Today we are going to chat about what happens to your weight when you begin the journey to food freedom. We are going to break down the fears around weight loss, weight gain and maintenance.
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I’m going to share what I needed to hear when I was stuck in the depths of binge, emotional and compulsive eating. I was paralyzed by the idea of gaining unnecessary weight in process of healing. This fear kept me from pursuing and gaining freedom for so long.
At that time when I would try to get off a strict diet I would spiral out of control and overeat. Then to make up for it I would go back to white knuckling it. This only perpetuated the cycle for me and kept me from reaching freedom.
So what can you actually expect to happen when you pursue freedom with a roadmap?
Disclaimer this can look totally different for everyone, and that is perfectly normal.
Typically what happens when you first begin healing your relationship with food is experiencing the last supper mentality. This could look like, having thoughts of, “I’m going to get started on my healing journey which means, I’m never going to binge again, so I mind as well go ALL in one last time.” This last supper mentality can cause us to eat more which might cause our weight to fluctuate.
The fear that most of us deal with is that if we begin this journey of releasing the white knuckle group of control, we will stay stuck in the “last supper” mentality, overeating every single day. But the truth is, that only continues when you don’t have a road map on what to do before, during and after a binge. As we slowly release the built up pressure from years of dieting little by little, this feeling dissipates and we no longer have the last supper mentality. Instead we know that food is available to us when we want, so there is no reason to go all in because it’s not going to get taken away or restricted.
Your body likes to be in homeostasis, which means your body has a weight range that it functions most optimally at. This is most commonly referred to as your weight set point, aka the weight range that you feel best in; mentally, physically and emotionally. We know what this set point is when we have achieved an easy and effortless relationship with food and our weight stabilizes.
If you have excess weight to lose that is outside of what your body feels and functions most comfortably in, you may lose weight that you’ve been carrying because you are naturally listening to your hunger, fullness and satiety cues. We’ve seen this happen to a number of our Food Freedom Online Program ladies, they get to this place where they have reconnected with their bodies natural desire for balance.
It is entirely possible and what your body wants to be in tune with its hunger, fullness and satiety cues as well as feel 100% comfortable and optimal in your skin. Real recovery is when balance is your default mode and you’re working in sync with your body.
Our bodies are amazing and self regulating.. Let them do their thing!
Dieting totally screws up our self regulating system. It messes with our bodies intuitive knowledge of our hunger, satiety and fullness, as well as our hormones. So it takes time for our brain and body to relearn how to communicate and get reconnected, but you will get there with the right techniques and repetition.
On the flip side, if you have been white knuckling it and your body weight is lower than where it would function optimally, it will slowly settle into that beautiful weight set point.
This is not to say that if you have health and fitness goals that you can’t pursue and achieve them, you most certainly can. I want you to know you can achieve your goals but you have to focus on mental health first. Healing your relationship with food has to be your 1st priority above all else for long term sustainable success and FREEDOM!
If you bake your cake in the wrong order it will never end the way you want. If you continue with the strict diets, you will end up driving your relationship with food further into the ground. I promise you a number on the scale or a low body percentage body fat will NOT make you happy. Getting to a place where you have a healthy relationship with food, confidence in your skin AND your mental real estate back is BLISS.
We must understand that if we have excess weight it will eventually stabilize but the first priority is taking care of our mental health. Give your body permission to do what it needs to do with your weight to help you get mentally healthy and everything else will fall into place. You can have it all, confidence in your skin and an easy relationship with food. However, the root goal cannot be weight focus.
Guess what the pay off is of a little weight fluctuation? Lifelong freedom.
The reason it feels so scary to gain weight is because anytime we’ve lost weight, we have done it through a strict diet. The fear of letting go of all the hard work can be crippling. In the Food Freedom Online program, we don’t spiral out of control, we slowly release this built up internal pressure so we can avoid gaining all this excess weight in the process.
At one point, I thought death sounded like a better idea than gaining weight because I couldn’t picture what life would be if I gained 1 more pound. To get to this place where you feel comfortable in your own skin and not be totally crazy around food, you have to pursue things in the right order. If you’re not willing to do that, you will remain on that all or nothing rollercoaster.
Let’s shift our desire to wanting to be in a healthy body that can thrive mentally, emotionally and physically.
I want to end on a few mantras: I believe I can conquer this. I believe that one day I will be able to close this chapter. I believe in healing. I believe that my body knows where it needs to live to be healthy mentally, physically and emotionally.
Learn more about The Dear Body Podcast here and get started with your food freedom journey by clicking here.
