Re: Chapter 5: Principle 1: Reject the Diet Mentality

[Guest guest]

After rereading Chapter 5 yesterday, I am feeling pretty good about where I am

in rejecting the diet mentality. I think this is one of the things I've worked

on since October when I first read about IE. The first few months, there was a

part of me that kept wanting to try one last diet, or to make IE into a diet by

being strict about it. I think November sometime, I decided that I was going to

try for three weeks to eat only when hungry and stop when full, with the express

intent of trying to lose some weight. That backfired after about three days if I

remember correctly.

So since then, I've been trying to relax and to not diet or pseudo-diet. It

definitely takes a bit of mental nudging to get myself not to count calories

sometimes. It is just something I do from years of trying to restrict my food by

counting calories. When it comes on, the best I can do is to try very hard to

think of something else and not focus on adding calories up.

Lately, I've also been questioning how useful it is to weigh myself. I find it

interesting that they make a point of talking about this issue in the chapter. I

have definitely cut back on weighing myself; especially recently I've been

trying to do it only every few weeks. But more and more, I feel like there's no

real point to it, except for me to go through some whole routine of feeling

elated or let down by the number. I was talking to my mother the other night

about this, and she was saying how she thought it was important to look at the

scale for health reasons. But that doesn't really make too much sense to me,

because I don't need a scale to tell me if I've lost or gained weight for the

most part. I can tell by how I feel physically or by how much I've been eating.

And I don't know what else the scale would tell me about my health besides what

my weight is. And there is a lot to know about my health besides my weight, like

I work out, I try to eat healthy foods, I care for my body. I am thinking

recently that I should just forgo the scale altogether.

The other part of the chapter that really stood out to me upon rereading it was

the bit about paradigm shifts in the section on how to reject the diet

mentality:

" A paradigm is a model or frame of reference by which we perceive and

understand the world. In the world of weight management, dieting is the cultural

paradigm by which we attempt to control our weight. A paradigm shift is a break

with tradition, with old ways of thinking, with old paradigms. We must change

our paradigm to reject dieting; only then can we build a healthy relationship

with food and our bodies. "

I really related with this quotation. I think that for real change to occur, on

a personal or societal level, change in how people view the world, how they talk

about it, has to occur. In terms of dieting/weight management/food issues, I

have definitely found that when I have experienced change in objective outer

levels, what really precipitated it was a change in how I viewed the issue at

hand. When I was in high school, I prescribed to the idea that I had to eat very

little food to lose weight and restrict myself, and I struggled greatly with my

weight and never lost anything for good. By the time I got to college, however,

I was willing to consider new ideas like exercising whether or not I was on a

diet or starting to eat a bigger variety and reasonable amount of food. I think

it was those things that ultimately helped me to lose weight.

After my successful college diet, I think I always felt that I had figured out

part of the puzzle but there was still something else I needed to work on. I had

pinpointed that something as becoming more athletic or ramping up the exercise

program to lose weight, but now I think what I need to feel at peace with my

weight is to recognize that I can feel this way starting today, no matter what

weight I'm at, and to learn to respond to my body's signals about what I should

eat.

So those are my thoughts on Chapter 5.

Thanks!

Meg

>

> I'm a couple days delayed here...just because I've been dozing on the

> couch at night and don't get to my responses in time. Boo hiss!!!

>

> This chapter is complex and it's hard to identify questions for each

> individual since we are all at such a different place. Please read

> the chapter, look at the " how-to " steps, identify where you still

> might be passively dieting, and look at the chart towards the end of

> the chapter.

>

> In other words...please feel free to share where you are in your

> journey with Principle 1, how you feel about it, and what strategies

> you're employing to fully reject the diet mentality.

>

> Go forth and comment!

>

>

>