How To Deal With the Fear of Food Freedom
Reframe your view about ditching diets for good - you'll be happier you did it
It’s completely understandable if you are afraid of abandoning the diet mindset and your food rules, no matter how badly you want to. At some point, we internalized that these rules meant security and control. Following some (or many) food rules was simply the “right thing to do” in our minds.
Most of my clients are horrified when I tell them right away that we need to abandon these rules and start from a blank sheet. I am not talking about forgetting everything you know about healthy eating, but about radically changing your perspective on some of your food beliefs.
This journey to freedom can be more easily coursed by reviewing some points about your fear of embracing unconditional permission to eat — for good.
(really) Reflecting on your risks
So if you are afraid of abandoning your diet, your food rules, or any restrictions you impose on your eating, I ask you this:
What is the risk you take from NOT abandoning them?
We spent a lot of time worrying about what would happen if we ditched the rules— like I’ll lose control, I’ll live on chocolate and noodles, I’ll eat everything in sight and gain 100 pounds in one month.
Letting go of the rules and deciding to eat what you want almost sounds like being a rebel.
But we rarely stop to think about what might happen if nothing changes, if we continue to live as prisoners of rules, deprived of real freedom, disconnected from our bodies and our wills.
How has this attempt at control worked in your life?
Why live more years down this path of frustration and disconnection?
The fear (and the power) of the new
I know that abandoning our food rules seems like a big challenge, after all, we can’t know what will really happen when we try something totally new. Even though there is someone saying that the grass is much greener on the other side — and I will continue shouting it out until you get the courage to jump over to the other side!
The unknown can be really scary… But the fact that nothing changes can also be scary, right?
From my own take on this, I decided that I did not want to be the old woman in the nursing home living in fear of eating pudding. With the mindset I had before reaching food freedom, that would have been my sad fate.
Learn to trust yourself
Before your mind consisted of all the noise of your food rules, you were able to listen to your body and nourish it the way it needed to be nourished.
Now learn to reconnect with your body. Building this back up takes time. It requires patience and confidence.
This whole “eating without rules” thing is going to be scary at first because, on some level, you’ve learned that restriction and rules mean safety.
This process can be daunting, but think about it: You trusted every new diet you started. You believed it, gave your vote of confidence. You invested your energy, your money and your faith in it, no matter how absurd it sounded like — just like how you thought what a great idea this kale soup detox is!
Relying on your body and your ability to take good care of it is the path to food freedom. Ending your dieting and restricting phases means allowing you to live a fuller, more abundant, and more powerful life.
And You deserve that 🍀
I am a Brazilian girl (living in Sao Paulo with my fiancé — and another 20 million people). I love coffee, books, and good food. I also really enjoy studying and learning new things that allow me to further develop myself both professionally and personally. I have a degree in Food Science and hold a Ph.D. in Agri-food Marketing. Also, I am a Certified Nutrition Coach and an enthusiastic Nutrition student.
There is a power that comes alive when women free themselves from the food prison in which they have learned to live, when they realize that they are capable and deserving of feeling fantastic in their bodies, and that confidence is a state of mind — not a body lotion which you get the right to use when you reach a weight-loss goal.
My work is dedicated to nurturing, celebrating and sharing this message.
