-30 years, that can feel scary and a little icky.

So if you’ve started your journey towards intuitive eating but isn’t feeling very good physically this is the episode for you.

What is the goal with intuitive eating? What is the end game of undieting?
First and foremost it is about letting go of the diet mentality. This is #1 always, it’s about untangling yourself from the harmful messaging that dieting is healthy, that thinner is better and that we have long term control over our weight.

This awareness and new way of thinking is the basis of this work.

However, people can often get stuck in being aware of the diet mentality but living with one foot in and one foot out - often without even knowing it.

 

How can you tell if you’re half in and half out?
 
You are allowing all foods but it doesn’t feel good physically

You’re understanding that you can’t control your body size like you were told you could but you also don’t trust that your body can handle itself

You don’t feel at peace with food - it’s still something you worry about quite often


When we are half in and half out of the diet mentality (it can be hard to uproot all of the beliefs and thoughts that we bring with us from diet culture - but it’s absolutely possible, don’t worry), we cannot take the final steps to wellness without the obsession which MOST people are looking for - and if this is something you don’t care about that is entirely fine as well.

We have done 2 polls on our instagram recently and 98% percent of people say this is what they are working towards wellness without the obsession WWTO.

So we are diving into some things you can work on to steer yourself towards wellness without it ever coming from a place of fear, inadequacy and shame like diet culture teaches us.

What are the things we need to do in order to find wellness in this intuitive eating work?
Motivations MUST move from a “fixing” mindset to an “honoring” mindset

Meaning:

Dieting, weight loss and typical “health” teachings come from a place of fixing and fear. Your body isn’t good enough you need to fix it, those foods are so bad for you, cut this out, remove that from your diet, workout more to burn more calories. You need to be smaller, fitter, and look different…. These motivations of fear, shame and fixing burn out really fast. They also lead to all or nothing thinking, keeping us trapped in the cycle.

So instead we want to incorporate wellness from a place of self compassion and abundance. Instead of needing to fix, you want to ADD things in that honor yourself and your body. So instead of thinking that anything is wrong, we come at this work from an understanding that you are complete and whole just the way you are AND how do you want to feel? What can you ADD to make you feel good and enjoy life to its fullest?

Instead of restriction or “willpower” this type of wellness must always be an addition.

Examples:

Adding a salad with your pizza

Adding a walk in after sitting at your desk all day

Adding a nap when you’re tired

Adding certain foods that help with any conditions you may be struggling with


The body does not retaliate against adding but it will backfire when you use restriction to try to get to a place of wellness.

2. Letting go of shoulds and asking yourself what do I actually WANT?

This is a tricky one for a lot of people. Sometimes when we say to let go of all rules and all shoulds this leads to a period of rebelling and that is comple