How Eating What You Want Will Actually Make You Healthier

When people hear me say one of the biggest, most complicated steps of my program is 'eat whatever you want when you are hungry,' immediate fear sets in.

'What do you mean I can eat whatever I want?

'Are you insane? How am I ever going to lose weight?'

'I am going to be eating pizza and Ben and Jerry's for every meal.'

Okay... now take a deep breath with me. Big inhale in, push out your stomach, and sloooooowly exhale. Okay. Feel better? Let's talk.

Eating whatever you want when you are hungry is the absolute most important step in healing your relationship with food.

Let's compare these two scenarios. You tell me which sounds better:

You wake up on a Monday, after a weekend of full-blown multiple margaritas, way-too-many chips and guac, delicious dinners - basically, you over-indulged allllll weekend on good food and drinks because we know what happens Monday! We restart our diet.

You are getting right back on track with your keto/paleo/macro life. You say no thanks to carbs, diligently measure out every crumb on your plate, and don't really even enjoy your meals. You are just doing whatever you can to shed the weekend pounds.

You're four days in, work has been more stressful than ever, and you're exhausted from the 5am gym sessions - again, to shed the weight. Friday rolls around, and in your mind, the lightbulbs go off and the excitement for the weekend kicks in. Happy hours, brunches, date night dinners with your partners, popcorn while on the couch... hey, you deserve it, it's the weekend!

The problem? You go overboard because you know these 3 days are going to go waaaay too fast. And come Monday? You have to restart your paleo/keto/calorie counting again.

Read that again: you purposely overeat because you know you aren't doing this again and you have to enjoy it all now. Spoiler alert: you do it again, and you continue the vicious cycle of strict dieting and binge eating / overeating all weekend.

Now, let's compare scenario two.

You are currently finding your food freedom through this program, and that means for the time being, you are eating whatever you want when you're hungry.

You wake up Monday, and you are ready to start your day. You start to feel your hunger pangs, and you think about what you reeeeallly want. What have you never allowed yourself to eat on a Monday morning? What do you truly love? Bacon, egg and cheese on a bagel with an orange juice? Sounds delicious!

You eat this food. You eat without distractions, and you truly savor the moment of this delicious morning delicacy. You have the tools of realizing when you are starting to feel full, and because you are satisfying your physical hunger as well as your emotional hunger (because you're eating what you want), it is so much easier to stop.

The kicker: you realize you can eat this breakfast sandwich whenever you want. You can have another for lunch, another for dinner, another next Wednesday if you'd like. This food is in abundance, and you don't need to overeat it now.

You know to listen to your biofeedback from this food. You may feel a bit sluggish a few hours later, and that's perfectly okay. You now know that while delicious, it didn't make you feel your best, and next time, you'll have it when it's truly worth it.

You continue this path by listening to yourself, recognizing your biofeedback after all foods, and truly enjoying what comes your way. Over time, the allure of all the foods you've never allowed yourself to eat will diminish, and you will consistently choose foods that make you feel your best. Then? You'll eat all those other foods you like, whenever you want. But you won't feel the need to overeat them.

On Friday? There's no need to loosen the reigns and go overboard with the margaritas, chips, pizza, ice cream, pancakes, etc etc because you aren't going back to keto on Monday.

This is what natural balance in life is. This is moderation. This is listening to your body, eating what makes you feel good, but also enjoying foods that you truly love in a no-guilt experience.

The side effects of this way of eating:

Natural weight loss

Not binge eating / overeating

Letting go of emotional eating

Feeling normal around food

Which scenario sounds better? You tell me. I'd personally take scenario 2 - and I say that because I was stuck in scenario 1 for well over 16 years.

Want scenario 2 for yourself? Get on the Food Freedom Society waitlist to be in the know when doors open up so you can stop binging and lose weight for good!