Eating Strategies Instead Of Dieting Rules

Following ‘diet rules’ sets people off on the wrong foot. Sure they’ll have success for a short period of time, but what happens when life gets busy? When food they’d planned to consume wasn’t available? When they went away on holiday? When they were stressed and didn’t want to eat what was in their fridge? When they had a bad day at work, and all they wanted was to sit in front of the TV with a big bag of crisps?

Those good intentions come crashing down, taking all that hard work, effort, and those short-lived results with them.

If you find yourself giving up after a few weeks of ‘trying harder’, or constantly finding things slip at the weekends – then these diet traps are what you’ve been falling for.

And it’s exactly why you need to focus on eating strategies instead.

So, I hear you ask, what the hell are eating strategies?

Eating strategies are practices, exercises, and methods related to emotional, intuitive, and compassionate eating that no longer rely on ‘do this/don’t do that’ rules.

In embracing the art of eating strategies, you provide yourself with a sufficient toolbox to adapt to every situation thrown at you and always eat in alignment with your long-term ambitions, regardless of external environments and influences.

You can practice just one strategy at a time or a few at the same meal; you have the flexibility to decide when and how to use each strategy.

Ultimately, they offer the chance to eat healthily and stay on track most of the time.

Of course, knowing and understanding how to implement each strategy is what we’re here for, but, to get you started, here are some benefits of prioritising eating strategies over rigid diet plans with rules and restrictions:

Eating Strategies Can Be Practiced Anywhere And At Any Time

Whether you’re…

🍴Eating at a restaurant

🍫Having an unplanned snack

☹️Feeling sad and angry

📉Not making as much progress as you’d like

You can still practice one of your strategies.

Strategies aren’t reliant on you being ‘on’ a diet; they happen all the time.

Eating Strategies Promote A ‘Continuous-Based Thinking’ Approach

No longer are you cutting out certain foods, only eating at certain times, worrying about social events, or searching for that coveted willpower to avoid foods you think you shouldn’t be eating. You’re not in ‘all or nothing’ mode.

You’re, instead, adopting a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ attitude towards food. You are allowed to eat out, you are allowed to feel stressed, and you are allowed to feel like overeating when you’re practicing eating strategies.

Eating Strategies Accept Failure

Just like learning any life skill, you’re allowed to fail. Most diets, however, corner you into an ‘all or nothing’ trap whereby if you’re not succeeding, you’re instantly failing.

Eating strategies allow you to turn the dial up and down. You’re allowed to implement one strategy while turning the dial down on another. You’re allowed to fail but still take steps forward towards long-term goals. Eating strategies remove that ‘black and white’ mentality.

Once Built, Eating Strategies Stay With You Forever

Unlike following a diet plan, you can carry around an eating strategy with you in the long term. What happens when you can’t keep up with your diet plan anymore? Well, you probably wind up back at square one and put all that weight on you lost.

Once you ingrain a certain eating strategy into your routine, you seldom need to focus on it with as much concentration.

Eating Strategies Remove The Pressure Of Weight Loss

There’s nothing worse than linking every food you eat with the sole purpose of ‘losing weight’. Guilt surfaces when you eat something ‘off plan’ and shame arises when you unexpectedly overeat. You actually never make the weight loss progress you want.

When you can shift the focus away from weight loss, however, (via eating strategies), things start to happen naturally. When you can focus on the process and behaviours, you not only gain satisfaction from accomplishing something, but your body changes as well.

Eating Strategies Are Challenging But Meaningful

Wouldn’t it be great knowing you can tackle any meal and any situation without being overwhelmed with anxiety and stress over what and how much you’re going to eat?

Eating strategies take time and practice to fully implement properly, but when you do, you feel a sense of accomplishment. You’ll have tackled a certain situation without leaning on guilt or shame to drive your decision-making and have a true purpose to your relationship with food.

The Food Freedom Eating Strategies consists of three parts:

1️⃣Before Eating

2️⃣During Eating

3️⃣Social Events

Let's start looking into the first part.

Next - Addressing Emotional Eating Without Awareness