Ok – so this concept of mindful eating isn’t NEAR as trendy or popular as dieting. You would never hear Regina George (Mean Girl reference) talk about mindful eating. No way.

Dieting is popular.

It’s seductive.

It’s accepted as a cultural norm.

It’s everywhere (omg just check out Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, we are a nation obsessed with food). And everyone seems to be dieting or reading the best selling diet book so it must be the road to food salvation, right? If everyone is on the diet band wagon then there must be something out there that I just don’t know about is the trap we all can fall for. The latest and greatest diets packaged up with the guarantee and promise that you will have all the things you totally deserve.

Peace with food.

Peace with your body.

Funny not funny thing is, when you diet long enough you will definitely NOT have peace with food OR your body. If anything, dieting creates disordered eating and a chaotic relationship with food. I say this because I feel hook, line and sinker for diet cultures charm and false promises for over T-W-O decades. I think that would make me an expert in dieting. And I don’t say that to brag because if I could have a do-over, I would NEVER EVER have started dieting in the first place. Ugh. The pain, the misery, the abusive self-talk. I was very young and foolish to even imagine that I needed to lose weight.

So if you are down with dieting, like that’s totally your thing, I’m here to affirm why mindful eating is NOT for you so don’t even try it. Really, go ahead and stop reading because you love dieting and this article is definitely not for you.

TOP 8 Reasons Mindful Eating Is NOT Your Jam

1. You don’t know what it is and don’t really care to. {used to be me for-EVA}

2. You love dieting and want to do it for the rest of your life. {I’m pretty sure I thought I had no other choice because I might binge on the weekends then restrict during the week}

3. You’re pro-Keto or doing Whole30 for the third time this year. {I was the master detox expert because it made me feel in control and I really thrived on it but then when I would come off it all. bets. were. off.}

4. You already have an amazing relationship with food, eating and your body. {lol if you do, then you shouldn’t be reading this post!}

5. You love depriving yourself of your favorite foods and/or have formidable willpower. {there is sooooooo much more to life than depriving yourself of the food you enjoy}

6. Mindful eating feels too simple, stressful, stupid, judgmental, weird or unapproachable. {dripping with judgment… if this is you, you’re not ready and I was here for decades so touch base with me when you are ready}

7. Your intense daily workouts give you permission to eat and drink what you want and you are cool with that. {some peeps can exist on this for a very long time and you do you if this is where you’re at}

8. You are not ready to heal any abusive patterns or destructive habits around food and/or your body just yet. {but I’ll be here waiting with non-judgmental loving arms when you are ready to heal and repair your relationship with food. Pinky swear!}

Look, I TOTALLY GET IT! This concept of mindful eating felt too woo-woo-ish for me when I heard about it the first 10-20+ times. No way was I gonna start doing this kooky mindful eating stuff. I felt like I had the eating thing DOWN after 2 decades of dieting and did not need any other eating “skills”. Which is truly unfortunate that I wasn’t curious or open to exploring the concept enough to at least see if it would resonate with me. But as they say, when the students is ready, the teacher appears. Even if it takes 25 times 🙂

But for the rest of us who might feel a tad bit out of balance, struggle with having legit peace with food are ready to drop kick dieting or could use a mindful eating tune up, then working with the mindful eating tools can radically shift your relationship with food. I never ever thought I would be able to have tempting chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, cake, treats, sweets or anything in the house without it calling my name. I didn’t realize that restricting all that food would cause me to crave it something fierce.

I’d love LOVE for you to join a supportive group of people on the same journey. Check out my Making Peace With Food day retreat at Santosha Studio on January 12, 2019. Well talk about creating mindful eating skills, do yoga, eat yummy plant-based food and evolve our relationship with food and our body with others on a journey to food peace! Hope you’ll join me so I can share my wisdom with you 🙂