Ways to Reject Diet Mentality

The Dieter’s Dilemma model (Above) was created by John P. Foreyt and G. Ken Goodrick, who are psychologists.

*Adapted from: https://www.habitsforwellbeing.com/not-happy-with-your-body-a-diet-is-not-the-answer/

The trigger for this cycle is:

1. "The desire to be smaller", which Intuitive Eating believes is "programmed by diet culture and leads to:

2. "Dieting…

3. "Dieting increases cravings and urges for food…

4. "The dieter gives in to the craving, overeats, and eventually regains any lost weight…

5. "They are back to where they started, with the original weight—or higher…

"And once again the dieter has the desire to shrink their body… and so another diet begins. The Dieter’s Dilemma is perpetuated and gets worse with each turn of the cycle, making the dieter feel more out of control with eating."

4 Steps to Rejecting the Diet Mentality

Step 1: Recognize and Acknowledge the Damage that Dieting Causes
Biological and Health-Related

• Chronic dieting teaches the body to retain more fat when you start eating again

• Dieting decreases metabolism

• Dieting increases binges and cravings

• Dieting increases the risk of premature death and heart disease

• Dieting causes satiety cues to atrophy

  Dieting causes body shape to change
  

  Psychological and Emotional

• Dieting is linked to eating disorders

• Dieting may cause stress or make the dieter more vulnerable to its effects

• Dieting is correlated with feelings of failure, lowered self-esteem, and social anxiety

• The dieter is often vulnerable to loss of control, overeating

• Dieting gradually erodes confidence and self-trust

• The result of dieting could lead to people erroneously believe they have some fundamental character deficit

Step 2: Be Aware of Diet-Mentality Traits and Thinking

• Forget willpower

• Forget being obedient

• Forget about failure

Step 3: Get Rid of the Dieter’s Tools

• The scale as a false idol

• When a pound is not a pound

Step 4: Be Compassionate Toward Yourself

Intuitive Eating Principle #4:
Challenge the Food Police (as seen in Ch. 9, pgs. 123-149)2

"…In the world of diet culture, specific voices crop up from moment to moment, which influence how we feel and how we behave… There are three that can be primarily destructive:

• The Food Police: Scrutinizes every eating action, keeps food and your body at war

• The Nutrition Informant: Provides nutrition evidence to keep you in line with dieting and diet culture

• The Diet Rebel: The rebellious voice that tells you to act out with food

But we also can develop powerful allies; these voices are:

• 
  The Food Anthropologist: The neutral voice that makes observations about food without making judgment

• The Nurturer: The voice that provides gentle, compassionate messages; like a loving grandparent or best friend

• The Nutrition Ally: Has an interest in eating healthy with no underlying agenda

Some of these voices came when we were born, but have become dormant, while others we developed from experiences with family and in society. We may hear different voices at different times in our lives.

Negative self-talk stems from irrational beliefs. There are different types of thinking that can occur:

• Dichotomous or Binary Thinking

• All or nothing thinking, always or never snacking, good or bad foods, etc.

• Ditch black and white thinking, go for gray

• Absolutist Thinking

• Belief that you must behave in a certain way to achieve a desired result, or else something undesirable will happen

• Cast out "absolutes" language, replace with permissive, flexible statements

• Using words like can, may, and is ok

• Catastrophic Thinking

• Belief that everything that brings you happiness in life depends on your success with a certain task, ie: to eat in a specific way or change your body

• This exaggerated way of thinking leads you to be miserable and look at the future in a dismal way

• Replace dismal thoughts with positive, accurate, hopeful, coping thoughts

• Pessimistic Thinking (‘The Cup is Half-Empty’)

• Worst-case-scenario type of thinking, highly critical of self and others

• "A person who thinks this way has great difficulty appreciating their small successes."

• Change to "the cup is half-full" thinking

• Linear Thinking

• Belief that if you stick to the plan, you’ll be successful; if you make a mistake, you’ll fall off the wagon

• "The faster I do it, the more successful I am" or "To be successful, I must reach my goal by the specified target date"

• Change to process thinking

• Not focusing on the end result, but the learning and changes along the way

• Accepting the "peaks and valleys"

• Increases ability to recognize Intuitive Eating signals

References:
1. Tribole E, Resch E. Principle 1: Reject the diet mentality. In: Tribole E, Resch E, 4th ed. Intuitive Eating; A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach. St. Martin’s Essentials; 2020:64-83.
2. Tribole E, Resch E. Principle 4: Challenge the food police. In: Tribole E, Resch E, 4th ed. Intuitive Eating; A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach. St. Martin’s Essentials; 2020:123-149.