Five Steps to Get out Of Diet Prison
Five Steps to Get out Of Diet Prison
Gillian is an expert in intuitive eating and author of Five Steps To Break Out Of Diet Prison. She has a Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology and certification as a Wellness Coach from the American College Of Sports Medicine and Well Coaches.
Even though she was fitness professional Gillian battled with disordered eating and chronic dieting. She struggled to give dieting advice to her clients because she knew it wasn’t working for her. Gillian had become obsessed with her weight and body image. Then she met a dietician who taught intuitive eating and was finally able to make her peace with food and rid herself of her obsession, lose the weight and keep it off whilst eating the food she wanted. Gillian then re-designed her business to focus on teaching other how to eat intuitively.
One of Gillian’s programs is call ‘Five Steps to Break out of Diet Prison’ I had the privilege of interviewing Gillian recently and she shared these steps with me.
Step one is recognising that diets do not work. Over time the number of people able to maintain weight loss after dieting is decreasing, in fact the vast majority of dieters not only gain the weight shed but actually gain that and more. One reason for this is “diet deprivation backlash.” Most diets restrict certain foods and the more you deprive yourself the stronger your cravings become, this perpetuates the cycle of overeating leading to guilt, shame and weight gain thus more guilt and more dieting.
Another reason is that chronic dieting increases the body’s efficiency at storing fat, to the point where clients who had, had liposuction (where fat cells are removed from areas of the body like thighs, hips and abdomen) found that when they regained the weight they put it on in the places where fat cells still existed like around their neck and throat. Gillian believes that you have to move on from the diet mentality, trust your body to know when you are full and when to stop eating, realise that all foods are permissible because no food is evil. Dieting is all about control, making the choice to eat intuitively is about being in charge rather than in control.
Step two is rejecting the diet mentality. Dieting has become an accepted and encouraged part of western society. A dieter eats according to calorie count or points or grams of protein, fat or carbohydrates, exercise is used to burn calories and is often used by the dieter as a form of self punishment for overeating. People think that they fail on diets because of a lack of willpower but really it is the diet that is failing. The dieter is encouraged to ignore the natural cravings of the body. Gillian refers to this as black and white thinking; beliefs such as we are good when on a diet and bad when we come off it, need to be rejected. Striving for perfection is another diet mentality trait.
Not placing too much emphasis on scales, measuring cups etc is Step three. If possible be rid of them altogether and measure yourself in terms of hunger and feelings of fullness. This is the basis of intuitive eating and once mastered puts the individual firmly in charge on their eating and their weight.
The recognition of diets in disguise, pseudo diets, is step four. The diet mentality can crop up even when you think you are not on a diet. For example deciding to just eating healthily can constitute a diet because it will restrict certain foods and engenders feelings of being good or bad, right or wrong. Diets in disguise include counting grams of fat and sugar and counting carbs, eating only at specific times of day, not eating breakfast, not eating after a certain time at night and overexercising.
Finally step five is learning to eat intuitively like babies do. Babies usually scream when they are hungry and stop eating when they are full. We have forgotten those instincts and have been influenced in childhood by such phrases as “you can’t be hungry it isn’t dinnertime yet”, “eat it all up or you can’t have dessert.”
Intuitive eating, a term coined by dieticians Evelyn Tribole MS RD and Elyse Resch MS RD FADA addresses the physical disconnection with the body and helps to overcome emotional overeating and other disordered eating patterns.
Make the decision to stop dieting, give yourself permission to eat any food you like guilt free. Some who read this might immediately feel fearful that they would then be out of control, gain lots of weight and perhaps live on all their favourite foods (formally non diet foods). However the reality is your body will demand the foods that help you to feel healthy and energetic, sometimes these will be treat foods but for the most part intuitively your body will chose nutritious foods that feel good and fuel your body.
Over time you will learn to ask yourself “Am I hungry?” and you will instinctively know the answer. You will also be able to discern when it is time to stop eating, naturally knowing that you are full and satisfied. In this context satisfied means you have eaten enough of what you wanted to eat and you know that you are satisfied and can now stop. You also know that when you are physically hungry again you can again eat whatever you want. This eating style allows you to give up the preoccupation with food and use that mental energy for other aspects of your life.
Learning to eat intuitively by reconnecting with your natural hunger enables you to cease being susceptible to the next fad diet, enables you to let go of the guilt you associate with food in general and certain foods in particular and ultimately to arrive at and maintain your natural healthy body weight.
So perhaps it’s time to ignore the diet industry hype and reconnect with your body’s natural weight and energy management system.
Five Steps to Get out Of Diet Prison - To learn more about this author, visit Lenore Miller's Website.
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Every now and again you come across someone who seems to be speaking to you in a language you understand, maybe reminding you of some forgotten truth you’ve buried deep inside. Gillian Hood-Gabrielson is one of those people, awakening your inner connection to your natural appetite, that intuitive knowing that has been buried underneath all the silly diet rules and conditioning of your life to date. You know the ones, ‘eat everything on your plate or you can’t have dessert’, ‘think of all the starving children in (insert the country here)’ or maybe rules like no carbs after lunch time, never let yourself get hungry, and on it goes.
Gillian is an expert in intuitive eating and author of Five Steps To Break Out Of Diet Prison. She has a Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology and certification as a Wellness Coach from the American College Of Sports Medicine and Well Coaches.
Even though she was fitness professional Gillian battled with disordered eating and chronic dieting. She struggled to give dieting advice to her clients because she knew it wasn’t working for her. Gillian had become obsessed with her weight and body image. Then she met a dietician who taught intuitive eating and was finally able to make her peace with food and rid herself of her obsession, lose the weight and keep it off whilst eating the food she wanted. Gillian then re-designed her business to focus on teaching other how to eat intuitively.
One of Gillian’s programs is call ‘Five Steps to Break out of Diet Prison’ I had the privilege of interviewing Gillian recently and she shared these steps with me.
Step one is recognising that diets do not work. Over time the number of people able to maintain weight loss after dieting is decreasing, in fact the vast majority of dieters not only gain the weight shed but actually gain that and more. One reason for this is “diet deprivation backlash.” Most diets restrict certain foods and the more you deprive yourself the stronger your cravings become, this perpetuates the cycle of overeating leading to guilt, shame and weight gain thus more guilt and more dieting.
Another reason is that chronic dieting increases the body’s efficiency at storing fat, to the point where clients who had, had liposuction (where fat cells are removed from areas of the body like thighs, hips and abdomen) found that when they regained the weight they put it on in the places where fat cells still existed like around their neck and throat. Gillian believes that you have to move on from the diet mentality, trust your body to know when you are full and when to stop eating, realise that all foods are permissible because no food is evil. Dieting is all about control, making the choice to eat intuitively is about being in charge rather than in control.
Step two is rejecting the diet mentality. Dieting has become an accepted and encouraged part of western society. A dieter eats according to calorie count or points or grams of protein, fat or carbohydrates, exercise is used to burn calories and is often used by the dieter as a form of self punishment for overeating. People think that they fail on diets because of a lack of willpower but really it is the diet that is failing. The dieter is encouraged to ignore the natural cravings of the body. Gillian refers to this as black and white thinking; beliefs such as we are good when on a diet and bad when we come off it, need to be rejected. Striving for perfection is another diet mentality trait.
Not placing too much emphasis on scales, measuring cups etc is Step three. If possible be rid of them altogether and measure yourself in terms of hunger and feelings of fullness. This is the basis of intuitive eating and once mastered puts the individual firmly in charge on their eating and their weight.
The recognition of diets in disguise, pseudo diets, is step four. The diet mentality can crop up even when you think you are not on a diet. For example deciding to just eating healthily can constitute a diet because it will restrict certain foods and engenders feelings of being good or bad, right or wrong. Diets in disguise include counting grams of fat and sugar and counting carbs, eating only at specific times of day, not eating breakfast, not eating after a certain time at night and overexercising.
Finally step five is learning to eat intuitively like babies do. Babies usually scream when they are hungry and stop eating when they are full. We have forgotten those instincts and have been influenced in childhood by such phrases as “you can’t be hungry it isn’t dinnertime yet”, “eat it all up or you can’t have dessert.”
Intuitive eating, a term coined by dieticians Evelyn Tribole MS RD and Elyse Resch MS RD FADA addresses the physical disconnection with the body and helps to overcome emotional overeating and other disordered eating patterns.
Make the decision to stop dieting, give yourself permission to eat any food you like guilt free. Some who read this might immediately feel fearful that they would then be out of control, gain lots of weight and perhaps live on all their favourite foods (formally non diet foods). However the reality is your body will demand the foods that help you to feel healthy and energetic, sometimes these will be treat foods but for the most part intuitively your body will chose nutritious foods that feel good and fuel your body.
Over time you will learn to ask yourself “Am I hungry?” and you will instinctively know the answer. You will also be able to discern when it is time to stop eating, naturally knowing that you are full and satisfied. In this context satisfied means you have eaten enough of what you wanted to eat and you know that you are satisfied and can now stop. You also know that when you are physically hungry again you can again eat whatever you want. This eating style allows you to give up the preoccupation with food and use that mental energy for other aspects of your life.
Learning to eat intuitively by reconnecting with your natural hunger enables you to cease being susceptible to the next fad diet, enables you to let go of the guilt you associate with food in general and certain foods in particular and ultimately to arrive at and maintain your natural healthy body weight.
So perhaps it’s time to ignore the diet industry hype and reconnect with your body’s natural weight and energy management system.
Five Steps to Get out Of Diet Prison - To learn more about this author, visit Lenore Miller's Website.
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