Science has proven that on average, we make 200 food-related decisions in a single 24-hour day. Add the stress-provoking thoughts of food restriction and dietary rules onto that and you are setting yourself up for failure.
When it comes to restrictive eating to achieve weight loss, most people will give up when A) physical results are not instant, B) other lifestyle factors get in the way or C) it gets too difficult to sustain these ways of eating over a long period. I get it, it is incredibly hard. What’s interesting is that most restrictive diets produce short term results that consequently backfire in the long run. In fact, healthy eating requires more practice and habit–building than what we give it credit for and realistically, you’re meant to stuff up to learn from these mistakes.
‘til death do us part: Creating a positive relationship with food.
While quick fix diets can be appealing, the significance of a diet that supports health stems from its approach to food. With a heavy focus on diet culture and the all-consuming strive towards a “perfect” body, most people find themselves battling through the dieting cycle which often goes like this:
- Desire to lose weight consequently leads to adopting a weight loss diet.
- Diet leads to strict avoidance and/or restriction and development of extreme food rules.
- Deprivation kicks in and you start to feel overly hungry for all the foods you are currently avoiding.
- You react to this hunger by consuming these foods, often in larger volumes and quantities than what you normally would otherwise.
- Feelings of guilt and disappointment of yourself set in as you did not have the willpower to soldier on with your “healthy”, albeit restrictive, diet.
- Feelings of guilt lead to further dieting and food restrictions and the diet cycle begins again.
If this cyclic process of restricting, overeating and food guilt sounds all too familiar, you are not alone. We know that diets with the main principles of restricted calories as well as the complete avoidance or reduction of essential macronutrients are hard to adhere to for long periods of time (1). This is a call for action – it’s time for us to rethink our approach towards health and the role that weight loss plays and subsequently fall back in love with food again. ‘Til death do us part.
The act of unlearning diet culture.
To unlearn diet culture means to discard ingrained habits and outdated information from your memory to create space for new thoughts and beliefs. I like to think of unlearning as removing pre-existing, poisonous weeds from a vegetation crop to replace them with lively new plants. Unlearning these dogmatic approaches to ‘health’ – including weight loss and dieting – requires consistent effort in order to make space for new patterns of thinking. Here are a few helpful tips to get you started:
- Become aware of the terminologies you give to food and avoid labelling foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
- Reinforce new attitudes towards health by practicing intuitive and mindful eating techniques.
- Focus on dietary quality and work on accepting indulgences in your favourite foods.
- Notice your body’s cues of hunger, fullness and other needs and aim to act on them in the moment.
- Remind yourself that adhering to diet culture can no longer serve you in achieving your goals.
- Be patient with the process as it takes time and repetition to rewire your thoughts and you will not be perfect at it first go.
Confused? Read this article on Intuitive Eating to learn more.
Abundance > limitation.
For successful yet sustainable healthy eating, efforts should focus on dietary abundance rather than restriction. Put the wheels in motion by choosing foods rich in their nutritional value, that nourish your body and taste good and genuinely make you feel like the best version of yourself. Aim to make each meal and snack as satiating as possible by including wholefoods consisting of complex carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats and dietary fibre.
On the other half of this notion, continue to find pleasure and enjoyment by including your favourite foods in moderation without the associated guilt. Although this may sound contradictory to being healthy, research suggests that including these foods a few times a week and within a balanced diet ensures that the individual feels less restricted and therefore, less inclined to overeat when the restriction gets too overwhelming (2). No one wants to end up back in that “all-or-nothing” dieting cycle. Enjoy that hot cross bun (or whatever it is that you like eating) and move on with life.
Goodbye restriction, hello to eating well without deprivation.
Ditch that restrictive diet and instead opt for healthier choices and habits that will stick with you for life. Respect your hunger, respect feelings of fullness and lastly, respect the ebbs and flows of your appetite.
Set yourself up for success by first and foremost educating yourself on the topics of food, eating, and nutrition. A dietitian can help you with this by giving you individualised strategies and recommendations to help you reach your health goals without food restrictions.
If you’re tired of extreme fad diets, or any diet for that matter, and are ready to build some healthy habits, our team are here to help! Our dietitians can provide individualised nutritional advice to help you achieve your goals without restriction!
References
- Eckel RH. The Dietary Approach to Obesity: Is It the Diet or the Disorder? JAMA. 2005 Jan;293(1):96-97. DOI:10.1001/jama.293.1.96.
- Wing RR, Phelan S. Long term weight loss maintenance. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2005 Jul;82(1):222S-225S. DOI:10.1093/ajcn/82.1.222S.
