Seeing The Diet Mentality’s True Colors

If you’ve heard of intuitive eating (IE), you’ve probably heard of the diet mentality. And maybe you’re like “WTH is the diet mentality?” Or, maybe you know, and you’re not convinced it needs to be challenged? Or, do you find yourself somewhere in between?

Let’s talk about the seeing diet mentality’s true colors, and seeing it for what it really is (an illusion of control). That might help!

Seeing the Diet Mentality for What it Really Is

Let’s be clear: The diet mentality wants to be in the driver’s seat. It’s a mindset that thrives on the illusions of control, safety, and comfort. While, more often than not, a diet mentality is creating more angst, food anxiety, and stress.

The ten principles of intuitive eating aren’t meant to be followed as a ten-step program. Yet, it’s nearly impossible to eat intuitively if a Diet Mentality is still at the steering wheel, navigating your every move.

The first principle of this anti-diet approach—Rejecting The Diet Mentality— is focused on helping you kick this mentality to the curb, which opens up the driver’s seat. Now, YOU and your body are in control again. 

This is more complicated than it may seem, of course. We LIVE in diet culture. It’s everywhere, especially in times like this—a global pandemic—when angst, anxiety, stress, depression, and uncertainty are rampant.

Diet culture always finds a way into the conversation, trying to be heard above logic and reason.

If you’ve seen any PR pitches about how the Keto diet will “Save you from COVID-19!” (true story, in my inbox), insensitive jokes about gaining the “Quarantine-15” on social media, or “Macro Counts for Staying Home” lists (again, a real thing), you KNOW. The Diet Mentality wants to grasp onto these promises, and is triggered by this uncertainty.

These are hard times for everyone, in some way or another. And that’s when the Diet Mentality loves to sneak in and take over. 

I hope this conversation with Shana Spence MS RD, on the RD Real Talk Intuitive Eating Podcast Series, helps!

We talk about why the Diet Mentality gets in the way of eating intuitively, and HOW to: 1) identify it, and 2) kick it out of the driver’s seat. It takes work, no doubt. And you may spend a lot of time (weeks, months, or longer) learning to ignore this voice, these rules, and the cultural norms. That’s OK. Be patient, and stay the course!

Are you looking for help with bringing this non-diet approach to your clients, and your work as a dietitian?

The new RD Real Talk Webinar: The Non-Diet Basics, is a full 90 minutes of practical tips, real-life applications for dietitians and RDs2be, and answers to your most commonly asked questions about intuitive eating.

I really enjoyed this webinar. It was helpful to see common questions around IE addressed and gave me some more ideas for language to use around addressing some of these same questions with my clients.

Anonymous testimonial through the post-webinar survey

Click here to purchase and watch (or listen to) for the RD Real Talk Non-Diet Basics webinar to learn more!

Thank you to our episode partner, Marci Evans MS CEDRD-S, and her online trainings for nutrition professionals! Enter to win one of Marci’s renowned courses FOR FREE! That’s almost $400 in continuing education credits.

Subscribe to the RD Real Talk newsletter to learn more, and stay up to date on the RD Real Talk podcast intuitive eating series!

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Follow Shana Spence and her work: 
thenutritiontea.com/about and @TheNutritionTea on Instagram. 

Pre-order your copy of Intuitive Eating, the book’s 4th Edition! 

 

source https://betterweightloss.info/seeing-the-diet-mentalitys-true-colors/