Intuitive Eating Isn’t a Diet…by Liimu

As many of you know, I made the decision late last year to chronicle my journey back to my pre-pregnancy weight here on this blog. At the same time, I realized that I was completely fed up with diets and punishing exercise and I began to get immersed in the world of Intuitive Eating, including reading Geneen Roth and others. What was frustrating is that rather than settling on my ideal weight, as the books and articles promised would eventually happen, I watched the scale go up and up. I was already 50 pounds over what I consider to be my ideal weight, so this was totally not sitting well with me.

I combed the internet to see if I was doing something wrong. Every fiber of my being screamed out for me to go on a diet and yet, the truth is I’m done with dieting. I just am. I sort of wish I weren’t, but I totally am. So, I prayed. I prayed for the answer because I was sick and tired of being at that jumping off point of being ready to let go of my old way of doing things but not knowing yet how to do things the new way.

And then the answer came to me like a smack in the forehead:

Intuitive eating isn’t a diet…

…but it’s not NOT a diet.

The wikipedia definition of a diet (the noun, that is, not the verb), is “the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group.” That doesn’t say anything about restricting or starving or controlling. In fact, it’s only when diet is used as a verb that even any mention is made of how dieting relates to weight loss.

I realized that what I had been doing was still just sort of eating whatever I wanted. Intuitive eating for maintenance, I guess, when what I want is to lose weight. I’m not ashamed or afraid to admit it. I. Want. To. Lose. Weight. So, I need to adjust my diet so that it supports that goal. Simple as that.

So for the past week, that’s what I’ve been doing and by gum, I think it’s working. I can tell you, it’s working inside my head. I’m no longer worried about whether or not I’m doing this right. I just wake up every morning and pray for the willingness to do it right. Because I know what to do, I just need to do it.