The Strong[HER] Way | Healthy nutrition and habits for moms, routines, strength training for women

Create food freedom with the in this beginner's guide to mindful and intuitive nutrition

• Alisha Carlson • Episode 180

Share episode

Ever feel like you're waging a war with your waistline, trapped in an endless battle of calorie counting and guilt over every bite of food?

We're tearing down the walls of restrictive dieting and building a foundation for a joyous and intuitive relationship with food.

Join me as I guide you through the Mindful Eating Kickstart Guide, an empowering journey that promises freedom from diet culture and the reclaiming of your body's intuitive wisdom.

We'll confront the deep-seated origins of body insecurities and embark on a path to food freedom, where guilt and shame no longer dictate your plate.

Shifting the spotlight away from the scale and onto self-compassion, we dive into the non-diet lifestyle and the art of mindful eating.

Together, we'll untangle the diet mentality that keeps us obsessed with numbers and 'safe' foods, and instead, learn to trust our body's hunger signals.

Discover how to detox from negative media, embrace moderation, and address the emotional ties to our eating habits.

It's about partnering with your body, not punishing it, and learning to savor the pleasures of eating without the side dish of regret.

 We also talk about the importance of movement as self-care and the joy it brings when detached from the diet dogma. 

I'll share practical strategies for ditching the food police and cultivating a peaceful coexistence with all foods, fostering a mindset where self-care trumps calorie counts.

 So, tune in and be inspired to make lifestyle choices rooted in love for your body, because the road to mindful eating is paved with kindness, curiosity, and compassion, not restrictions.

Speaker 1:

Hey guys, welcome to the Strong Her Way to Eat, move and Live. Here we talk all things food freedom, fitness and life transformation, helping you heal your relationship to food, exercise your body and yourself. It is great to be here with you this week. I hope that you have been well this week. I hope that you are enjoying whatever season of life that you're in. This week we have a special treat for you. I am reading to you the audio of the Mindful Eating Kickstart Guide, which is your introductory guide to a more mindful and intuitive approach to nutrition. You can access this audio, as well as the PDF and a four-week mini course, for free when you download the Strong Her Way app on both Google Play as well as the Apple App Store. However, I wanted to share with you, all of my podcast listeners, the treat of the book. I hope that it gives you some insight, some perspective maybe begins to challenge your way of thinking about food and approaching food. If you know that you are really just kind of done with the dieting, you're done feeling restricted around food, you're tired of feeling like it's always has been this constant battle, then this more mindful and intuitive approach might be just the ticket for you the thing that you have been looking for. So listen here, but then go immediately to your app store and grab the Strong Her Way app as well, so that you can access the course and have the different PDF for the ebook as well as the different worksheets. So, without further ado, let's go ahead and get into that audio book. Hey guys, welcome to the Mindful Eating Project Kickstart a mindful approach to intuitive and mindful nutrition. I am your coach, alicia Carlson, and I wanted to go through the ebook, reading it, so that you have it in an audio format as well, so you can listen to this like a podcast, and what I plan to do is also kind of give you some thoughts or some different things to think about as you are listening to this or reading it. That goes even deeper than what you have access to currently in the physical PDF of the book. So first let's go ahead and dive in. I am so stoked that you got your hands on this Kickstart guide to help you fast track your non-diet eating journey, which is basically what you would get if mindful eating and intuitive nutrition hooked up. This is exactly the kind of thing that I wish I would have had when I started out on my own non-diet eating journey. It would have saved me so much time and trial and error, but I am a firm believer. We are given different experiences in life so that we can help others.

Speaker 1:

My insecurities with my body and problems with food started a long time ago. From seeing images and magazines to the way women's bodies were talked about in my home, I got the message loud and clear that there are very specific ways a woman should and should not look. So from an early age, I began trying to manipulate my body with food and exercise to get it to look the way that it was quote-unquote supposed to. I bounced from one diet to the next, tried and failed many times to stick to a workout program to help me burn fat and lose the weight so that I would fit that ideal beauty standard. I had no idea all the ways my toxic thoughts about my body were harming me and later setting me up to become a fully disordered eater which unfortunately affects about 75% of women with body dysmorphia, meaning that I didn't even see my body as it was. I only ever saw everything that was wrong with it, desperate to feel good in my body, to be confident and to feel like I was beautiful, I became obsessed with creating the perfect body. Now, before you roll your eyes at the notion of creating a perfect body, please hear me out. I know that the perfect body doesn't exist, and you probably know that too, but I do not believe for a moment that we still do not try to achieve some level of perfection with our bodies, or at least feel like there is this perfect body, and it's our job to work our butts off to come as close to it as possible. So maybe we diet, we try all the detoxes, the latest workouts or wellness trends and oftentimes end up beating ourselves up when we don't measure up, when our results don't look like the Instagram influencer or the girl in the magazine. It's time we let all of that go so that we can become the women we were created to be. I believe that there is a way to be healthy, happy and living your life to the fullest, fully embracing the body you were given. This guide is perhaps the first step on your journey toward making that a reality for yourself, and I am so grateful that I get to be a part of that process. You can connect with me wherever you're hanging out on the internet by going to aliciacurlssoncom, we can connect on Instagram, facebook, there. If you want to take this deeper, then you can also set up your free one-to-one call on the connect page.

Speaker 1:

So what is intuitive nutrition with a mindful approach? The mindful eating project is a combination of intuitive nutrition and mindful eating. Intuitive nutrition encompasses mindfulness, when done correctly, and it allows you to listen to your body, letting it guide you with what to eat, how much to eat and when. Mindful eating, on the other hand, allows you to exercise self-control around food, rather than being ruled by food or the external food rules that diets oftentimes impose. Both mindful and intuitive nutrition encourage you to make food choices that will nourish and honor and respect your body. Mindful eating also allows you to fully experience the joy of eating while also seeking to honor and bless your body with food. Essentially, you get to choose what to eat based on your body's hunger cues and how that specific food makes you feel. It's so much easier to learn and to really eat in a way that honors your body when we are not operating by those external food rules and we are really kind of tuning in and listening and we don't feel that same kind of restriction around food. So it's throwing out the rules and restrictions of dieting and learning how to make decisions around food that make you feel good both inside and out.

Speaker 1:

What are the benefits? Research has shown that intuitive eaters are less prone to binge. Your body will settle at its healthiest and happiest weight, which really happens to be an easier weight for your body to maintain anyway. Less disordered eating habits are associated with intuitive and mindful eating, and you're likely to experience more body appreciation, self-compassion and optimism, as well as higher self-esteem. Mindful eating brings awareness and intention to your food choices. You'll naturally begin to practice portion control based on what your body needs, which means you will be eating the right amount for your body and your goals, without feeling super restricted or deprived around food. You're more likely to experience well-being on a regular basis. You'll develop proactive coping skills through mindfulness and following intuition, decrease the frequency of emotional eating, increase your good cholesterol, the HDL. You will feel in control around food without having to control what you're eating all the time, and eating begins to feel easy, simple and fun.

Speaker 1:

So how long will this take? This really can vary from person to person, because each of us have had a different experience with food and nutrition throughout our lives, we have all been exposed to diet culture in one way or another. However, it has impacted each of us in unique and varying ways. For some, they have engaged in dieting and disordered eating behaviors for most of their lives without even knowing it. For others, they've simply seen the messaging but maybe have only been minimally impacted by it for themselves. Because of this, there is no hard and fast rule here. I can tell you, the more deliberately you practice the habits and mindsets around mindful and intuitive nutrition, the quicker your results will come. Fully commit to the practices, habits and mindset shifts outlined in this guide and you will be well on your way. I know it may feel scary to let go and let yourself trust the process, but there is freedom waiting for you on the other side and we are here to help you get there as fast as possible.

Speaker 1:

Can you lose weight with mindful and intuitive nutrition? While it is possible to lose weight when you practice more mindful and intuitive nutrition, weight loss is usually not the primary focus. But don't be fooled People who consistently practice more mindful and intuitive eating behaviors are still improving their health, even if the weight isn't coming off. And now a little caveat to this, I think, as well, because if you are coming to this and you are wanting to lose weight, I think it's important to highlight that you absolutely can and you will lose weight if you follow the process, if you stick with it and you really lean into what I'm teaching you here. However, we want to avoid turning it into another diet and we will get into that a little bit more.

Speaker 1:

But sometimes what is helpful in this feel super counterintuitive. It feels like it's not going to work. But sometimes just kind of shelving the weight loss goal or taking away some of the pressure to have to lose the weight actually is what creates that speeding up for you. So while you may still have a weight loss goal or a fat loss goal and that is 100% fine when you are first kind of diving into this, it can be helpful to just not make that the primary focus, right. So maybe taking a break from the scale, not really weighing yourself, but really giving yourself an opportunity to get to know what foods work the best with your body, finding kind of that sweet spot in terms of how much to eat and really beginning to kind of heal that relationship with food after you come out of dieting. Okay, let's get back into the content here. So people who consistently practice mindful and intuitive eating behaviors are still improving their health, even if the weight isn't coming off, not to mention the other benefits experienced mentally and emotionally when food and body obsession are minimized. So if you find yourself constantly checking the mirror, constantly stressing out about the scale, then this can be a very welcomed break from all of that, but it might be a little bit scary in the beginning.

Speaker 1:

Part of the process of becoming a mindful and intuitive eater requires us to put weight loss goals on the back burner for just a little bit and instead focus on the things that we can fully control, aka our daily choices, habits and behaviors. Other than having this ideal weight that you might find at the scale and you're at that chart at your doctor's office your body really has more of an optimal weight range that it wants to be at. This can vary from five to 20 pounds. Now, while you may or may not lose weight initially, your body will find its happy place eventually. Your body comp can change even if the weight doesn't. Your health can improve even if the weight doesn't come off or you don't lose a certain amount of weight, and your body's happiest weight, shape or size may or may not really line up with society's ideas, with what the charts at the doctor's office say, and truthfully, in my experience it's going to be a weight that can be achieved and maintained without it constantly feeling like you are fighting your body, you're having to restrict food all of the time and you're not experiencing kind of those net negative effects oftentimes with diet and extreme weight loss.

Speaker 1:

So what is the non-diet lifestyle? It might help to first define what a dieting lifestyle looks like Now. Normally we are all about the results and the numbers and unfortunately this often leads us to doing things to our minds and bodies that actually aren't all that healthy long-term. The hyper focus on results only steals the joy and the moment of the journey and places so much unnecessary pressure on yourself to do things perfectly and to not fail. This really is a recipe for disaster. It's not that perfectionistic mindset and approach is not going to be something that is sustainable long-term In a non-diet lifestyle.

Speaker 1:

Instead of fixating on the numbers, you're focusing on cultivating and promoting health, enhancing behaviors, better body image and acceptance and a healthier relationship with food as well as yourself, by taking the pressure off of yourself to be a certain number or a certain size by a certain time. Eating healthy and having a healthy body is so much easier and way less stressful to achieve and maintain. You will be working with your body, so partnering with your body instead of working against it. You will be more conscious of your choices. You'll be able to eat in a way that feels relaxed and doesn't lead you to beating yourself up for making those bad choices around food. With a non-diet approach, like mindful and intuitive nutrition, you're also combating the negative health effects associated with dieting, including the following Food and body preoccupation, weight cycling or that yo-yoing, lower self-esteem, eating disorders and or disordered eating, weight stigma, discrimination, body dysmorphia, hyper focus on weight, size and appearance versus that sustainable, health promoting behaviors.

Speaker 1:

So, to prep you wanna think about detoxing your social media and other media feeds. Look for images or messaging that might trigger negative feelings towards your body or really create that urge to start a new diet. Practice moving away from food labels such as good or bad, clean or dirty. And once we move away from those food labels, we really can begin to look at foods more on a spectrum from maybe worst possible choice to the best, and practice making slightly better choices daily or at each meal, which on occasion might be to your surprise, but maybe it is actually eating the donut or going out to eat and having the hamburger. This allows you to practice self-control without feeling bad or guilty about your food choices, and really approaching it more from an experiment mindset or being more objective about your food choices. We temporarily want to suspend those ideas about weight loss, fat loss and other physical markers around transforming your body.

Speaker 1:

I know this can be so scary, especially if your physical appearance is a place you've often found your identity, your value or your worth. Trust me on this you will not be able to fully harness the power of mindful and intuitive nutrition if you are still subconsciously using it and approaching it as another diet. Give yourself full permission to eat all foods. Now again, I know how scary this is because, likely, you have certain foods you really don't trust yourself around and you're afraid you'll start eating and maybe never be able to stop. The reality is, for most of us, this isn't true. It may be a period of time, kind of known as the honeymoon phase. However, this is just the honeymoon phase and, like it wears off in any relationship, it will with food as well. Now, an important caveat to make here is that if you have an addictive personality, if you have struggled with addiction in the past, if you know that you have actual food addiction, then first I would encourage you to find somebody that can help you with that specific need, right. So an addiction specialist maybe finding an eating disorder specialist as well could be helpful. So, again, this is just about you knowing where you're at, knowing yourself and knowing what additional support you might need.

Speaker 1:

We wanna focus on also shifting the mental and emotional energy so those thoughts, feelings and beliefs around food, exercise and our body. Notice, essentially, when those negative thoughts pop up, when that the negative emotions are surfacing, and really practice neutralizing it by calling it out for what it is. So this is where we just wanna start to become a little bit more aware, notice and name the thoughts, the emotions that maybe those daily habits or behaviors that we either haven't really been all that aware of or we've been aware of it but we haven't really been ready to do anything about it yet, and really just practice kind of allowing and being with those negative things and not doing anything about them, right? So this is where journaling can be super helpful getting it out on paper, writing it down, creating some separation between yourself and those negative thoughts or those emotions, or when you notice that you have an urge or craving to do something, just giving yourself a moment to just kind of pause and take a look at it. That's gonna allow you to kind of break some of those automatic responses or reactions, rather, and allow you to respond a little bit more intentionally.

Speaker 1:

But if you have a history of using food to cope with negative emotions, then this is one of the first steps to breaking that urge to eat when you feel stressed, overwhelmed or burned out. So when you think about that, a lot of times we are driven to eat, either because we want to stop feeling negative or we want to feel more positive, right? So a lot of times, if we're at like a celebration dinner, you might be having a good time and you think that having more food or more drink will enhance and create more of a good time. On the other end of the spectrum, a lot of times we're kind of eating because we're bored, maybe we feel stressed, we feel anxious, we want to not feel those things, and so we cope by using food. So one of the first ways to kind of break that pattern or break that cycle is to notice some of these thoughts, notice some of these negative emotions that are coming up and just allow it to be there.

Speaker 1:

And essentially, what I'm asking you to do and this is the part where you're gonna wanna like shrink back a little bit is to feel the negative emotions and not be in a hurry to go fix it to feel better. This can be extremely uncomfortable. It is definitely a skill set. There are ways that you can learn how to process emotions. They say that an emotion really only lasts physically in our bodies for about 90 seconds. Anything after that is us recreating it or expanding it by ruminating, by rehashing what just happened, versus when we can really learn how to sit with an emotion, process it through. It can move through our bodies super quick. We can move on and then we're not engaging in these behaviors that end up kind of backfiring on us.

Speaker 1:

Okay, the next phase is starting. So to get started on your mindful and intuitive nutrition journey with these four steps One, we're gonna work on ditching the diet-minded thoughts. Two, we're gonna work on honoring our body's hunger and fullness cues, as well as recognizing those cravings. Three, we're gonna give ourself physical and emotional permission to eat. Four, we're gonna practice respecting our body through movement, food as well as our thoughts and our thinking. So, step one ditch the diet-minded thoughts, beliefs and behaviors.

Speaker 1:

A lot of times what this looks like is maybe meticulously counting or keeping track of macros, portions, points, calories, etc. The diet-minded belief or behaviors is eating maybe only safe foods, so the foods that you feel totally in control around, or foods that maybe you deem as healthy or good or clean, eating at only certain times of the day. So, even if you're hungry, right. So a lot of times we've been conditioned that you can only eat between these hours, or you can only eat a certain amount of times a day, or you have to eat every one to two hours, right, when I was bodybuilding, that was a big thing. It was like eat every couple of hours to stoke. You know what we thought. It was like stoking the metabolism. I think, knowing what I know now, I probably had wrecked my hormones. I think my blood sugar was all over the place, and so, again, this is another place where a lot of times, we can look healthy on the outside, but then there can be a whole lot of problems happening under the surface that we're not even aware of.

Speaker 1:

A lot of times, when we're dieting or we're kind of operating from that diet mentality, we think that we have to pay for overeating or overindulging with exercise, right? So how many times have you said, oh my gosh, I was so bad or I ate so much yesterday. I'm going to make up for it by burning more calories or restricting food at the next meal or the next day. Another way that dieting can look is cutting back on food for vacation, special events. All of that is, of course, with the hopes of losing weight and usually trying to lose weight really fast, right? So we want to think about what happens after the big day, what happens after the vacation. How are we going to rebound if we've been kind of restricting? A lot of times? I think of it like a rubber band. The harder you pull the rubber band back, the harder it's going to go in the other direction.

Speaker 1:

A lot of times, when we're kind of coming at this from a diet mentality, we try these health tips or diet tricks so eating celery or vegetables when you have a craving or when you're hungry for something else, drinking extra caffeine, chewing gum. A lot of times people will just try to drink water so that they don't feel hungry anymore. I'm all about drinking water, of course. I'm all about eating vegetables. I enjoy a great cup of coffee and I like to drink coffee as well.

Speaker 1:

We just really want to look at, like, what's so wrong with being hungry? If our hunger is just a signal that the body is sending to let us know that it needs some sustenance, it needs some energy, some fuel, some food coming in, then we have to kind of get curious like, why is being hungry such a bad thing? Now, of course, when I was dieting, being hungry is what I felt like I was all the time and it sucked. And the hungrier I was, the more restricting I was doing, oftentimes, the more I was actually thinking about food. So we want to just kind of shift, I guess, the way that we look at hunger. It's not bad, it's not something that we have to avoid. I mean, if you're constantly feeling hungry, then that's something to consider in terms of what are we eating, how are we eating? Is this impacting our blood sugar? Those kinds of things. And we also want to look at any time that we are tempted to follow new fad diets, really under the guise of health.

Speaker 1:

So in my opinion, weight loss has been highly conflated with health and it's there's been like that fear really put into us that if we gain weight we're automatically getting unhealthy. If we lose weight, then we're automatically improving our health. The problem is is that it doesn't really tell us anything about what the person is doing. There are all sorts of ways that we could lose weight. That would not be healthy and I would strongly not advise that. In the same breath, there are some people whose health actually improves when they gain a little bit of weight. And then hormones, all these different types of things, and we just really can't tell how healthy somebody is or isn't based on what they look like and based on weight loss alone. If somebody loses weight but they're losing lean mass or they're losing bone density, I'm not going to be super thrilled about that, right, I'm not going to be the best weight to actually lose. So it's just, you know, thinking that health can be improved not only by losing weight, and weight loss isn't really the end all be all.

Speaker 1:

So again, I guess with this it's just being mindful, being good consumers of the information out there, why we're doing what we're doing, and this is really where I think focusing on the behaviors, the habits, the daily actions is going to be so much better for our mental health, our emotional health and our physical health versus simply just focusing on the scale alone. So look for when you are tempted to make food choices based on what you've eaten earlier in the day or the week. So an example of this could be maybe eating only a salad for dinner because you had too many carbs earlier in the day, even though you're starving or you're wanting to eat vegetables really and truly like. When we start to cut through that diet chatter, our body will begin to naturally kind of guide us a little bit more with what we are needing to eat, using our metabolism, using hunger and fullness and even, to an extent, kind of using our cravings as well. Now, the caveat to this is, if I know that I haven't eaten a ton of vegetables kind of throughout the day, then I might intentionally make a very veggie laden heavy dinner just to make sure that I'm getting in enough fruits and vegetables throughout the day. It doesn't have to always be evenly spread out throughout the day, but again, you know, this is where being mindful, this is where approaching it with some freedom and some flexibility comes in not shaming or beating yourself up for not having vegetables throughout the day, and also knowing that it's going to blow and change from day to day from meal to meal.

Speaker 1:

Notice, if you have kind of the thought of like being good during the week or for a few days, and then you find yourself sort of vinging on the weekends or when you give yourself permission to eat certain foods. And finally a cycle that I really got into was this binge and restrict. So I would restrict, restrict, restrict, be good, quote, unquote, good for a few days and then finally it was like I couldn't take it anymore. The willpower was gone and I found myself. So it really does. I mean all this to say so far. It really does come down to your heart behind what you're doing and the motives. When, in doubt, really just check in with yourself. What story are you telling yourself? Why are you doing what you're doing, and is it really rooted in health and well being or is it some of that old kind of diet based thinking, step to honor your body's cues, so hunger, fullness, and also being able to kind of decipher and discern what those cravings are.

Speaker 1:

If you're anything like I was when I first started my mindful and intuitive eating journey, you may have no clue what it even feels like to be hungry anymore. So if you're really used to only eating a certain amount of calories and maybe you feel hungry all the time, if you are used to eating every few hours, then maybe you never actually feel hungry, you just know it's time to eat again. But this is where part of the process is relearning what hungry feels like in your body. It is completely normal when you first start listening to your body that you have no clue what it's saying to you, especially the more intense. You've dieted throughout your life and then, ironically, when you were dieting, you were probably hungry most of the time, but you got used to telling your body to quietly shut up and eventually maybe it even stopped sending the signals. We've been taught to suppress our hunger with those diet tricks like drinking water or coffee or eating celery or chewing gum. But hunger is not a bad thing. It is simply your body's way of letting you know that it needs some food.

Speaker 1:

Cravings are also not something that we need to freak out we don't need to beat ourselves up over, and they're not necessarily something to be ignored or suppressed either. It might seem counterintuitive, but learning how to honor your cravings a lot of times like preemptively so planning ahead for when you're going to want certain treats or joy eats, but not freaking out when you have a craving either. So this is where you're just noticing the craving, checking in like what kind of triggered that? Are you tired? Are you actually hungry? Are you feeling stressed? Is it a habit? Maybe there's some sort of nutrient deficiencies happening that can also trigger cravings. So when a craving pops up, instead of freaking out, I would just take that as an invitation to get curious. So just check in really quick what's going on, what do I need? And then, if you decide to still eat the thing that you're craving, at least now, we're making that decision from an intentional place.

Speaker 1:

A great question to ask before you eat is am I physically hungry or emotionally hungry right now? Is there something else that I may be needing instead of food? If you find yourself eating when you're not physically hungry, just ask why, and asking why from this place of curiosity right, not a place of judgment. We're not condemning ourselves, but really just asking why am I eating right now or why do I have the urge to eat right now when I'm not physically hungry? There might be something else going on and something else that you need that would actually be much more satisfying and gratifying than food. Maybe you need to take a break and nap, get some fresh air. Maybe you need to let your emotions out.

Speaker 1:

So having a good cry allowed, screaming to the pillow, doing some journaling, talking to a friend, having social interaction we just wanna get you kind of checking in with yourself and what's going on when you find yourself emotionally hungry, think back on your day. What happened that triggered you? When looking back, how do you feel about the events of the day? Are you feeling stressed, frustrated, angry? When eating, you want to feel satisfied from a fullness standpoint, and an emotional and mental one. So if you are only eating foods that you think you should be eating, but they're not foods that you necessarily enjoy, the chance of you feeling satiated and satisfied is not gonna be super high. So this is where I'm a firm believer that it's important to include foods that you enjoy, and maybe you just look at making small tweaks of like adding more veggies or adding more protein or fiber so that it's more filling but still has flavor, still has consistencies that you like. Eating really should bring some pleasure as well as being nourishing to the body. So food is really a huge part of pretty much every culture around the world, and so when we're thinking about this being a long-term lifestyle, it really has to be something that you are bought into right. And this is where cleaning up the dieting thoughts, really getting in tune with how certain foods make you feel what foods do you even like and then it's looking at making smaller tweaks to that.

Speaker 1:

Step three give yourself emotional and physical permission to eat. So this means physically allowing yourself to eat foods that you like, foods that you want, sometimes when you want it, and really without restriction or judgment. Pre-planning and pre-portioning can be helpful tools here as you learn to trust yourself around those off-limit foods again. So you basically in this step we're wanting to remove some of the fear around these off-limit foods or these forbidden foods, while building trust with yourself at the same time. So planning ahead, pre-portioning it, not maybe keeping these foods in the house at least for a while, so that you really are creating a little bit of friction, and then it's just practicing eating these foods a little bit at a time and just kind of getting some exposure. Now, if you are brand new to this, you might find that there are certain foods that once you start eating it and you're giving yourself permission, you notice that you will just kind of keep eating it.

Speaker 1:

Again, this kind of goes back to that honeymoon phase. There's this thing called habituation, where the more exposure we have to it, the less we actually want it. For me, I used to not be able to keep chips in the house because it was one of those things. If I started eating it, there is no way I was stopping. Now, a lot of times we have chips around that actually end up going stale because I forget about it, my kids forget about it, or the candy or different things like that. So again, if you have eating disorder, have an eating disorder, if you struggle with addiction or things like that, I would really advise you to be informing them or working with them as well as kind of going through this, because that's maybe gonna be slightly different than people that just have had the experience of dieting.

Speaker 1:

So again, I like to call this the honeymoon phase. This is because at first all of your previously off-limit foods seem so exciting and you might feel a little bit out of control around them. It's not going to last Again, just practice slowing down, being present, asking why am I eating this? And just after you take a bite, just kind of checking in with yourself. Again, it's all about slowing down and really tuning in to what's happening with you mentally, emotionally and physically. Eventually, those foods that you've restricted but felt addicted to won't have that same kind of power over you anymore. The honeymoon phase is important because it allows you to kind of get it out of your system. In fact, I have a client I was just talking to who keeps ice cream in the house now and she barely even eats it. She doesn't hardly even think about it, whereas before, once it was in the house, it was gone right away, or she would find herself driving to the store to go get it so that she could eat it, as though. It's pretty cool to see this process really working and people being able to have these foods and not really even be thinking about it.

Speaker 1:

Before you are able to utilize that kind of self-control, rather than being controlled by your cravings and food, you've got to remove the mindset that certain foods are forbidden or off limits. You're probably used to thinking things like I can't have this because blah, blah, blah fill in the blank, but the reality is you truly can eat whatever you want. Food freedom comes from eating all types of foods in different amounts. There are gonna be some days where you overeat, where you under eat, where you don't eat enough veggies, and that really is just the part of being kind of a quote unquote normal eater, when we're not dieting, when we're not restricting, but when we're also not, on the other end, just eating whatever we want to, because that really isn't food freedom either. So, instead of being controlled by those external food roles, you are going to begin to become more empowered to make food choices based off of what you want, what you like to eat, but also choosing foods that really do feel good in your body, make you feel good and honor your goals.

Speaker 1:

So, depending on how deep and disordered and diet minded thoughts you were, this could be an incredibly difficult phase, because you're used to trying to eat by those certain rules or cutting out the bad foods, not eating after a certain amount of time or a certain time of the day, and this is where that emotional permission is going to come in, and this is basically Challenging the thoughts and feelings that pop up around food. Right, we could be eating the food, but then feeling really guilty or feeling really bad, and so that's where there's that emotional hindrance. Right, it's like if I'm gonna make the choice to eat chips, I'm not gonna beat myself up over it. I'm gonna make the intention to slow down, to check in with myself. That's very different than eating the chips Because I know I'm stuffing an emotion or I'm trying to hide from something, and then I end up shaming myself and beating myself up later. So that's like I should or shouldn't be eating this. This is a good or bad food. I can't eat this because it's gonna make me fat or unhealthy.

Speaker 1:

The feelings of guilt and shame and disappointment from failing another diet or weight loss attempt are all common when we're not really engaging in the process and giving ourselves emotional permission as well as that physical permission to eat. The reality is, one meal isn't going to make you healthy or thin, just like one meal isn't necessarily going to make you unhealthy or fat. It really is all about balance overall, making mindful choices, thinking about what you're eating, why you're eating it and whether or not it nourishes you physically, emotionally and mentally. You likely have many thoughts, feelings and internal dialogues going on in your head about food in your body. If I had to guess, much of it isn't exactly the nicest thing you could Be saying, thinking or feeling about yourself and likely you wouldn't say it to somebody else. So instead of beating yourself up for all that you're not all of your choices, all the ways that you failed, practice talking to yourself like a loving parent would talk to a child or like you would talk to your best friend. Taking this compassionate and kind approach with yourself will give you so much better results in the long run.

Speaker 1:

So on to step four respect your body with movement, food and your thoughts. Be a good steward of your body. Your body is simply a vessel for you to do the work that you were created to do. Everything you do for your body Really should be from this place of love, kindness, care, respect. We don't do to our bodies, but rather we do for our bodies. So we're not exercising to punish our bodies, we're not eating to punish our bodies, but really starting to look at how is food and movement and sleep, and Even the words that we say or the thoughts that we think how is this something that we're doing for our bodies and for ourselves? Eat in a way that blesses and honor your body.

Speaker 1:

With these tips. We've got to heal our relationship with food first, or at least at the very While we're kind of doing this. Otherwise we're going to turn this into another diet with another set of rules, and we're aiming for perfectionism again. Make mindful choices that nourish your body and takes care of you. Create space in your life for those treat foods or those joy foods, without being ruled by them. Ask if you are making the best choice for yourself in that moment. And maybe how could I make it better? Operate from a place of compassionate self-control. So find movement that you enjoy and that makes you feel good.

Speaker 1:

So if you currently do not enjoy exercise or movement, it's worth digging into why that may be. Were there, you know? Was it used as a punishment? Was it always associated with dieting? When you failed your diet, you know, did you also fail exercising and just give up? There might be negative associations. So maybe you were forced to exercise. Maybe exercise was used as a way to induce guilt, shame or punishment for your weight, your body or different foods that were eaten. Maybe you just haven't found like the right kind of exercise or the right setting that you enjoy exercising in, and potentially you just haven't gotten over the hurdle of making it a habit yet.

Speaker 1:

So when you're exercising, when you're trying new things out, think about how it makes you feel versus how many calories you've burned. Or notice, you know, am I getting stronger? Is this getting easier? Do I feel less stressed overall? Am I sleeping better? Do I have more energy? Do I? Am I feeling more confident? So again, kind of shifting from how many calories is this burning to how does this exercise make me feel, and then try looking at other benefits to exercise that maybe aren't necessarily related to changing your body. This simple mindset shift will help you stick with exercise, regardless of what is happening on the scale. You might also want to try different things, like working out at a gym versus working out at home, versus you know, doing things outside, to just figure out what clicks and what works for you. That's going to really help you kind of make this the best and something that you're going to want to stick to forever.

Speaker 1:

Make exercise fun and more like a game, less like a chore. So find clever ways to get more movement in throughout the day. Maybe that's dance parties or walking, parking a little bit further away, carrying your groceries to the car instead of using a cart, playing with your kids at the park All of those things count, right. So every movement, all movement at all, counts. You can even get your kids involved, if you've got them, by using them as a form of resistance. So my kids used to hop on my back and I would do squats or I would carry them around. If you can exercise as a family, that's helpful as well. This allows you to spend time together and model healthy behaviors for your kiddos to practice, uncoupling exercise with weight loss. So this goes back to that point above. But really Focus on all the other benefits of moving your body that really have nothing to do with how it looks, how it makes you look. Exercise when you can.

Speaker 1:

So, if it's not easy to always find a consistent time, find those little pockets, make those little pockets. Get little bouts of movement in throughout the day. Start small, pick that lowest hanging fruit and then build your way up. Don't beat yourself up if your workouts don't happen at the same time every day or if they don't even look the way that you originally intended Initially. We just want to start building in the movement of, or the habit of, movement. So if it's five minutes, if that's what you can do consistently every day, then do it. See if you can tackle or tag the same movement On into another part of an already existing routine.

Speaker 1:

For me, I, if I go to the gym, I typically will go as soon as I drop the kids off. I'm already out. It's already just a part of my routine. It's so much easier than trying to find another time of the day to go. If you have an extra 10 minutes, maybe instead of scrolling your feed you can do some squats or put on your favorite song and dance, go for a quick walk around the block. The point is it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be huge or massive to be able to do some squats. So common mishaps, myths and mistakes. So common mishaps, myths and mistakes.

Speaker 1:

We're eating. Overeating at first is likely going to happen due to the amount of restriction that you were experiencing before. This really is part of the honeymoon phase for many people, and I know people that have been practicing intuitive eating or Haven't been dieting for years, and there still are going to be times where you overeat Again. Learn from it, move on. Don't beat yourself up. However, with more time and practice, you really will become better at listening to your body's cues and being able to put the food away, especially if you know that you're going to be able to have it again and there's no restriction around that Turning it into another diet.

Speaker 1:

So, again, we don't want to turn this into another diet. Just notice those thoughts, those behaviors. Otherwise, we can be kind of approaching this with that perfectionistic mentality, the all or nothing, and that is not what we want to do. We want to, you know, use this as an opportunity to experiment, to get to know ourselves and To really focus on rebuilding trust and that relationship that we have with ourself. Be on the lookout for sneaky diet talk. So, just looking at you know the thoughts of needing to burn off calories after eating pizza. Or you know again, just like, how is that diet mentality of the diet talk showing up? Look out for obsession around tracking macros, points, calories or portions. A lot of times this can really be rooted in a diet mentality, can cause a lot of triggering, especially if, again, there's that obsessive tendency and maybe tracking every day is not ideal. Maybe you don't want to track at all, but you'd rather do more of a food journal that just kind of talks about what you ate, why you ate it, how you felt.

Speaker 1:

Notice when you're trying to use willpower Versus discipline and focus and consistency Alright. So discipline isn't meant to be a stumbling block or Not necessarily a strong source of your identity. Rather, it's about using self-control to resist giving into instant gratification. Focus on practicing flexible discipline, meaning check in with your motives for your actions and make adjustments based on what you need in that moment. Maybe it's sticking with the original plan, maybe it's being flexible and making an adjustment. You just take it day by day, case by case. Notice how maybe you're demonizing food or how others are.

Speaker 1:

So this is those good or bad foods, clean and dirty. Remember, food is not a moral issue. You're not good if you eat certain foods or bad if you eat other foods. So I would say that, again, we just want to be on the lookout for things that are really supporting maybe emotional eating or behaviors that just have like a net negative effect. I think that true intuitive nutrition really doesn't use food as a coping mechanism. There might be moments when you're craving something, or you do lean on food for something emotional. Again, we're not beating ourselves up. We're just practicing awareness and intentionality and slowing down and making the best choice that we can in each given moment. So that is what I have for you.

Speaker 1:

That is this ebook in audio form. On page 17 you will find next steps. This is really just where you want to give yourself space to practice. So, if it is a lifestyle, there is no finish line. Every day is an opportunity to practice. Every meal is is an opportunity to practice. Really, do the prep work, go through this as many times as you need to Practice removing food restrictions, maybe around just one food. So just practice eating it, noticing what it tastes like, how do you feel, slow down, really be present and mindful with that food, and then go ahead and start with week one of the mindful eating project.

Speaker 1:

So again, thanks for listening to this audio version. Hopefully you enjoyed some of the extra tidbits that you won't find in the ebook itself. You can go to aliciacarlsoncom slash connect to set up a call if you would like to get one to one support on this journey, taking everything that you're learning here and applying it deeper. So again, thank you again for listening, for being here, and I would love to hear how this is impacting you, how it is transforming and changing your relationship to food. So go ahead and share that with me as well on Facebook, instagram, wherever it is that you're hanging out.