Irrespective of how a lot work you do to unlearn eating regimen tradition’s brainwashing or really feel snug in your pores and skin, there are going to be days once you really feel dangerous about your physique. Give it some thought: We stay in a society that consistently tells us smaller is best, and that getting as shut as doable to the “skinny very best” will earn you’re keen on, acceptance, and dignified remedy.

“People are deeply relational and must really feel a safe sense of belonging,” Amber Stevens, PsyD, scientific director of Galia Collaborative in Cincinnati, Ohio, tells SELF. “The fixed pursuit of shrinking our our bodies by weight-reduction plan has traditionally been one of many simpler methods to scale back the specter of judgment from others.”

However the actuality is that weight-reduction plan hardly ever results in long-term weight reduction (the truth is, it tends to trigger weight achieve, analysis reveals). In my expertise as a dietitian who helps individuals recuperate from consuming problems, I’ve seen firsthand how meals restriction tends to do much more hurt than good. I’ve additionally seen how straightforward it’s for folk to fall for the large guarantees of each new weight-loss fad and dive in head-first, forgetting about all of the methods diets have failed (and damage) them prior to now—or believing that this time might be totally different.

That’s the place slightly self-reflection may also help: Remembering your previous experiences is a strong device for resisting the (comprehensible) temptation to comply with meals guidelines—and dealing towards the meals and physique peace you deserve. The subsequent time you’re feeling like crap about your physique and considering a eating regimen may be the reply, strive the train beneath to see the complete image of how this identical situation has performed out prior to now.

Write down (or file by way of a voice be aware) three to 5 methods diets have failed you.

Replicate in your earlier experiences with diets to remind your self that they finally didn’t ship on their guarantees. Possibly you went on a low-carb plan that left you dreaming of baguettes each night time—and ultimately binging on chocolate chip cookies each weekend. Possibly you had some “success” with calorie counting for a few months a number of years in the past, solely to search out your self obsessed together with your monitoring app, turning down dinner invites with buddies, and again at your beginning weight a number of months later.

“The extra we have a look at the proof that diets have failed us, the extra we will come to phrases with the truth that they’re a money-making ruse,” Dr. Stevens says. “We now have been bought a invoice of lies that ultimately weight-reduction plan will ‘work,’ and that if it doesn’t lead to everlasting weight reduction, it’s our fault reasonably than the actual fact diets are designed to fail.” The disgrace that this creates will be extremely tough to climb out of. Use your listing of the methods diets have failed you as proof that they’re accountable, not you.

Equally vital is considering all of the issues you may achieve from unlearning eating regimen tradition’s BS, which will be arduous to think about should you’ve by no means truly given your self an opportunity to expertise them. So right here’s one other fast train to strive:

Write down 5 methods your life could be extra fulfilling should you weren’t preoccupied with meals and your physique.

Take into consideration what you’d do in another way in your day-to-day life should you weren’t apprehensive about what would (or wouldn’t) occur to your physique consequently. “If individuals have spent numerous hours attempting to stick to strict consuming or train guidelines, they notice they’ve much more free time once they give this stuff up,” Abby Chan, RD, co-owner of Evolve Flagstaff in Flagstaff, Arizona tells SELF.