Guest post: Renee Little from @the.ambitious.rd
At the recent retreat I presented the topic of “how to become your own diet guru.” I think the content surprised most participants because we did not speak about nutrition in a traditional sense. I didn’t talk about specific foods to eat, or amounts or anything really about food.
To become your own diet guru you need to challenge what you know about nutrition. My first recommendation which I will speak to here is to allow ALL foods into your diet without restriction. The reason why this is the first step is because there are so many fears around eating certain foods that many of us create a mental and physical restriction around these foods.
A physical restriction (not eating the food) and mental (thinking “I shouldn’t eat that”) both set up an environment for the restriction -> binge pendulum. This means that the more you restrict, the more your body drives you to eat.
So release the restriction, release the binge and then eating can become less stressful, less emotionally charged and more neutralized.
Along with this recommendation is to “honor your hunger.” This means not questioning hunger but eating when you feel hungry. This starts to build trust in your body. Your body starts to recognize that it is getting food when it wants food and again things will come more into balance.
The more you fight your body by restricting food and ignoring it's hunger signals, the more it will push back. When you embrace all foods, stop restriction and honor your hunger eating starts to come into balance and feel more neutral.
What are your thoughts? If you attended the recent retreat have you put any of these tips into practice? What was your experience?
