Experience and research shows time and time again that diets just don’t work in the long-term. Dieting is exhausting, stressful and impossible to maintain from a biological, emotional and social standpoint. In fact, diets often do more harm than good and over time are associated with weight gain, disordered eating and body dissatisfaction.

If you have been on diets in the past, you may be all too familiar with the frustrations of regaining any weight lost (often with interest!), as is the case with about 95% of dieters. Starving your body, and depriving yourself of your favourite foods is simply not sustainable. It is likely to lead to feelings of being out of control when exposed to “forbidden” foods, which we inevitably are, and result in overeating and associated feelings of shame and guilt.

The non-diet approach provides an alternative to dieting for people with body weight concern. It takes the focus off the pursuit of weight loss and instead focuses on achieving improved health outcomes through healthy behaviours. At the core of the non-diet approach is the focus on responding to internal eating cues, (physical hunger and fullness and the pleasure aspects of eating), self-care and a non-judgmental, nurturing and grateful attitude towards yourself and food. This is also referred to as Mindful Eating or Intuitive Eating and encourages the use of all your senses to guide you in making food choices that are both satisfying and nourishing, without feelings of guilt, shame or deprivation.

There is an emerging body of research which shows that the non-diet approach can lead to improvements in health measures such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels, as well as sustained increases in physical activity and diet quality.  Furthermore, this approach has been shown to significantly improve measures of disordered eating, depression, self-esteem and body image, when compared to traditional dieting.

Ditching diet mentality can take time, especially if you have had a long history of yo-yo dieting. Faye is trained in the non-diet approach and can support you throughout your intuitive eating journey, where you will learn life-long skills for flexible healthy eating.  By combining your intuition with nutrition, you can start to trust your body again to guide your eating decisions, rather than relying on external food rules or strict meal plans. You will notice how different foods make you feel, without judgement, and become more aware of your physical hunger, fullness and satisfaction cues to guide your decisions to start and stop eating.

Tuning in to this inner wisdom can change your relationship with food, permanently. It can help you understand and overcome emotional eating and food cravings. It allows you to enjoy eating food that you feel like when you are hungry, eat until you are comfortably satisfied, and build your confidence to select the types and amounts of foods to best nourish your body, mind and soul.

Ultimately you will feel calm and relaxed around all foods, and enjoy eating, guilt-free!