Intuitive Exercise, also referred to as Intuitive Movement goes hand-in-hand with Intuitive Eating. If you’d like to learn more about exercising intuitively, then you’re in the right place. This article will describe what intuitive exercise is before breaking down some steps you can take to get started.

Do you enjoy exercise?

My clients often come to me not enjoying exercise. There are a few common reasons for this:

1. Exercising has been coupled with weight-loss diets
2. They are exercising excessively and/or compulsively
3. Negative experiences growing up – being teased in P.E. class, not being picked for teams or being forced to run laps
4. Rebelling against parents or partners who push exercise
5. It can be physically less accessible for those with larger bodies and also off-putting

The diet culture we live in also compounds these factors. We are surrounded by messaging that promotes exercise as a way to meet unrealistic body ideals. Toxic phrases like, “no pain, no gain” and, “sweat is fat crying”, are pushed upon us. Exercise is something we should do rather than something we want to do.

Many of my clients have been mentally and physically worn down by crash exercising, usually accompanied by dieting. Beginning an exercise program whilst dieting is often a recipe for disaster. This is because on a diet, energy (calorie) intake is usually restricted. When exercising, you need more calories to fuel increased activity. If you don’t get enough then exercise will be depleting, not invigorating.

Who wants to constantly subject their body to something that doesn’t ever feel good? No one in their right mind! Yet we often end up blaming ourselves for just not having enough willpower.

What exactly is Intuitive Exercise?

Intuitive Exercise is the practice of connecting to your body to figure out how it feels and what type of movement it needs that day. Instead of picking what type of exercise you think you “should” do, you use your body’s internal cues to figure out the best type and duration of the movement.

You choose to move your body for self-care and health benefits, instead of doing it to lose weight. Some days this may mean an intense gym class, while other days it may mean restorative yoga or a walk. It can also be non-intentional activities like dancing with your kids, gardening or taking your dog for a walk. It doesn’t have to be planned or something structured, but it also can be if that’s what floats your boat. Intuitive movement is flexible, not rigid. It gives you the space to explore what feels good in your body. This shift in mindset allows exercise to become more enjoyable and less stressful. It can become something to look forward to, rather than dread.

Here are my 6 best tips to get started with Intuitive Exercise

 1. Begin when you are ready

If you have leaned towards over-exercising you may not feel like getting moving again yet and that’s ok. Likewise, if you’ve had negative experiences with exercise that have led you to stop exercising, you may need to work through some barriers before picking it up again. If you are working to overcome compulsive exercise, a temporary break may be the best thing for you. You may want to take spend some time finding the right body inclusive equipment/clothing, surroundings and movement that feels inclusive and safe for you to participate in. Deferring movement a few weeks or months won’t make much of a difference in a life-long commitment. 

2. Focus on how it feels

This one is key. Focus on how the movement feels rather than tallying steps, miles or calories on a Fitbit. Paying attention to the felt sense from within your body is like cross-fit for your intuition. Instead of just gritting your teeth through a workout, explore how you feel during the activity and throughout the day afterwards.

• Are you able to handle stress better?
• What’s your alertness like?
• How’s your mental outlook?
• Are you motivated, energised?
• How are your sleep and appetite affected?
• Are you feeling more connected to your body? Moving your body and using it can help with a more positive body image. 

When we notice positive feelings from an activity, we are more likely to want to continue doing it.

If you feel depleted and exhausted, take that as feedback from your body that it needs more rest, fuel or restorative movement.

 

3. Decouple exercise from weight loss and focus on the health benefits

By making weight loss or burning calories the focus of your exercise, you’re less likely to be able to do it consistently. Or become obsessed with food. This is because when weight loss inevitably doesn’t happen, slows or rebounds, we lose motivation. Researchers have proposed that it’s time we decouple exercise from weight loss because this minimises its’ more important health benefits. If you lose weight as a result of exercising, that’s cool. But movement has massive benefits for health separate from weight loss. By placing the focus on these, we are more likely to stick with this health-promoting habit.

 4. Make it enjoyable

A growing body of research shows that focusing on pleasure from exercise could be a pivotal factor in sustaining consistent activity. What if, instead of focusing on fitness targets such as intensity and duration, you focused on the level of enjoyment you get from exercise?

Enjoyable exercise is very individual so it’s important to figure out what works for you. Some people like team sports or the company of a friend on their walks. Others find that after a busy day meeting the demands of others, some time alone is what they need.

Tips for making intuitive exercise enjoyable:

• Choose activities you like! It doesn’t matter what it is – a dance party in the kitchen with the kids, a team sport, restorative yoga, a spin class, a walk in nature, a bike ride – it all counts
• Mix it up – by completing a variety of activities throughout the week you’re more likely to remain engaged and not get bored
• Listen to music, a podcast or an audiobook whilst walking
• Get rid of apps and trackers that keep your focus on numbers and away from the enjoyment

5. Develop an Intuitive Exercise plan

This can be helpful if your days are jam-packed and making time for movement is a struggle. There is no need for a rigid structure. However, many of us lead busy lives and sometimes it’s necessary to carve out time for things we want to do. Ask yourself, “when can I consistently make time to move my body?”. Figure out when and where, and schedule it in as a commitment to be honoured, like any other meeting or appointment.

6. Rest Rest Rest

A common fear is that of, “once I stop exercising, I won’t start again.” This is consistent with the all-or-nothing style of thinking commonly seen in dieting. You can prove to yourself that not exercising today doesn’t mean not exercising again. Simply test yourself by having a day or two off and resume when you are able. The more you come back to exercise after taking a break from it, the more you can challenge this fear.

Rest is as important for our health as exercise is. The saying, “the only workout you’ll regret is the one you didn’t do” is just plain wrong. Missing a workout is a better option than causing yourself an injury, missing sleep and feeling exhausted, or compromising recovery from illness. Sometimes taking care of yourself means not exercising. Resting gives muscles time to recover and also keeps exercise feeling enjoyable and invigorating.

 

In Summary:

If you are tired of militant or all-or-nothing exercise regimes then Intuitive Exercise provides a mindset shift you can use to re-discover enjoyment from exercise. Intuitive Exercise shifts the focus onto how it feels to move your body and away from weight loss and numbers. Human bodies are designed to move and activity has a myriad of health benefits. By focusing on these and seeing exercise as a way to take care of ourselves, we are more likely to keep it up.

It is worth noting that working on a healthy relationship to movement often goes hand-in-hand with working on a healthy relationship to food. Intuitive Eating is a proven framework used to rediscover healthy relationships with food and exercise. My FREE 7-step download outlines steps to food peace and freedom with an audio guide and actionable workbook.  

Overcoming the fear of weight gain…

Overcoming the fear of weight gain is something I talk about often with clients. When we first speak, many feel excited at the thought of letting go of diets after years of pursuing weight loss. They are excited (albeit a little nervous) to re-learn to honour their body and free up brain space to live more fulfilled lives away from food obsession. 

However, there is sometimes a shadow that can come hurtling over…

“but what about my weight? If I fulfill my hunger and try to foster a normal relationship with food, I will just end up eating all the time. This will just lead to weight gain, which frustrates me and makes me question whether that is the adequate pathway.”

By now you might have felt that you can’t keep going the way you are. 

Either you’ve tried numerous attempts to lose weight, only to be back at square one…

Or, kept your weight down through restriction, but food thoughts consume you and steal the joy from life.

Does this sound right? If so, you might be wandering “where do I go from here?”

Where to from here?

This is where a Health At Every Size (HAES) approach can come in. 

HAES is a weight-neutral approach to health care. It promotes the pursuit of healthful behaviours (like eating vegetables, moving your body, getting enough protein, etc.) for the inherent health benefits of those behaviours, rather than for the explicit purpose of weight manipulation.

The reason being that the pursuit of weight loss can often do more harm than good…

How pursuing weight loss can lead to harm…

You see, there is a magical 6 month period where most diet research is published, After this period, regardless of the type of diet, almost everyone starts to put the weight back on. By 2 to 5 years later the VAST majority (95%) of dieters are back to where they started. To add to that, about one to two-thirds of people end up heavier than they were before they began. This fact is so well known that it’s counted as “Level A” evidence (meaning it’s the highest level of evidence possible in science). 

The pursuit of weight loss can leave people jumping on and off of different ways of eating, looking for that magic fix (calorie counting, cutting out foods or food groups, going vegan, skipping meals, counting points). This can actually do a lot of harm.  Harmful side effects of dieting include eating disorders, increased emotional eating, disconnected eating, lack of trust around food and food obsession. And weight stigma is another factor that is also rarely spoken about.

Letting go of weight loss might sound crazy. But I invite you to reflect on your own experiences and consider whether dieting has actually been a positive approach to health either. For many people dieting does a lot of harm to their wellbeing. As a result, they choose to follow a non-diet approach to health like Intuitive Eating. 

And one of the biggest fears that can come with intuitive eating is… 

“Okay, so if I pursue this approach, how do I overcome the fear of weight gain? I just don’t think I could cope with that”

This is why I have asked Therapist and Body Image Expert Brianna Campos to answer this question with her top tips to overcome getting stuck in the fear of weight gain. 

7 tips to overcome getting stuck in the fear of weight gain

1) Acknowledge that you are not alone.

One of the most common fears in people pursuing a non-diet approach is gaining weight. When we can recognise that we are collective with the same fear – we can work together towards an actual solution.

2) Identify the source of the fear.

On the surface, it might be fear of weight gain. But truly it’s the beliefs that come with weight gain that create the fear. Not the weight gain itself. What is the story you tell yourself about gaining weight? Does it mean you have failed? Do you believe it makes you less attractive/ ‘healthy” etc/ desirable? Carolyn Costin says that body image work is like a check-engine light. Turning off the light (weight -loss) doesn’t address the root issue. We have to look under the hood to discover where the issues stem from.

3) Make space for the fear by having a dialogue with it.

What is it saying to you? Ask the fear, what it’s trying to protect you from. Can you find ways that you know the fear is untrue

i.e. Do you fear gaining weight will make you less likeable? You can reality test this. Ask yourself, would like someone less merely because of their body size? 

ACTIVITY: Name one very important person in your life. Write out all of the things you love about them. Do these things have anything to do with their body size? Keep a running list of all the reasons why people love you too! I bet it has nothing to do with your size. 

4) Explore what needs you may have.

Does the fear come from people making comments on your body size? Perhaps you need to set a boundary around that. For example, walking out the room, changing the subject or directly saying you don’t want to speak about weight loss/dieting. Does the fear come from not wanting to buy new clothes if you get bigger? Perhaps consider trading out some older smaller clothes with flexible/stretchy newer clothes. This can foster acceptance and help you make peace with your body.

5) Sit in the suck.

This is not going to be easy.  You are undoing a lifetime of messaging around your body. Acknowledge that the fear is hard. Sometimes the fear will suck you in. This is okay. Validate all the things about gaining weight that suck and makes your life harder.  Feel the feelings you have around the oppression you may have faced due to your body.  Your fear is REAL. 

6) Reparent yourself.

The way we speak to ourselves is interconnected with how we feel about ourselves.  As these moments arise where you realise you are “fearful” of weight gain do the following exercise.

ACTIVITY

1. Ask yourself: do I have the capacity to explore this right now? YES or NO

If no, put it in a container in your mind and tuck it away for therapy or journaling later.

2. If YES, you might like to explore these questions/steps:

a) What is the source of this fear? Is there a certain story I’m telling myself? Do I hold particular beliefs about my body getting bigger?

b) Is my fear trying to protect me from anything?

c) Do I have beliefs that certain needs that could be met by losing weight? (i.e. I believe that I will be more lovable in a smaller body)

3. Grieve. Allow yourself to be sad/ frustrated/ angry etc.

4.  When you are ready, ask yourself: What might a loving parent say to their child if they were feeling this way? 

7) Continue to commit to learning.

About fatphobia, body positivity and all the intersectionalities that come with body image work. Recognise it as a process that is not linear but one you can always keep learning & growing.

In summary

By reading this article, you’re already “doing the work”. Exploring where your values and beliefs have come from, and sitting with this discomfort is part of the process. If you’re at the start of your journey to heal your relationship with food, it may be helpful to put the desire for weight loss on the backburner. When you remove this from the spotlight, you can focus on other ways to measure progress and begin to honour your body and make peace with food. 

To have fear and anxiety around weight is normal and is something that you, your therapist and/or Dietitian can continue to work through. Dieting and weight loss focused language keeps us constantly planning for the future, what you ‘would do’ or be deserving of once you lose weight.

This can hold you back from enjoying, respecting and taking care of your body in the here and now.

When weight loss is on the back burner, you can focus on how to take care of your body in the here and now. It creates space to allow you to think about what you need today to feel more comfortable, confident, and to get your needs met. What’s a goal or something fun you want to do short-term that doesn’t require changing your body? 

While the fear of weight gain is normal, it doesn’t need to be your reality forever.

Additional Resources

Article: “Body acceptance begins with grieving the thin ideal“

Books:

• The Body Is Not An Apology
• Health At Every Size
• Land Whale 
• Body Respect
• Body Positive Power

Ted Talk: “Body Positivity or Body Obsession” 

People to follow on Instagram: 

• @bodyimagewithbri
• @bodypositive_dietitian
• @bodyimage_therapist
• @nicolahaggett
• @lovaeij
• @ceceolisa
• @amber_mag
• #selfcompassionquotes #size(insertclothessize)fashion e.g. #size20fashion for your body size clothes inspo! 

Who is Brianna?

Brianna (or Bri) is a Licensed Professional Counsellor in New Jersey. She has worked with Eating Disorder Recovery patients for the last four years and has a special interest in body image.  Brianna also teaches Introduction to Eating Disorders as an adjunct professor. She has a passion for about Health at Every Size®️ and taking an all foods fit approach to finding freedom with food and learning to love your current body. You can find her on Instagram @bodyimagewithbri. 

What to do if you’re told to lose weight to get pregnant…

If you’re in a bigger body and want to get pregnant, the chances are you’ve faced some problems. Have you been told, “you need to lose weight to get pregnant?” Were you dismissed in your request for help from a healthcare professional due to weight? This could be despite multiple attempts of weight loss which have not been sustained. Or a history of disordered eating that stemmed from the pursuit of weight loss. If these are your experiences, please know they are in keeping with the scientific research. This research tells us long-term weight loss is not sustainable and may lead to poorer health.

Is it necessary to lose weight to get pregnant?

Despite much of the information you may have received from the diet industry, teachers, loved ones, and professionals, weight is not something we actually have a lot of control over. All of the evidence we have on weight loss suggests that for the majority of people, manipulating our body’s weight shape or size is very difficult. Weight loss is possible, in most people, any weight lost will usually be regained within 2-5 years. Around 30-60% of people regain weight above baseline. 

Whilst this information might be completely new, and different to what you’ve heard before, this can be explained by the set point theory. This theory has shown that our bodies have an internal thermostat or ‘pre-programmed’ weight that bodies naturally want to be at when they are taken care of (there is enough food available without restriction). This might not be the weight that society deems “should” be okay as per the Body Mass Index (BMI). When the body is withheld from food or restricted, the body works really hard to return to its ‘set point’. It does this by adjusting the metabolism to be more or less efficient with the energy it receives from food. It’s not something that can be ‘hacked’ or controlled, and it’s the body’s way of protecting itself. 

Can you try to lose weight while trying to get pregnant?

Diets are essentially a way to get your body into a calorie deficit. Whether it be counting calories, striving to be “healthier”, or juice detox. If it’s about weight loss and getting into an energy deficit, it’s a diet. Diets act by tricking the body into thinking it’s in a famine. The body’s natural response is to go into survival mode, conserving energy and increasing hunger signals to make us seek out food. This is where food obsession can kick in, and body systems that are not essential can be switched off. Including the reproductive system. As soon as the diet stops, the body is relieved by food being available again and makes the most of this by stocking up on fat stores just in case there is another famine. This is why it becomes more and more difficult to lose weight with each diet attempt, and why we can end up yo-yo dieting.

So recommending dieting, and weight loss in the context of fertility treatment can be harmful. Fat people are told to do something that can actually promote infertility in the name of aesthetics and beauty standards! Unfortunately, many healthcare professionals are not aware of this, so you’re well within your rights to express concern at these recommendations, and to ask for weight inclusive care. 

We, therefore, encourage rejecting this recommendation for weight loss in the name of fertility. This is to ensure the body is well nourished to geared up for a healthy conception. 

If your doctor tells you you need to lose weight, there are a number of things you can do, outlined in the rest of this article. 

Can losing weight improve egg quality?

If you search the internet, you’re likely to find an array of lotions and potions and interventions that claim to improve egg or sperm quality. Whilst there are things that can be done to look after your reproductive health, these do not need to involve rigid routines and restrictive eating. These can add further stress and expense. Rather than jumping ahead, it might be worth asking your doctor about testing an investigation that might be available to you. These can include:

• Blood tests to check hormone levels related to your menstrual cycle and ovulation
• An examination to see if there are any physical obstructions like fallopian tube blockages or cysts on the ovaries. 
• Semen testing measures things like quality, quantity and motility. 

In terms of nutrition, one of the most important factors is eating enough food, and regularly keeping hormone levels stable. There are some key supplements including folic acid. This has been linked to increased conception rates, an increased chance of ovulation higher quality oocytes and a shorter time to pregnancy. It’s found in most pre-pregnancy supplements and is recommended to be taken 2-3 months prior to conception, and during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. 40o micrograms are the standard dose, however, it’s important to speak with your doctor to see if this is right for you. Some people require higher doses. 

Steps you can take to improve health without the focus on weight…

With this in mind, many who are in bigger bodies trying to get pregnant choose to pursue a Non-Diet approach to nutrition (intuitive eating). Intuitive eating is an evidence-based practice that supports the pursuit of health without focusing on weight or body size. Importantly, does not trigger disordered eating or poor mental health. 

That’s why I have invited fat positive fertility coach Nicola Salmon to the blog. Nicola is a fat-positive feminist and fertility coach. She advocates for change in how fat folks are treated on their fertility journey. Nicola supports fat folks (and others with disordered eating) who are struggling to get pregnant and find peace with their body. She helps them find their own version of health, and escape the yo-yo diet cycle.

Here, she offers her top tips on fat positive fertility and getting pregnant with a bigger body. 

Top 3 tips on what to do if you’re told you need to lose weight to get pregnant

1) Release the vice-like grip that the scales might have on you

We’ve been brought up to believe that our health is determined by the number on the scales and it’s just not true. Your weight tells me absolutely nothing about your health or your fertility. However, weighing yourself regularly brings a ton of stress and anxiety. 

The idea that fat folks struggle to get pregnant is based on the assumption that being fat is unhealthy. In reality, fat folks experience higher risks because they are not given adequate healthcare. They also often get shamed and judged when they access healthcare. Furthermore, we know that there are no intentional weight-loss interventions that have any long term results. Instead, the only long term results from dieting are the likelihood of regaining any weight loss, increased risk of disordered eating and eating disorders. Therefore, you might like to explore the action steps below.

ACTION: What’s a small step that you can take to move away from the scales?

• Can you move away from weighing yourself daily, to once a week?
• Maybe you could even throw out your scales! (I smashed mine in the garden! It was very satisfying)
•  Shift your focus to something else, like getting better sleep, improving your energy levels or feeling stronger.

2) Practice advocating for yourself

If the only advice you are getting from healthcare professionals is to lose weight, then it might be time to advocate for yourself. We are never taught how to advocate for ourselves, it’s a skill that we need to learn and practice.

It’s important to acknowledge that advocating is work. It takes physical and emotional energy and it’s work that you should not have to do. It’s the systems that need to change.

You deserve appropriate and respectful healthcare.

However, unfortunately systems take time to change. This means that advocating for yourself to get that treatment may be the only option right now.

Advocating includes finding healthcare professionals that will treat you. Or, communicating with your current healthcare team to demand the treatments you need.

ACTION: What small step can you take towards getting your healthcare needs met?

Ask local friends/online communities for recommendations for appropriate doctors/clinics.
Spend 15 minutes writing down what your needs are around your healthcare. This way you can identify where they are and aren’t met.
Write a letter (or asking your nutritionist/coach to write a letter for you). This can outline your needs and that you do not want to discuss weight loss/dieting at future appointments.

3) Set boundaries with friends and family

Friends and family can be a great support and get us through the hardest times in our lives. They can also say the most insensitive things when they don’t understand what we are going through. Especially when it comes to weight and fertility. 

It may appear that talking about their own dieting adventures or giving you well-meaning diet advice is coming from a place of love. But impact always trumps intention and the impact of this well-meaning advice can be huge. It can trigger patterns of self-loathing, pain and shame within us. This can have a measurable negative impact on our health. 

ACTION: How can we set boundaries with our close ones without alienating them?

• Can you try telling them about your needs. For example, “talking about diets and weight-loss makes me feel shame about my body. I need you to talk about your dieting/weight loss advice to someone else”
• Have a go at asking for their buy-in. For example, “did you know that there is no evidence that any form of intentional weight-loss actually works!!?! If you want to learn more I’d definitely recommend Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison”. 
• Prioritise keeping yourself safe. If having conversations with others feels too difficult (and sometimes it does!), you can keep yourself safe by removing yourself from the harm. This could look like going to the toilet when your colleagues start talking about diets. Or quickly change the subject when weight loss comes. If possible, you could also avoid spending time with people who talk about dieting all the time. 

In conclusion, being told you need to lose weight to get pregnant is simply not helpful for many. The biggest thing to remember is that you’re worthy of feeling safe and having support in growing your family. It’s okay for you to want to become a parent. You are not selfish or irresponsible. I am sorry if you have been made to feel ashamed or guilty. You deserve to choose when you grow your family. And most importantly, you are worthy.

 

Food Guilt: How To Get Rid of It

Food guilt is all too common and can steal the joy from the experience of eating. Not only that, it can take us away from experiencing our own bodies and identifying what feels good for us in the moment. 

Does this sound familiar?

“I find myself obsessing over food, which results in overeating “pleasure” food such as chocolates when I am not even hungry and then feeling guilty.”

Because after all, you’re the best too to decide what, when and how much your body needs. 

Not the food police. 

In this article, I’m going to dive into what food guilt is, and strategies to get rid of it so that you can have a more peaceful relationship with food. 

 

Before we dive in, let’s look at what “food guilt” really means.

As per the English dictionary, guilt is defined as:

“noun. the fact or state of having committed an offence, crime, violation, or wrong, especially against moral or penal law; culpability: He admitted his guilt. a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offence, crime, wrong, etc., whether real or imagined.”

So the reason we can feel food guilt is the sense of having “broken” something, or having committed a crime.

Are you really committing a crime by simply eating food?

Let’s look at an example:

“I find myself obsessing over food, which results in overeating “pleasure” food such as chocolates when I am not even hungry and then feeling guilty.”

In the case above the felt crime committed is:

• “eating when not hungry”.

This person is experiencing food guilt because they have broken a perceived rule. 

Is this the reason you’re feeling food guilt too?

You might be thinking:

“but if I didn’t have rules or guidelines, how would I know how to eat healthily?”

I hear you. And I am answering this question below.

The problem is, these rules can be so deeply ingrained in our psyche that we just can’t spot them. And therefore, it can feel difficult to move away from feeling guilty. 

But remember. 

You LEARNED to feel food guilt.

Therefore you can unlearn it.

But surely we need rules to ensure we eat healthily?

It’s important to note that health isn’t’ just about what we eat. It’s about having a healthy relationship with food too. So if we’re riddled with food guilt after eating certain foods, stress levels are going to be high, which isn’t going to be healthy either.

Of course, it makes sense to have guidelines to provide some gentle education around nutrition. 

However, diet culture* does more than this. It imposes quite rigid rules and ideas about what, when and how much we “should” eat. This can make us feel like we’re addicted to foods like sugar. No matter how well-meaning, it can actually do more harm than good for a lot of people. And it’s totally possible to not quit sugar and still be healthy! 

The problem with rules:

• They can induce rebellion eating: This is the voice that comes in when you break a rule. The voice that says “you can’t tell me what to eat” or “I can so I will” voice. It’s usually not attuned to hunger and fullness and is quite intense, rebellious and not satisfying. Because it’s usually about making a statement.

• Can result in the sod it mentality: When you have more than 2 squares of chocolate and think “sod it, that’s me ruined for the day”. Dieters tend to evaluate their successes or failures of eating in terms of the current day. Even just thinking that you have violated a food rule is enough to trigger eating more, regardless of hunger or fullness levels.

• Can be inflexible and don’t account for varying needs of the body: Just like our emotional needs very day to day, our hunger levels, and what brings us joy, pleasure does too. There is no such thing as perfect.

• The irony of thought suppression: Don’t think of a pink elephant…. did you think of a pink elephant right? This is exactly what happens when we try to not eat something because we’ve been told not to. A large body of research indicates that thought suppression is ineffective.

• The last supper effect: For many, just the anticipation of sticking to a new food rule is enough to trigger overeating. A study on chocolate lovers found that when the chocolate restriction was imposed for 3 weeks, it triggered an increase in the amount of chocolate eaten both before and after the restrictive period.

• The forbidden fruit effect: A large body of research on children has identified that when we tell them not to eat that specific food (red M&Ms for example), the red M&Ms received the most attention and consumption. The same goes when you tell the children not to eat fruit… This means it’s not just an effect that is related to high fat and high sugar foods. It’s the forbidden factor that drives the want to eat the food.

• Overeating: Restrained eaters are more likely to overeat at just the perceptions of breaking a food rule. Studies have identified that the mere perception of blowing rule was enough to result in eating past comfortable fullness. 

(*Diet culture is a system of beliefs that worships thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue. This can make people spend a lot of their lives thinking they are irreparably broken just because you don’t look like the impossibly thin ideal.)

So How Do I Move Away From Food Guilt?

In short…

1. Unlearning
2. Re-learning why there is no reason to feel food guilt.
3. Challenging 
4. Time
5. Patience
6. Self-compassion
7. Repeat 

Once again. 

You LEARNED to feel food guilt.

Therefore you can unlearn it. 

Intuitive Eating is an evidenced based framework designed to help people break out of a negative relationship with food. A key principle is challenging the food police! 

ACTIVITY: Identifying your food rules

It’s impossible to know what you’re working with if you don’t know explicitly what the rules in your head are. Take some time to have a good think about what these are. I strongly encourage writing them down. There is something in the power of having these written down in front of you. 

• Do you have rules around snacking?
• What about what time of day is okay to eat?
• Do you look at calories to determine what to eat?
• What about rules around drinks?
• Are there any foods you try to avoid?

Challenging food rules can help to remove food guilt

Follower concern: “I followed the slimming world plan on and off for a long time – never really getting anywhere- but it’s kinda stuck in my head. I can have days where I feel guilty for eating bad or foods not considered okay on Slimming World, and just go down a rabbit hole of continuing to eat badly because what’s the point”

The only real way to move away from food guilt is to challenge the rules that have been picked up along the way. When you challenge them, you get to discover for yourself, what feels good for you. Rather than have someone decide this for you. Because ultimately, all food should be guilt free. 

Start with a rule that feels the least scary. Take a look at where this rule came from. Is it backed up by science? Or is it something that came from a personal trainer unqualified to provide nutrition advice back in the day and has just not left you?

Example:

Rule: “Carbs are bad. I should not have them past 12pm even if I crave them”

Questions to ask yourself:

• Should I really never eat carbs past 12pm?
• Aren’t there times in the day when I do in fact eat a lot of carbs?
• How do I feel when I don’t eat carbohydrates in the day?

Reframe the thought:

• “My past experiences demonstrate that when I try not to eat carbs past 12pm, I have little energy and find myself eating a lot of carbs at night anyway.”

Reflection after challenging the rule:

• “My past experience demonstrates that when I add carbs to my meals throughout the day and in the afternoons, I feel more in control around my eating in the evening.”

What if I feel out of control?

Follower concern: “I find that the biggest challenge is the guilt and shame that follows a binge. It’s hard to not fixate on what just happened and to move on.”

A natural response to deprivation and restriction is to feel out of control. And that’s why it’s important to go into this with a safety blanket on.

The safety blanket is full of:

• A ton of self-compassion
• Rest and sleep
• Not being too hungry when challenging yourself – the primal drive to eat can take over and result in feeling more out of control
• Be in a safe environment – whether this is at home, on your own, at work, with loved ones. Whatever feels right for you.

It can take time to challenge food rules, and it’s expected that your brain may have conflicting messages. You might have a diet brain on the one side telling you to restrict and stick to the rules, whilst you’re trying to challenge them at the same time! 

The more you challenge the rules that aren’t serving you, the more the judgmental thoughts will dissipate over time. This takes time and patience.

If you’re feeling like this is too much on your own, or you think you have an eating disorder, it’s important to seek support from a qualified professional. You can also read more on “how to have better self-control around food“. 

To summarise

We’ve learnt that food guilt can be caused by the felt sense of breaking a rule. Whilst some gentle education around nutrition can be helpful, diet culture often inflicts more rigid and inflexible rules. These rules can consume our thoughts, and result in a backlash effect of rebellion eating and feeling out of control. 

The positive thing is, you’ve learned these thoughts. So you can unlearn them! And when you’re clear on what these rules are, you can start to challenge them, one by one. With this, a safety blanket of compassion, time and patience is required. But you can do this, I know you can! And if you’re stuck, it might be worth investing in some professional support to help you navigate through.

I’m rooting for you!

Kat

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“I Literally Can’t Stop Eating”

Have you ever thought to yourself, “I literally can’t stop eating”. It’s not fun to feel out of control around food. In this article we will delve into why you might feel like you can’t stop eating and how to get to grips with.

Do any of the following sound familiar?

“When I start eating, I literally can’t stop eating even when full. Is there something wrong with me?”

Or

“The biggest struggle is to stop eating when I am full already and do not feel like eating anymore. Even when I fell totally stuffed I have this stupid “all or nothing” mentality and try to use the situation to eat as much “forbidden” food as I can.”

If so, you’re not alone. There are challenges I hear in clinic time and time again, and I know that it can feel so frustrating.

For this week’s article, I interviewed Isa Robinson, a Registered Associate Nutritionist (ANutr) and qualified Nutritional Therapist (BANT, CNHC). She has a special interest in disordered eating, food anxieties, body image and nutrition for mental health.

Below, Isa shares her top tips in response to “I literally can’t stop eating”.

 

Tip 1: Ditch the diet mentality and give yourself unconditional permission to eat

Before we can figure out how to stop eating when we are full, we have to zoom out. We have to consider our overall relationship with food and our eating behaviours.

We can’t expect to stop eating a certain food if we believe we’re never going to get that food again. This is an all too common trap of the “good” and “bad” food mentality. It can set us up to eat past the point of comfortable fullness.

How can we stop at one slice of cake on a cheat day when we know we’re not going to get that food again for some time? It can sound like:

“Well I’ve blown it now, I might as well eat X, Y and Z too because today is a bad day, but tomorrow I’ll be good”.

We can end up eating vast quantities of foods to fit them in before they’re all banished to the “off-limits” list again.

The worst part? We often blame ourselves for lack of control or willpower. The problem is not you, it’s diet culture.

When we know we can have a certain food whenever we like, it becomes easier to stop when we feel satisfied. So, before we even start thinking about fullness, we will need to ditch the diet mentality. The diet mentality refers to idea’s of “good” and “bad” foods, “off-limits” foods, cheat days etc. We need to make peace with certain foods so that we can truly trust that we can have them again.

Tip 2: Learn what fullness feels like for you

How can you aim for a target of stopping eating when full if you don’t know what the target is? Part of learning to respect comfortable fullness is learning what fullness feels like for us. And doing so from a non-judgemental and curious stance.

ACTIVITY: What is fullness?
What comes into your mind when I say comfortable fullness?

• Are there already some judgements coming up? If so, what do you notice?
• Does this have positive/negative connotations?
• Perhaps you might think of an extreme like Christmas day/thanksgiving fullness?

It’s going to feel a bit different for everyone. Some common descriptions to help us get started include

– feeling a stretching of the stomach

– pleasant associations of contentedness

– completeness

– satisfaction

Remember that we want to feel full and not just the absence of hunger.

There can be many factors that interfere with being able to recognise or respond to fullness signals. For example, eating when distracted, being conditioned to finish our plates and a history of food insecurity.

ACTIVITY: distraction-free meals

Practicing some distraction-free meals and mid-meal pauses. This can help to identify emerging sensations of fullness.

Tip 3: Respond to hunger appropriately  

An important part of figuring out how to stop eating when full is how we respond to hunger.

Diet culture encourages us to stave off our hunger rather than act and respond to it. We can trick our body’s into this in the short term. But at some point, our cells will take over. When we start dipping into our primal or extreme hunger, it’s very common to experience rebound eating.

Think of a petrol tank on a car getting to zero, rebound eating is then eating all the way up to full. This is way past the point of comfortable fullness. It is a normal response to hunger that’s hardwired into our DNA. When we were hunter-gathers on the savannah, going through a period of famine, we weren’t going to stop at comfortable fullness. We needed to eat in excess in case we weren’t able to eat again soon. Our bodies don’t know the difference between this and now where there’s pretty much a Pret on every street.

Bottom line: it’s going to be impossible to stop eating when full if we’re not eating enough or responding to our hunger cues properly.

 

Tip 4: Check the staying power of your food and take caution with air foods

Unfortunately, our current diet/wellness culture has normalised under-eating.

If you’ve had lettuce cups for lunch, it’s hardly surprising to find yourself deep in a box of celebrations later in the afternoon.

That’s because lettuce cups don’t have “staying power”.

To have staying power, a meal required fat, protein, carbohydrates and fibre. Fats add flavour, taste and texture, whilst increasing physical feelings of satiety. Protein also has a satiating impact. Carbohydrates help to balance blood sugars. Fibre adds bulk whilst slowing down the absorption of glucose for slow-release energy.

Going low carb (aka swapping bread for leaves) and/or low fat (aka removing the salad dressing) means removing some of the staying power. And tasty bits! In this case, it’s likely we’ll be on the prowl for something to fill the void.

Consistently eating foods with staying power, as well as actually having the delicious parts of the meal that hit the spot is important. It will mean that both our stomachs and our cells will feel satisfied. This can give us that feeling of comfortable fullness. When we also know that we can have those foods again, it will become much easier to stop eating when full.

Tip 5: Don’t turn it into a rigid rule – (Pssst…It’s okay to eat granny’s apple pie)

This process is about respecting our bodies and our fullness. It’s not about having to stop as soon as we’re full as a rule.

Intuitive Eating is not the hunger and fullness diet. It’s very important that the diet mentality doesn’t get its claws into this part of the process. Because we know that this can backfire making it harder to tune into our body’s needs.

Food is about so much more than obtaining nutrients and energy. It’s social, pleasurable, a way of experiencing new places and celebrating various traditions. There will be times in our lives when we are comfortably full, but we still want to eat. For example, birthday cake, Christmas pudding or Grandma’s apple pie on Sunday lunch because no one can make it as good as she does.

Remember there is no such thing as perfect so in these circumstances. Trust that your body is smart and that the fullness will pass. You don’t need to compensate, you haven’t done anything wrong, you are just a human being. 

So what do I do if I literally can’t stop eating?

Each of the tips above provided by Isa, offer some excellent insight into why you feel like you literally can’t stop eating. One of the most important steps in my experience, is eating enough food throughout the day, by noticing and responding to natural hunger signals.

You can find our more about Isa Robinson via her website https://isarobinsonnutrition.co.uk/