How often do you use curiosity when you think about food? If you are like most, curiosity doesn’t even enter the realm of thought when you think about your food behaviors. If you have been a chronic dieter, its almost your norm to be judging and criticizing what you eat. This judgement is what creates a war with food and your body.
If you can be open to start to look at things with curiosity versus judgement, you can find a whole new relationship with yourself and with food. When you look at your food behaviors curiously, you start to find a compassion for yourself. This compassion may start out small, very small. After all, when you are used to always judging yourself, switching to a place of compassion will be an active state of reminding yourself that it is an option you have, to look at things differently. With this compassion, you can be more curious with how dieting or following rules with food have impacted the way you experience food in your life.
You may not realize all the ways that your body has been talking to you because you have been ignoring signals and cues with the plan or diet that you have been following. Even if you are not actively following a diet, there are rules that you can be unconsciously still following. A lot of people feel a frustration with the way their body may be “reacting,” such as being hungry when “its not supposed to.” Or still wanting more food, even though you ate all the food or calories that you were allowed. Maybe you feel you can’t stop eating the cookies or chips or bread or whatever food it is, that you feel you can’t control yourself around. Or the biggest frustration, not losing the weight that you were “supposed” to lose and/or keep it off.
