How I Healed my Relationship with Food without Dieting
I remember the day I stepped on the scale and it said 200 pounds like a punch to the gut. Until that point, I knew I was overweight and unhappy about it, but it wasn’t until then that I realized if I wanted it to change, I had to do something about it and the time was now.
Fast forward 12 years and I’m sitting comfortably at 130 pounds, but far more important than the number itself is the health, happiness, and confidence that has come with it. I enjoy exercise and moving my body, even though I never did before. While I enjoy eating foods that make me feel great these days, I also enjoy foods that taste really great, whenever I want. I’ve found freedom and healing and it has given me so much more than I ever could have guessed when I first started this journey so many years ago. And if you’re here, my guess is that’s what you’re looking for too :) so here it is: How I lost 70 pounds and finally healed my relationship with food.
When I first started on this path, I didn’t know any better than to follow conventional diet culture wisdom. You know what I’m talking about- if you want to lose weight, you go on a diet. Whatever “health” fad is popular at the time is usually the go-to- Keto, Weight Watchers, Paleo, etc. You restrict what and how much you’re allowed to eat for a set period of time in order to shed those pounds. I tried many of them in my quest to lose weight, but in the end, none of them ended up working long-term. Not only that, but they made me miserable.
I didn’t know what I was doing wrong, but it’s frustrating when you follow the pervasive advice about how to eat well and it ends up biting you in the butt. It lead to me feeling like a failure, like somehow there was something wrong with me if it was working for other people but not for me.
The final straw came when I was working as a national park hiking guide. You get to see a huge variety of people coming on these trips- all ages, all sizes, all abilities. On the same trip, you might have a super fit couple in their 60’s who could hike further and faster than I could, as well as a solo traveler packing some extra weight who chose to stay by the van because they didn’t feel comfortable trekking up a hill. I love being outside and hope to be active for as long as I’m alive and so I came to have this dawning understanding of what my life was going to look like if I couldn't figure this thing out, as well as an example of what my life COULD look like if i could just nucover the right pieces.
So, I used one of the oldest tricks in the book. I found people who had the food relationship that I wanted and I started to pay really close attention to their habits and mindsets. I took a look at the things that I was doing and compared them to what these other healthier people were doing, and I made note of the discrepancies.
The first thing I noticed that really stuck out to me was the amount of food that people with a healthy body composition ate (i.e. much less than me). I also noticed that they still ate and indulged in the same foods that I ate, but because of the smaller amounts, it just seemed to work for them. I noticed that a lot of them did exercise, but not necessarily at the gym. Exercise was more woven into their lives, like they went on a daily walk or rode their bikes to work, and was something they did as a way to connect with loved ones or nature. I noticed they snacked a lot less, and when they did, their snacks were usually fruits or veggies. I noticed that they ate their food more slowly and seemed to savor it more than I did. And I noticed that at the end of the day, they made all these choices because they wanted to take care of their bodies so that they would be able to use them well for a long time to come.
So I started small- I made little changes one at a time and each of those little changes ended up snowballing into bigger changes until I looked up and realized that not only was I eating better and feeling better in my body, but my mental health had massively improved, too. I was able to let go of the shame and negative feelings I had around food and I had done it by eating food I enjoyed, learning to love myself better, and taking better care of myself.
What’s even crazier is that as I was experiencing these changes, other people started commenting on them as well, asking me questions about how I had done it and what my secret was, but when I gave them my answer, they almost didn’t believe me. They thought I had to have gone on some super restrictive diet, it couldn’t just be as simple as I was saying it was.
But the truth is, once I figured it out, it seemed all very anti-climactic. It really is simple, it’s just that the diet industry has a 90 BILLION dollar stake in the game, trying to convince us that we’ve got to try their new whatever when really, it’s just about loving ourselves enough to treat our bodies well.
I don’t know about you, but when I think about it, it actually feels like a relief. There’s no crazy secret, the habits and mindsets you need to heal your relationship with food are totally attainable and will not only help you lose weight but feel way happier, healthier, and more confident than you did before. And, you don’t have to give up pizza and ice cream ;)
If you’re tired of dieting and ready to step into your happiest, healthiest, most confident self, take a look at my Masterclass (only $21!) where I’ve put together all the mindsets that helped me heal my relationship with food along with some helpful resources that’ll start you on the path to the life you deserve. Don’t be like me, struggling for a decade to figure out what I’ve put together in this course, lol. You deserve better, and I know you’re going to get it!
Are you tired of restrictive diets and guilt-driven eating? The Food Freedom Masterclass is a transformative program designed to help you cultivate a sustainable, joyful relationship with food. Through 8 actionable mindsets, you'll learn how to nourish your body with love, manage cravings, and break free from food judgments—empowering you to live a life full of confidence and well-being.
XO Sarah Elizabeth
