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Break the Diet Cycle with Intuitive Eating

Mar 07, 2022

Good morning! Thank you to everyone who came out to Break the Diet Cycle presentation. I hope you’re

starting today feeling curious about Intuitive Eating and eager to rediscover your favorite foods in a fresh,

positive way. I attached the PDFs of the presentation for you to reference, as well as the “HAES (Health

at Every Size) Manifesto”, by Dr. Lindo Bacon, author of Health at Every Size. This provides a snapshot of

the science behind the weight neutral approach, Health at Every Size, which Intuitive Eating is aligned

with.

For those of you who couldn’t attend, you may be wondering- what exactly is Intuitive Eating? As I

mentioned in an earlier newsletter, Intuitive Eating is a non-diet approach to food and health. The

framework consists of 10 principles to help you examine and reevaluate your beliefs & attitudes about

your body, your food, physical activity, health, and more. While practicing Intuitive Eating, individuals

relearn how to eat in accordance to their natural hunger and fullness cues; food cravings; energy needs,

and so on. They begin to trust their body to tell them when to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat.


The Ten Principles of Intuitive Eating are:

1. Reject the Diet Mentality

2. Honor Your Hunger

3. Make Peace with Food

4. Challenge the Food Police

5. Feel Your Fullness

6. Discover the Satisfaction actor

7. Cope with Your Feelings without Using Food

8. Respect Your Body

9. Exercise to Feel the Difference

10. Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition


Intuitive Eating may seem like a straightforward concept, but in a culture that heavily promotes dieting and

weight loss as a path to health, happiness, and even moral virtue, it can be hard to break out of the Diet

Cycle (seen below). Also known as the “Restrict-Binge Cycle”, this eating pattern is typically kicked off by

some diet thought, like “I need to lose weight” or “I need to start eating better”.

Here are some examples of how this might play

out: 

● Eating “clean” all week only to overeat all your favorite foods during the weekend.

● Sticking to a diet plan all day long, staying within the calorie goal, up until nighttime

when it seems like all your cravings hit at once.

● Keeping a particular snack food out of the house, only to binge on it once you finally cave and buy it after a tough day.

● Or just generally feeling “out of control” around certain foods you don’t consider healthy and are off-limits.


Relatable? You’re not alone. Many of my clients have been stuck in the Diet Cycle at some point in their

life, with a common idea being that they either need to lose weight or eliminate certain foods in order to

be healthy (refer to the attached HAES Manifesto for more reading on this!). And while their intention is

good, they end up falling into this trap where they deprive themselves of adequate fuel or satisfying foods

(or both), in order to reach their health goal. When they inevitably break the diet, “Diet Culture” messaging

tells them they are the problem; that they don’t have willpower; that they aren’t disciplined enough, which

contributes to feelings of guilt and shame.


The reality though, is that “diets” (restrictive diets) don’t work because they create a state of deprivation,

either in the biological or the mental sense. Meaning, whether we are restricting our energy intake to meet

a weight loss goal, or avoiding food groups or favorite foods due to diet rules, it could lead to a

compensatory response or “rebound” eating (like eating the whole sleeve of Girl Scout cookies at once,

secretly sneaking the extra slices of pizza, or eating past comfortable fullness every weekend or anytime

you encounter “fun foods”). Repeated attempts to restrict in pursuit of “good health” can instead lead to a

strained, unhealthy relationship to your body and your food. The guilt, shame, and the belief that you are

a “failure” may create more distrust in your body and your ability to make your own healthy choices. This

leads to the feeling that you have to rely on a diet plan to “stay on track”, “finally” lose weight, or eat

“right”. Which of course perpetuates the cycle.


So where do you go from here? You can learn more about Intuitive Eating here. I also provided some

suggestions at the end of my presentation for how to start practicing Intuitive Eating today. Check them

out in the attached PDF. If you would like additional guidance, send me an email:

[email protected] with “Advantage Strength Discovery Call” in the subject line, and we’ll set up a

free 30-minute Discovery Call so you can ask questions and learn more about my approach & services.

All for now! Look for more nutrition content every other week in Brian’s newsletter. Thanks for reading!

→ What I’m Reading: The Black Women in Food Initiative (BWIF) feature on Dine Diaspora

→ What I’m Streaming: “Reconnecting with Our Foods & Seeds with Shelley Buffalo”, Spirit Plate

Podcast, hosted by Shiloh Maples, and produced by Whetstone Radio Collective

→ What I’m Cooking: Fudgy Chocolate Cake with Fluffy Chocolate Frosting by Yossy Arefi from her

book, Snacking Cakes

Mary is a Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor working in partnership

with Advantage Strength to offer Nutrition services. Her background is in clinical nutrition, local food

systems, and culinary arts. Her goal is to help enhance your relationship to your food, your body, and your

community. To learn more, visit http://www.marybalogrdn.com/(or stay tuned for more newsletter content!).

What They Don’t Tell You About Dieting

29 Mar, 2022
So far I’ve introduced a little about the “non-diet” approach , as well as the Diet Cycle , which many people find themselves stuck in when using a restrictive “diet” approach to food and health. For some of those people, the idea of eating what they love and “giving up” on diet or weight loss doesn’t seem like an option, understandably. We face a LOT of pressure, day after day, to eat “clean” and lose weight. That pressure may come from well-intentioned family, friends, and healthcare professionals who are concerned about our health (more on that later); or from fear-inducing headlines that compare sugar to poison; or from photo-shopped & face-tuned ads on Instagram of celebrities selling their flat tummy tea or shapewear. We are surrounded by Diet Culture, and are forced to engage with it- no matter if it’s coming from our loved ones, acquaintances, coworkers, or even strangers. What exactly is Diet Culture? You might have an idea just from the sound of it... Messaging that promotes diet & weight loss. Right? It’s actually more than that. Here’s a definition from Aubrey Gordon, author of “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat”: Diet Culture: “A system of cultural beliefs and practices that equates thinness not just with health, but with moral virtue, and which advocates for weight loss at any cost. Diet culture isn’t just a matter of being on a diet, but of the social forces that make dieting (or lifestyle changes or wellness) culturally mandatory for so many of us.” The key phrases are “moral virtue” and “weight loss at any cost”. Diet culture doesn’t only convince us that weight loss is necessary (to be beautiful, to demonstrate our worth, or to be healthy); but it creates this pressure that we are MORALLY obligated to do so. In order to be perceived as good, responsible people, Diet Culture urges us to pursue weight loss at any cost- which could mean sacrificing our social life, a significant amount of money on supplements or meal replacements or programs, our emotional wellbeing, and even our physical wellbeing. Maybe diet and weight loss aren’t so healthy after all… And while this may not be everyone’s experience, we have research that demonstrates the following emotional impacts of restrictive dieting: Dieting is associated with higher anxiety levels (Kwasnicka, 2020) Dieting is associated with poorer emotional and mental quality of life (Burns etal, 2001) Dieting is linked with reduced life satisfaction (Esch and Zullig, 2013) Further, restrictive dieting has actually been found to cause weight GAIN. To be clear, weight gain is nothing to be ashamed about (bodies change!); but if the multibillion dollar diet industry is selling a diet plan for weight loss, they’re not exactly being honest about the likely outcomes. 1⁄3 to 2⁄3 regained weight within 1 year, with almost all weight regained within 5 years (1992 NIH Consensus) Most weight is gained back within 2 years and most gained back all the weight by 5 years (2013 Australian Research Council) A team of UCLA researchers reviewed 31 long term studies on the effectiveness of dieting and concluded that dieting is a consistent predictor of weight gain —up to two-thirds of the people regained more weight than they lost (Mann 2007) This quote from Weight Watchers former Finance Director sums it up pretty well:

Snack Break with Mary

25 Jan, 2022
Snack Break with Mary Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist & Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor at Advantage Strength

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