For many of my clients, the successful first diet is seared into their memory like their first kiss. A memory of the time when they got into their skinny jeans, worked hard to achieve a goal, and felt so healthy.
Diets have a lure of confidence. Willing to be bold. Assured. Diets promise dieters will feel good about themselves when the weight finally comes off.
But, there is a side effect of reaching goal weight that people rarely talk about.
How people really feel doesn’t get advertised. They worry about gaining it back. A part of them thinks I’m not sure how long I can keep this up. And they’re right. Their body has been in a state of starvation for weeks and even months. Their body is whispering “Sorry. Not sorry. This isn’t working for me. You’re not giving me enough nutrients to survive and I’m going to override your will very soon.”
It’s like starting a job and suspecting there was some nutty internal politics among the team during the interview. Your suspicions were confirmed after only a short week.
Weight loss doesn’t leave us satisfied or content. It leaves us stressed and worried about weight gain.
This is why we are hungry.
Some of my clients have been believing they have a sugar or a carb addiction. They’ve been told to only have healthy food in the house and to take out the processed shit. So, they obsess over this food that “may be the death of them”. They worry about going out to eat and just wanting french fries. They stress about what will happen when they go to the movies and their family wants popcorn, Skittles and Peanut M&M’s.
This inner chaos doesn’t get talked about among diet coaches and weight loss leaders. People are thinking this is just the way it is. A battle that always needs to be fought. Food will always be the enemy. Yet, a small part of them wonders if they could relax around food and eat just one and not the whole box.
Dieting, trying to eat clean and restricting what we eat doesn’t leave us satisfied or content. It leaves us feeling guilty and bad about ourselves when we want to enjoy life, relax and eat a cookie. This is why we are hungry.
For many of my clients, weight loss meant stares, encouragement and compliments from friends, family and even strangers. This extra attention felt like a back handed compliment and was uncomfortable. What was wrong with how they looked before? They thought, if I look so great now, does that mean I looked horrible when I weighed an extra 10 or 20 pounds?
A smaller body doesn’t always leave us peaceful. It leaves us questioning our value and feeling like our body is to blame. This is why we are hungry.
If you were wondering why I named my book HUNGRY, now you know. No, it’s not about food. AND, I’ve got some very exciting news. My podcast, (same name!!!) Hungry: Trust Your Body. Free Your Mind has gone live.
In the first episode- I talk about me, why Hungry, and why trusting our body and freeing our mind is so important.
I hope you’ll listen in, please subscribe, rate it and share it with your friends! I’ll be dropping new episodes every other Friday. I’m also interviewing some really inspiring guests, those that have already shifted their relationship with food. You’ll be able to relate to their stories.