Diet Seduction: Breaking Free From the Toxic Lie

There’s a sexy seducer in town.

I highly doubt it’s the first time you’ve met or connected, but let me tell you, he’s just desperate for your attention.

Persistent in nature, he beckons you to notice him. He shows up on your TV screen, your Facebook, Twitter feed, your favorite magazine, and on many a billboard.

It’s virtually impossible to avoid him. He’s in your ear and he’s telling you sweet nothings, promising you the world.

He tells you that if you get on board with him, happiness, wealth, and the good life is yours for the taking. You just have to say yes.

And guess what? He’s saying the same damn thing to all your best girlfriends, your mom, your little sister, and even your 10 year old niece. This fool is shameless.

His name is Dieting and more than any time of the year, he’s knocking at your doorstep with all his sweet little lies.

(No disrespect to the men I love out there by calling Dieting a him, FYI.)

And I’ve been feeling very called to do all my ladies a service, sit you down, and give it to you straight, because I know he’s not going to.

No, Dieting LOVES to lie and promises each of us a simple yet completely false equation.

Dieting says “take me on. When you do, you get to be skinny, and when you’re skinny, you’ll be loved, rich, and happy. I promise you.”

Dieting tries to give us evidence of this by pumping out image after image of people using his tools who are just that. From diet sodas to diet foods to the ads of the diet themselves, you see images bikini clad people just loving life.

Dieting is promoted as sexy to no end. Some diets even are named after sexy cities that everybody knows are just filled with sexy people. I love how my mentor Marc David pointed out how you never hear a diet named (no offense) “The Oklahoma Diet” or “The Detroit Diet”…it just doesn’t sound quite as sexy as “The South Beach Diet” or “The Malibu Diet”.

And it’s SO cool to be a dieter. When you diet, you are part of the “in-crowd” (I told you he was getting into your girls’ ears.)

Think about it, especially in the new year…

How many people are just raving about the newest diet they are on, and how they are going to stick with it..and that this time it’s going to be different?

How many times do you find (especially with us ladies) friends chatting about the latest diet, picking themselves apart, and vowing together how they are going to rock this diet?

Sadly, it’s way more socially acceptable to talk about how quickly you lost weight, how much you pushed yourself during a workout, and what diet you are on than discussing how you are really connecting with your body and food in a meaningful way and getting truly healthy.

But here’s the thing about Dieting…

He’s a liar. He’s unhealthy for you. He doesn’t have your best interest at heart…in fact he will break your heart and spirit, just like he did all those times before.

He doesn’t give a damn about your nourishment, your true health. He tells you that if you devote yourself to him you’ll have it all..but in reality, you’ll have it all taken away from you.

If you take him on, your life will be consumed by him. Every waking moment will be spent on doing things “right” instead of sharing your gifts with the world. You’ll fight your natural urges, like hunger (more on that in an upcoming post). You’ll determine your worth by your weight. Over time, you’ll shut down.

You’ll lose your glow.

And when he breaks your heart (again), you’ll assume it was all your fault. If only you could just get it right…

So next time you might “try harder”, restrict more, damn your hunger. Hell, you might buy into toxic, toxic lies like this:

(Guess what? I don’t want to be Chanel. Food rocks!)

In short, Dieting is like a very toxic ex-boyfriend who keeps coming back to haunt you. He promises you the world but he never delivers. I know it’s tempting to take him back, but the story will never end differently.

I know this because we were in one hell of a relationship for many, many years. SO glad we broke up.

The time has come to put away your Sweet ‘n Low, your Splenda, your calorie/fat gram counter. The time has come to stop counting points, weighing yourself twice a day, fighting your hunger.

It’s time for a new love, a lasting love, one that doesn’t leave you, doesn’t break your heart, and really, really loves you.

Let’s give it up for Nourishment.

See Nourishment doesn’t ask you to restrict food and fight hunger. And nourishment also doesn’t want you to abuse food in the opposite extreme either, by not caring at all about what you eat and going for a free for all.

Nope, Nourishment calls you towards something deeper, more compassionate, more real. Nourishment has been there since you were a little bitty thing. Nourishment is your natural state, the real way to connect with food.

I wrote a Facebook update the other day about this and I think it really sums up what I am trying to say here:

“There is soul-level difference between wanting to eat and move in a way that truly allows you to live your most healthy, happy, and desire-rich life vs. dieting because you don’t feel like you are enough. A difference between wanting a good challenge, moving that amazing body of yours in a joy-full way, & working up a good sweat vs. punishing yourself via a workout.

Many of us don’t know the difference though, especially us women, because of the way the media and culture have seduced us into dieting, restricting, and forcing our bodies to change. We are sold this idea that if we were just 10, 20, 30 lbs. thinner, life would be perfect. We are sold the idea that the problem is our lack of willpower, our lack of control. As my mentor Marc David says, dieting is sold as something sexy but is actually a gateway to shaming ourselves.

Yes, what we eat makes a difference…but the biggest irony here is that these diet foods are so nutrient depleted, they don’t help create ultimate health anyway.

Until we start to accept that appetite is a gift, nourishing food is a gift, and really grasp that struggles around our weight is so much deeper than how many calories we ate/burned, we’ll stay in this tailspin and diet shame cycle.

It’s time to get curious and interested in our bodies instead of shaming ourselves into another diet. How do we do this? By looking at things from many levels-nutritionally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, soulfully.

This is why I love the work that I do and for being a student of Marc’s work and The Institute for the Psychology of Eating. It’s juicy, it’s real, and it’s waaayy sexier than drinking diet sodas because it speaks to your soul. Real change happens from the inside out!”

Bottom Line: Dieting doesn’t work. If it did, it would have done so by now.

So for this year, for 2013, be willing to NOT try the newsest diet, but a new mindset about food, your body, your life. Give Nourishment a chance. He’s the one that really loves you.

WARNING: I can’t promise you that Dieting won’t try to win you back. When my pants feel a little snug from time to time, he tries to call me up and get in my ear. We were together for so long and when I feel really vulnerable, he really tries to creep in.

But I remember all I’ve gained since losing him. I got my life back, my joy back, my sparkle. And the kicker is it was only when I dropped Dieting and fell in love with Nourishment that I actually released the weight I tried to hard to for so many years. I’m so much more fun, vibrant, and authentic without Dieting.

Nope, Dieting, I’ll never take you back. I love myself too much to fall for your lies again.

And my sweet one, you can do the same.

Stick around and I’ll do my best to show you how you too can fall in love with Nourishment, your body, your life. It’s possible for you too…in fact, it’s your birth-rite.

(If this spoke to you, I’d love to hear your comments below. And if you liked it, share it, my dear. Help me get the word out. xo).

All My Love,

P.S.Need more support and want to truly evolve your relationship with food and your body? To create a body you love and life that rocks without struggle or deprivation?

Then let’s get going!

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I am opening up 10 complimentary sessions to help those who are serious about making real changes in how they connect to food and their body (A $97 value).

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-create a more peaceful, relaxed and nourishing relationship with food
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To book your session, simply click here and let me know you want to claim your complimentary session.

This offer is good until all spots are taken or by January 17th, which ever comes first.

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