Are you constantly yo-yo dieting? Where you always trying the newest diet or trend? Keep reading to learn how to stop dieting for good.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the diet cycle. They’re satisfying because they allow for little to no ambiguity, and they’re addicting because they give you quick, fast results. But unfortunately, the results never last. As soon as you reach the last day of your diet, you go, “back to normal”, and find yourself right back at square one.
This constant cycle can be exceptionally frustrating and feel never-ending. But thankfully, it can be stopped with balanced eating.
How to Stop Dieting
To learn how to stop dieting, you need to learn sustainable, maintainable habits pertaining to food. You need to ditch the short-term, diet mindset and learn how to find balance. Keep reading to learn how you can get started.
5 Steps to Take to Stop Dieting for Good
Take these 5 steps to stop dieting and build a balanced relationship with food. Each step will teach you how to reshape your relationship with food so you no longer need to rely on diets or detoxes. Instead, you’ll have the confidence you need to trust your own eating habits and learn how to stop dieting for good.
Prioritize Both Nourishment and Enjoyment Consistently
We need a combination of both nourishment and enjoyment in order to sustain and maintain balanced eating habits. When one is prioritized and the other is restricted, we’re left feeling imbalanced and uneasy. Diets rely on an exaggeration of nutrition information. They take one variable in the equation and zoom in, making it appear to be the only variable of importance.
For example, they may overaccentuate nourishment and completely demonize enjoyment. Will you see results quickly? Absolutely. But will you feel mentally at peace, be able to enjoy all parts of your life, and feel free around food? Absolutely not.
The same goes for the opposite end of the spectrum. If you decide to ditch diets and begin prioritizing enjoyment over nourishment, the same sentiments will return. You’ll wonder how you ended up so far away from your health and wellness goals, and crave nourishment. This leads to the start-and-stop cycle that diets want you to be in.
Instead, prioritize both from the start. Incorporate enjoyment in your nourishment, and vice versa. Do so in a way that feels right and natural to you, rather than forced and restrictive. Finding balance is one of the best ways to learn how to stop dieting.
Ditch the Food Rules
Food rules and diets go hand in hand. One cannot survive without the other. As soon as you learn to identify and negate food rules, you’re one step closer to leaving the diet cycle behind. Food rules are definitive, exaggerated statements regarding food items. Such as, “I can never eat starchy carbohydrates at night.”, or, “I’m not allowed to have any chocolate in the house.”.
These rules are almost always created with good intentions. They’re geared towards improving habits and leading a healthy lifestyle. But the problem is that they’re restrictive in nature. And they’re usually restricting things you inherently enjoy, want, or need.
Rules like these are always broken, and they can result in an, “off the bandwagon”, type of feeling. Which as we’ve learned, propels us to try again and start the diet back up on Monday. From now on, remove the rules from food, and you’ll start to feel at ease with balance so you no longer feel compelled to diet.
Stop Thinking about Food as Good or Bad
In the diet realm, food that is nourishing is considered to be good, whereas food that is enjoyment-based is considered to be bad. In reality, this isn’t the case. Food is simply food. It’s either a source of nourishment, a source of enjoyment, or a combination of both. But this type of balance pulls you away from dieting, which diets don’t want you to do.
Diets want you to view things through a black-and-white lens. They want you to feel guilty when you don’t do what they tell you to do. This is what keeps you coming back again and again! If you can learn to remove the morality from food, and therefore remove the guilt cycle, you can learn how to stop dieting.
Listen to your Hunger and Satiety Cues Consistently
Consistency is the key to this tip. Your hunger and satiety cues should be the primary tool you use to determine how much you eat and when you eat. Diets, on the other hand, will tell you that there’s a specific, strict schedule you should be following.
Whenever you try to abide by one of these schedules, it eventually stops working. Maybe life gets in the way and you can’t make it work, or maybe you simply can’t deny yourself food any longer. Whatever the cause, you’re then left confused and wondering how much and when you’re supposed to eat.
Instead of following a schedule, tap into your personal cues. What does hunger feel like to you? What about satiety? When do you feel it? How often do you feel it? What does it feel like when you overeat or ignore your hunger cues? The more you get to know your cues and start to abide by them, the closer you are to learn how to stop dieting.
Stop Following Fad Diets and Trends
The newest diet or trend will always sound enticing. It will sound like it’s going to completely change your life and solve all of your problems. It’s marketing! It’s supposed to sound like that!
If you continue to jump ship and hop on the latest fad diet every time a new one comes out, you’ll never be able to ditch the diet cycle. Instead of continuing on this trajectory, start to become confident in your own capabilities. Lean into evidence-based nutrition, mindful eating, and a balanced relationship with food so you can nourish your body with ease. Once you have this confidence, you’ll never feel compelled to try another diet again.
The Takeaway
Diets are created to keep you coming back and wanting more. They give you a taste of the end result you’re looking for, but then take it away just as quickly. If you follow these 5 steps we’ve just reviewed together, you’ll have the knowledge and confidence to stay away from diets for good.
Do You Want to Experience More Balance in your Food Choices?
Then find your balanced eating type!
Take this 45-second free quiz to find out which balanced eating archetype you are, and what your unique type needs to maintain balance with the way you nourish yourself. That way, you can finally be free from food and diet obsession, have peace with food, maintain a balanced weight, and cultivate a positive relationship with food and your body.