5 Ways to Cultivate Trust and Ditch the Diet

Let’s talk about the word DIET.

Simply meaning, “food that a person habitually eats.” The word, and the meaning behind it, is harmless.

Where we really get in trouble with the word "diet" is applying it to support an illusive ideal set by an external source.

Cultural standards of beauty coupled with deteriorating food systems have lead us away from what should be a very intuitive relationship with food.

Overcoming diet culture is not about ditching caring about how we eat. It is, however, about embracing the body we each have as the unique, living and breathing, being of nature that it is.

For decades, diets have been a direct route to conformity. Many of us have walked this path countless times. It's created a lot of confusion about what we should actually be eating and caused distrust to form between mind and body. Breaking the diet cycle isn't just about walking in a different direction, it is about remembering the ability we once had to fully listen to the body. It's about returning to the deep well of wisdom that sits within each of us.

Being anti-diet has very little to do with what you do or do not eat. It has everything to do with cultivating trust with that inherent wisdom with which you were born when you came into this body at birth.

Here are my top 5 ways to begin doing that work:

1. Pay closer attention to what feels good to your body. How does it feel after you eat a certain food? How do the clothes you choose to wear feel? How does your body feel with the movement you offer it?

2. Take time to listen. We can’t know what our body needs if we aren’t paying attention. A couple deep breaths can quickly connect you with your inner voice and gut feeling.

3. Be creative in a way that is for nobody other than yourself, but simply for the shear pleasure of creating. This hones our connection with internal forms of inspiration.

4. Connect with the Earth. Living closely with the Earth body draws us into deeper connection with own bodies.

5. Stop betraying yourself. Each time you go against what you intuitively know is right for your body, you break trust. Likewise, each time you honor what your body needs, you build trust.