Whether you are new to intuitive eating or have been practicing it for some time, the notion of giving yourself permission to eat foods that are generally thought of as “unhealthy” is likely something you’ve heard before. This concept is part of the third principle of intuitive eating, Make Peace with Food, and allows for freedom to explore and choose foods based on whether you actually like them, versus whether or not diet culture has deemed them to be “good.” 

But what if you’ve stopped dieting and your brain hasn’t?

Gentle nutrition begins to consider how we can incorporate information about nutrients and the health-promoting properties of specific food-types in a way that is not morally laden or rule bound. But we need to be actively challenging both the moral judgments we’ve attached to food and the food rules we’ve internalized before we are going to be able to integrate nutrition information in a way that is truly neutral. Which means, we’ve really got to work through the earlier Intuitive Eating principles before this one is going to be accessible.

Imagine this scenario: You just stepped on the scale and were disappointed by what you saw. You decide that, “OK, that’s it, today’s the day I am going to change.” You decide which plan or program you are going to follow. Maybe you re-install one of those food tracking apps. You schedule new workouts into your calendar. And you are ALL IN…for a while. But after a period of time—a day, a week, a few months—that motivation begins to fade. You are sick of the eating plan. You dread your workouts. And eventually, all of those new behaviors you were once so excited about slip away.

Sound familiar? I can tell you this is an incredibly common story, so if you are nodding your head yes I promise you are not the only one.

So why does this happen?! (Keep reading, I’m going to tell you!)

Over the past few months, I’ve found myself having a lot of conversations about meal prepping with clients. Something that struck me as a common experience when talking with folks was that most felt meal prepping was the key to eating “healthier” and making the “right” food choices. The other thing I noticed was that meal prep in general felt for many like a huge (and daunting) undertaking due to the time it took, and because it brought them little joy when they were actually doing it. And most, if not all, felt their inconsistency with meal prep was a shortcoming of theirs and didn’t question whether the ways we’ve been taught to think about and do meal prep were maybe part of the problem.

A common experience that our clients and group participants will note, especially early on in their journey, is their frustration around feeling like they want to eat everything and often eating past the point of physical comfort. The thought is, “I’m doing exactly what I was afraid I’d do,” and the desire is to return to the rules to regain some sense of control. So first, I just want to stress how normal this during this process. Below I describe several reasons why this might be happening and offer some ideas for what you might do if this is where you are finding yourself.