Bayside Dietetics
Your reason for change may be key.
By Sarah Smith of Bayside Dietetics
Facebook Bayside Dietetics
Zoe* was committed to looking after herself. The last time she’d seen her GP, she’d been told that she was overweight and that her knee pain would improve if she lost weight. Zoe had sighed when she’d heard that. There was a niggle inside her that something wasn’t right, but she remembers how adamant her doctor had been about weight loss. They’d spoken about how difficult it was last few times Zoe had tried to lose weight and the doctor had shown good understanding and support. The advice was strong however, Zoe needed to lose weight. Zoe herself was strong, and in her determination to look after herself she left the doctor’s office vowing herself to another diet.
Zoe was social and enjoyed time with her family and friends, but she was even more committed to weight loss. She stuck to her diet all through the Christmas parties, even when people around her were eating nibbles, drinking alcohol and barely finding time to buy fresh food. Zoe was putting in extra effort to say ‘no’ to snacks, and making sure she had every meal planned and shopped for. Every morning when she stepped on the scales, she felt that it was all worthwhile. There was a sense of strength and pride.
One morning, the scales stopped showing weight loss. Then it happened again. For two weeks, Zoe didn’t lose weight. She reflected, and no, nothing was different about her diet or exercise. For the first time, she started questioning what she was doing. A couple of days later, she spontaneously joined a friend for a glass of wine. Nibbles appeared. While wondering if it was all worth it, Zoe joined in having the lovely food. The next morning, full of emotion, Zoe abandoned her diet, vowing to avoid her GP for a while, and try to lose weight again soon.
At the same time, those niggling thoughts inside Zoe were getting louder. Why was trying hard not enough. Why did change to lose weight never last? Was there a better way?
Zoe wasn’t the first. In the 1920s, the same time as the world was recovering from World War I and Chanel Coco made perfume “Number 5”, a Paediatrician named Clara Davis worried about the impact of external forces on the way people ate. External forces are anything where someone else tells you how to eat. Dieting or eating for weight loss is an example in the current day. For Clara, it was the impact of parents controlling and commenting on their child’s food intake. She wondered what would happen if children were allowed to trust their natural cues around food. In 1939, she strode into Montreal’s Windsor hotel and presented her findings. Children didn’t appear to overeat and gain weight if you gave them independence around food. Studies since continue to show that children thrive when allowed to eat in response to natural cues.
100 years on and we’ve cycled through diets. Focus on weight is perhaps stronger than ever, even though we know that almost every behaviour that is started for the purpose of weight loss, will not be sustained. There is more evidence to support behaviours being sustainable if they are started in response to an internal cue, such as responding to hunger and fullness, feeling better or enjoying food.
If you can relate to wanting to diet, especially as the new year starts, then it sounds like you are trying to care for yourself and willing to put in some hard work. If you reflect on how dieting has gone for you in the past for you however, what thoughts and perhaps niggles do you hear?
What would it be like if you unhooked your link between eating well and weight loss? That means making the decision to eat well, not because it will help weight loss, but because it makes you feel good. Eat well because it tastes good. Eat well because it’s what your body enjoys.
Who knows where it may take you this year, but more importantly, into the next.
Sarah
*All names and identifying details are modified in this blog.
