Intuitive Eating is NOT Food Freedom. Here's What Is by Georgie Beames

Let’s talk about food freedom and what that really looks like. 

 
Read the transcript here or skip to watch the video below.
 

I see women looking in the wrong places with the wrong language and wrong definition. Because we haven’t been taught this stuff; we‘ve only been taught about dieting

So here’s the thing: if you’ve been dieting for many years, then chances are you have either been in control or out of control around food and weight. 

Now, being in control is when you’re following the diet and the rules and rigidity. Out of control is doing the opposite, like eating anything and everything in sight. We find ourselves going back and forth.

This is not food freedom. 

This causes active harm. 

Because we can only stay in control for a short period of time, only to end up out of control at some stage.

For many women, in control happens on Monday morning while out of control happens on Monday night or when we are in control Monday to Friday afternoon and then out of control Friday night to Monday morning. 

It might not happen tomorrow or next week, but it will happen. And we spend more time being out of control than we do in control. 

When we are out of control, we don’t feel good about ourselves. We beat ourselves up, we put on weight and it affects all areas of our life. 

And it’s not a nice way of being. 

I’m a big believer in a non-dieting approach, which means we’re not participating and playing with this control.

Because whether you’re in control or out of control, it’s different sides of the same coin. 

They are both avoidance and distraction strategies. 
This is not food freedom. 

So what happens is, many women get to a point where they say:

“I just don’t want to diet again. I can’t do it. I know that diets don’t work. I want to have a different relationship with food and I want to be feel free.” 

What happens then is we stop dieting but we have this all or nothing thinking set up that doesn’t go away. 

The result is we end up being out of control. 

And sometimes we can mistake that for food freedom. 

Being in this space does not mean we have achieved food freedom. So, what is going on when this happens?

Often when we stop dieting, there’s a rebound effect. It’s like a hangover of dieting

When we decide to stop dieting, which is a great decision by the way, we end up in the other extreme, almost rebelling against dieting.

We eat anything and everything in sight. For instance, we have six big biscuits with our cup of tea.

Our awareness is still in our head. 

When we are dieting and our awareness is in our head,following the rules, we are disconnected from our body, disconnected from our feelings, disconnected from our needs. 

The same occurs on the other end: our awareness is still our head. We’re disconnected from your body, disconnected from our feelings, disconnected from our needs. 

It’s just the different side of the same coin, just playing out in different types of behaviors. 

Both of these behaviors are driven by fear and driven by anxiety. 

This is not food freedom. 

So we need to do some deeper work for us to find food freedom and do the processing on the blocks and barriers that are getting in the way.

In this example, the all or nothing thinking is getting in the way. This thinking and mindset does not disappear just because you give up dieting. 

This is where I see a lot of women struggle when they take on an intuitive eating approach. They say:

“It’s not working because I’m still having six biscuits a day. I’m still eating in this way.”

You’re on your path and it’s great steps forward, but you need more. 

You need the psychological strategies to do the deeper work, to process this so you can gain food freedom. 

And what that looks like is it’s being in the middle: 

It’s about balance

It’s about flexibility

It’s about tuning in.

It’s about looking at the reasons as to why we’re eating. 

And it’s about having the effective psychological strategies to process the blocks and barriers getting in the way.

In this example, the barrier is the all or nothing thinking. 

And when we do the processing around this theme of control, we recognise that what’s going on is that if we are not dieting and in control, then we are out of control. 

And so we stay in this space. 

We need the effective strategies to process that out so we can actually be calm and free around food. We can tune in and we’re okay with one biscuit because we’re not rebelling against dieting

So if you want to learn more about this approach, it’s super powerful. It’s only 10 minutes a day. 

Come check out the link and find out some more. I’d love to show you what true food freedom looks like.

 

Want natural control over food…for good?

Check out the Brain Food Re-wired 28 Day Program:

https://foodbrainrewired.com/

For busy women who want natural control over food by eliminating bad eating habits and ending their all or nothing thinking!

 
Bye for now!