The dieting psychosis: Learn to love your food

 

 

It’s the justification that unsuccessful dieters have spent decades looking for: Experts now admit that diets don’t work.

In fact, such restrictive eating plans are harmful. They create negative thought patterns, which block the progress of weight loss. The new school of thought states that the real change needs to start in your brain.

“You have an expert within yourself and I see my job as helping people recognize what is true for them,” says nutritionist Michelle May, M.D., author of “Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat.”

“[I teach people] how to become more in touch with what’s actually happening at that moment in time, with the understanding that using that information is what allows them to make decisions no matter what the situation is.”

The new nondiet is primarily focused on paying attention to your body’s needs and the emotional triggers that cause overeating. And just as destructive as the habits of overeating are the guilt-ridden tendencies of serial dieters. Restrictive eating keeps the focus on food and the fact that you can’t have it, often creating a perpetual cycle of what May refers to as the “eat-repent-repeat” cycle.

“The minute that I stopped dieting, the food began to lose its power over me,” says May, who had struggled with her weight for years before deciding to drop diet eating. “I knew I could have cookies again whenever I wanted, so there was really no point in eating a whole bag.”