61: How To Break Free From Restrictive Diet Mentality

A common recurring theme I see with my clients is a struggle to break free from diet mentality. Restrictive diet mentality is the belief that there are "right" and "wrong" foods you 'should' eat in order to lose weight or maintain your weight. 

When use restrictive diet mentality to lose/maintain weight, what happens is you prioritize choosing those virtuous foods above your own internal tastes and preferences. When we ask ourselves to consistently eat virtuous foods over what we prefer to eat, we experience scarcity thinking. There is manager you telling you all of the things you should be eating and then there is the part of you wants what she wants. This pits inner and outer selves against each other; and what we see is the dynamic of 'being good' for a while, which is always followed by 'being bad, overeating, feeling out of control, and self judging. We can participate in restrictive deit mentality for decades, even though we all know this approach is flawed, as evidenced by people we know who eat "unvirtuous" foods yet maintain a healthy weight.

How do I know when my clients are grappling with diet mentality? One sign is that they make a food plan, but then don't end up following it consistently. Another sign is a resistance/fear of putting the bad/unvirtuous foods on their plan; even though they might be eating those foods daily without permission. A third sign is using shaming/judging self talk to increase compliance with virtuous choices. This disconnect between planned and actual eating is a key indicator you might be  stuck in restrictive diet mentality.

Your coach homework for this week is to take a look at your food planning from the previous seven days and identify any foods they overate. Plan for those foods intentionally this week, by practicing enjoying them with permission and following your hunger and fullness cues. The goal is to create emotional satisfaction in the experience of eating those foods with permission and safety; which tells the brain the way to lose weight sustainably, for life, is to tune into your own choices internal cues for answering the questions of what, when, and how much to eat.