Many of us struggle with food issues and are stuck in a pattern of habitual or emotional eating. We know that diets don’t work. We may even know why we eat compulsively, yet we can’t seem to break the cycle.
Making Peace with Food & your Body is a loving, holistic approach for anyone who would like to get off the diet/binge yo-yo , develop a healthier, more intuitive relationship with food and their bodies, and find their natural body weight without dieting. This psychoeducational and experiential program was developed by a psychotherapist and lifestyle coach to overcome her own cycle of dieting and binge eating.
Why diets don’t work :
Diets do work – temporarily. But statistics indicate that 95% of people regain the weight they have lost through dieting. I believe this is due to diets being restrictive and outer-dictated instead of inner-directed, and because diets don't deal with the emotional factors underlying eating issues. More importantly, diets confirm our belief that we are not OK as we are. If we focus our unhappiness on our bodily "flaws" - including our weight if it doesn't meet the current cultural standard - we may use dieting as a way to feel better about ourselves. Unfortunately we only feel good about ourselves when the numbers or the scale go down. When they don't, we are plunged into self-loathing.
A diet mentality says there are good and bad foods defined by their calories, fat, or sugar content. Therefore, we are "bad" if we've eaten any of these foods and we either berate ourselves for this slip of willpower or try to make up for it by exercising or restricting ourselves the next day. In this mindset the purpose of exercise is to lose weight. Period.
A conscious, intuitive relationship with food tells us that we deserve to enjoy eating without guilt. We eat exactly what we want, enjoy it fully, and stop when we are satisfied knowing that we can have it again whenever we want it. We exercise not primarily to lose weight but because it makes us feel better physically, emotionally and mentally.
"Conscious eating, conscious living” is about learning to live intentionally, from the inside out, with awareness and acceptance of our experiences and of ourselves. If we are overweight, excess weight will melt as a result of taking very good care of our bodies and our emotions.
The goals of this program :
* To accept your body - just as it is. This doesn't mean that it won't change as the result of changes in habits or behaviors; changes will evolve because you care about yourself, not because you hate yourself.
* To transform eating into a pleasurable experience and one to look forward to.
* To stop the cycle of dieting, bingeing, and self-hatred, which triggers the cycle to begin again.
* To eat when you're actually hungry, eat whatever you really want, eat with full awareness and enjoyment, and stop eating when you're satisfied - knowing that you can have a particular food again whenever you want it.
* To change your eating identity from being a "compulsive eater" to an "intuitive eater". This does not mean that you won't fall back into old eating behaviors, but you will find it easier to recognize the triggers, forgive yourself for slipping back, learn from the experience, and get back to eating intuitively.
* To learn alternative ways to nurture yourself besides eating.
* To learn to accept all of your feelings - pleasant and unpleasant - without suppressing or running away from them.
* To change your self-image from one that is based on your body size and shape or your eating behavior, to one that reflects the person inside.
* To learn to trust your intuition - your inner knowing - about what is right for you.
* To love and accept yourself as you are.
Quite an ambitious set of goals! This program is not a "quick fix" approach; nor is it a miracle worker. It's a course in self-awareness, self-discovery, and self-acceptance, focusing on our relationship with food and our bodies and beyond that, to how we are living our lives.
http://www.makingpeacewithfoodandyourbody.com/