I HAVE KEPT THIS BLOG BUT REMOVED ALL AFFILIATE CODES / LINKS
Diets have a lot to answer for with myself and many females – I have a lot of issues surrounding food thanks to years wasted dieting and restricting my food intake.
I have lost weight, and put it back on, and lost it again and put it back on again; all the while losing sight of how to eat normally.
I know that sounds ridiculous, but last year I realised I’d forgotten how to eat. What do I eat for breakfast? What about snacks? I’m so used to restricting my diet, I’ve forgotten how to eat normally.
My grandmother would have been mortified (she was a nutritionist).
So I read books – I read about intuitive eating, and how diets have absolutely ruined society. Females specifically.
How the pressure to look a certain way, combined with the rhetoric that certain foods were bad, meant us women were constantly striving to achieve something unachievable.
Restricting food has been proven to have the opposite effect of helping people lose weight – it just makes the food you restrict be even more desirable.
So when you reach your goal weight, and stop dieting, you end up eating those restricted foods and end up putting the weight back on.
It’s a vicious cycle.
However, at my heaviest (100kgs), I was not happy with my body; and that was ok. So many people tell you “you have to learn to love it” but I just couldn’t.
So after reading about intuitive eating, I decided to give it a shot.
Up until that point, I felt like I’d tried everything – 1200 calorie diets, Keto, juice cleanses, multiple meal plans AND MORE.
At the end of the day the only way to lose weight is to eat less, and eat a more balanced diet.
I realised that in order to lose weight, but eat what I wanted; I had to track what I was eating. So I could keep myself accountable and learn about my eating habits.
But after years of calorie counting, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it again – because it meant I would restrict myself just to hit that calorie target – and that wasn’t good for my mental health OR my physical health.
So I went back to Weight Watchers – now called WW – and signed up to their online-only section.
I used WW to help me figure out how to eat normally (again I know that sounds ridiculous). I used it because it didn’t penalise you for eating vegetables and fruit and all the things that yes they contain calories, but they’re a better choice for us.
UPDATE 28/12/2020: We are coming into 2021 and I am reflecting on my role in diet culture and whilst my own journey is valid, I don’t want to be responsible for encouraging others to do the same as me specifically.
This blog originally contained affiliate links to WW, which I do use still to help me keep on track, however as I said, I don’t want to be encouraging diet culture.
I recommend you go on your own journey, and find what works for you. Don’t believe everything you hear about dieting, calorie counting, restricting, etc etc.
What works for me, doesn’t work for others.
Read as much as you can – highly recommend reading The F**k It Diet.
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