Faith Broke Up With Diet Culture! How You Can Too!

Hola amigos! Welcome back!

With so many of us seeking weight loss, why bother with intuitive eating? It is not a life hack to weight loss after all. Tune in to listen to how Faith broke up with diet culture and committed to her intuitive eating journey.

Highlights of this episode:

• Pillars of One Small Bite Approach
• Client’s relationship to food and her body
• Client’s journey and outcomes
• Compassion and confidence

Episode Show Notes: 

*This is not a transcript and the show notes hopefully and respectfully reflect the guest speaker’s words and intentions. There is discussion of a weight loss experience, so if that does not support you at this time, please skip this episode. Also, a disclaimer: this is for educational purposes only, not a treatment plan.

[00:59] One Small Bite and Orozco Nutrition

The podcast and Orozco Nutrition dietitians all focus on doing one small thing that will build into meaningful changes. We focus on 4 Pillars, 4 C’s: curiosity, compassion, commitment, and consistency. Curious? Book a free 15-minute discovery call here.

[02:23] How Faith Broke Up with Diet Culture

Faith is a real client of David’s who agreed to be interviewed on the podcast about her anti-diet journey. Like stories in David’s new book, this interview is a vignette through her anti-diet journey.

[05:23] Relationship with Food and Diet Culture

Faith:

As a kid, food was joy. It was with family, like my grandmother’s fish fry on the weekends. As I got older, I started comparing my body with other people outside my family. I noticed my black body was bigger than the white kids at my school.

My first weight loss goals began in college. I worked at an ice cream shop and my activity lowered. Since I was not active, I thought that is why my weight is creeping up. This is when food rules started. I dabbled in vegetarianism, or mostly plant-based. I really emphasized healthy foods. I equated weight and health.

My friend group wasn’t engaged with dieting. Although family members dieted on and off for weight control. It was common. Physicians would suggest weight control at visits. There was not a singular time that I can recall that triggered me to join Weight Watchers.

I joined Weight Watchers and lost 40 pounds in two years. I liked the community.

[15:00] Diet Experience

Faith:

Weight Watchers felt less diet-y and restrictive than other diets. The sense of community was supportive. It helps when people share your journey.

In a few years, the weight was coming back. And I “kinda” did Weight Watchers again.

[David and Faith explore why her commitment changed. David suggests that there is a physical and emotional connection to protect the body against starvation, which could have lowered her commitment subconsciously. She also hired a personal trainer, who was focused on strength, not weight loss. Which is lucky, because too many personal trainers will focus on weight and nutrition, outside of their scope. She lost 15 pounds and struggled to keep it off.]

[24:17] Intuitive Eating Journey

Faith: I saw it on Instagram and hoped intuitive eating was going to be a life hack. I thought it was mindfulness.

David: mindfulness is part of it. What stood out to you the most?

Faith:

Making peace with food and learning everything [food] has its place. I like wine. Intuitive eating helped me enjoy a vacation to Napa Valley. I enjoyed the wine and enjoyed the people I was with. I also liked figuring out what I actually liked. Instead of just lentils, rice, avocado, and kale. I like those things, but do I need to eat them all the time to be healthy? No.

David: How did you start working on everything has its place?

Faith:

Unpacking ideas about food and my rediscovery phase. I realized that I like potato chips and wine on the couch sometimes. No more air popped dry popcorn. Now there is more joy around eating. No more tracking food or worrying about points. I think about food less. I meal plan, with less worry about food.

David: I like to get people back to what they ate as a child. Those childhood foods are cultural. Eating is an experience. Tell me more about meal planning. You know, I don’t do meal plans. But we talked about planning around the food.

Faith:

I tend to make everything more complicated. Luckily, an app has helped me reduce food waste, for environmental and financial reasons. How do I reuse things as a single person? I love freezing things. Can I use the food in different ways so its not boring? Variety is a key thing. Overnight oats were my go-to for years.

David: That thing about food waste is a great example for curiosity. Perfectionism stalls growth. It’s a form of restriction and avoidance behavior in this perfectionist mentality. How does meal planning flow for you?

[43:08] Meal Planning with Listening to Your Body

Faith:

I said one day, I think I need to eat more fruit. You [David] asked, why? I said because I feel good when I eat it, but I don’t eat it. I am always thinking, I should be doing this. My therapist says, I should all over myself. So, I started asking myself, well, why is this a should? What feels good to me?

[48:00] Compassion Coming In

Faith:

I had to learn and relearn self-compassion. I found that my therapy and nutrition counseling have aligned. I learned to embrace my body the way it is. That has been transformative. Focusing on change is different from loving my body the way it is.

I loved the gym, dance, and realizing that I can jazzercize. And maybe I could teach it. Self-compassion has built into confidence. Learning to not be perfect. Having role models that look like me build that confidence. I may or may not teach jazzercize, the fact that I’m entertaining the idea is new to me.

David: I’m an overachiever, I’m going to do too much. So, I lost the love for teaching spin classes. I liked the group and the music. What did you gain from this intuitive eating journey?

Faith:

I really believe in finding things that make you happy, or at least tolerable. I learned compassion and asking myself – how do I feel? I put away my scale. I don’t plan on weighing myself at the doctor. I lost focus on my weight for health.

David: Can you share a bit about your experience with our Get Unstuck Class?

Faith: I like community and I have learned things from others.

David: what is one small thing that someone can do, who is listening?

Faith:  Eat what you want to eat and seeing how it feels. It’s a learning experience.

Important Dates for David’s book, One Small Bite

Presales on Amazon.com now

April 12 – book available on Kindle

April 19 – book available in hardback and paperback

Get Unstuck Class

Starts April 26^th 2022. Registration is going up on the website in a few days. There will be an early bird special. Classes are on Zoom, so no travel necessary.

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Once again, I greatly appreciate you for listening and supporting my show. Remember, it really only takes One Small Bite to start transforming your life.

Chop the diet mentality; Fuel Your Body; and Nourish Your Soul!