If the majority of your language, as it pertains to food and body size is: “I shouldn’t be eating this,” or “I need to be eating that,” or “I’m not supposed to be eating this,” or “I’m not allowed to have that,” or “I should weigh ___,” or “I blew it” or “I’ll start over” or “I was naughty”. . .you may have been conditioned by the external voices of diet culture instead of internal self-regulation.
External regulation conditions and normalizes words such as: ought to, supposed to, need to, should, shouldn’t, couldn’t, can’t, start over, etc.
And the outcome of non compliance is guilt, shame, anxiety, and disappointment. These feelings can negatively impact us and fuel emotional eating; aka eating disorders.
For some of us who were exposed to diet culture at an early age, the voices are deeply engrained. We don’t know what, or how much to eat; or what to weigh without external dialogue.
And that confusing chatter changes—depending on what channel we may, or may not tune into—on any given day.
But thankfully, we can break free and learn to self-regulate again.
Thankfully, self-regulation is an innate part of our DNA—just like our bodies know how many blankets to use throughout the night in the winter versus the summer. (Our bodies do not seek the latest Internet search/opinions of others/or even scientific data to determine how many blankets we should or shouldn't use at night. We even know how many layers of clothing to wear in the winter versus the summer without external dialogue influencing our decisions.) Additionally, a newborn baby knows when to cry: when hungry, wet, or cold.*
We just need to learn to recognize, trust, and rely on our innate ability to self-regulate again.
There's an art to it; not a science.
Self-regulation is not a formula. It's fluid and organic; not calculated and rigid.
And we don't need scales to regulate how much to eat—or how much to move.
Nor do we need our spouse's latest Internet findings to tell us when to eat or move.
And we certainly don't need a magazine article, runway model, or weight loss business to tell us how much to weigh.
Every individual is a unique and marvelous work of art that has their own nutritional requirements.
Perhaps there are additional reasons why people in the Blue Zones live a long time. Could it also be possibly linked to being in tune with their bodies’ ability to self-regulate?
Our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalms 139:14)
*Obviously, there are rare cases of the inability to regulate body temperatures—and there are also infrequent cases of the inability to regulate food intake as well.. . but they are exceptions rather than the rule.
Emily Boller, artist, mother, and author of Starved to Obesity, lost 100 pounds more than fifteen years ago by eating an abundance of high-nutrient, plant-rich foods. Today, she’s certified in whole plant nutrition from the Nutritarian Education Institute. She’s on a mission to combine practical, no-nonsense and cost-effective tips—with easy to understand science—in order to help anyone escape the addictive grip of the Standard American Diet. And now, she’s on a mission to bring awareness to the suffocating and potentially deadly trap of eating disorders as well.