Cold turkey behavior change
“Diets can actually reinforce and reward disordered eating patterns. We need to be very careful as coaches that we aren’t contributing to more pressure and unrealistic expectations around food and nutrition.” - Ericka Thomas
Transcript
Ep 117
Cold turkey behavior change
There are a lot of different recommendations out there about the BEST ways to change a habit especially when it comes to changing diet. Without getting into food dogma, that’s the topic of today's work IN.
When I started this podcast I was surprised at how many health and fitness pros had struggled with disordered eating and full blown diagnosed eating disorders. Maybe I shouldn’t have been because of my own history and twisted relationship with food. But Isn’t it interesting to note how many of us in wellness come to it through some kind of struggle with food and body image?
That is the crux of this diet culture - our relationship with food.
One might think fit pros SHOULD have their act together when it comes to nutrition we’re human too. We survive the same trauma to get here as everyone else. And just because you are athletic when you’re young or look fit now doesn’t mean you’ve got it all figured out. In fact when it comes to disordered eating and eating disorders Athletes are far more likely to suffer from some kind of body dysmorphia or eating disorder than non athletes at any age.
What that means is we’re all in it together. Eating healthy, making healthy nutritional choices, changing a lifetime of habits is just as much a challenge for the instructor at the front of the room as it is for the brand new student in the back row. She just might have more experience trying things or maybe she’s just better at hiding it than most people.
The danger of diet culture
The danger of diet culture is in the dogma. The right and wrong that we attach to eating and food. the good and bad, all or nothing, perfection seeking, black and white thinking, do or die kind of subtext within pretty much all “diet” programs. What we’re really talking about is behavior change. Actual long term behavior change. But in order to get that you have to really go deep and discover some truths about yourself. You have to want to change. You have to see the need to change. And that reason, whatever you come up with,has to outweigh all your excuses that keep you within the familiar comfortable relationship you currently have with food and how you eat it.
And those answers can be really uncomfortable.Those answers aren’t easy to find.
Overlay this complex dysfunctional food relationship with actual addictive responses to sugar in our conventional food and you have a perfect path to chronic illness and disease.
Last week I spoke with author Lynne Bowman about her book Brownies for breakfast, A cookbook for diabetics and the people who love them. If you missed it, be sure to go back and have a listen. She is a great cheerleader for people with Type 2 diabetes and anyone looking to make serious dietary changes. But like many of us in the wellness space she spoke as if changing everything you eat all at once is easy. As if once you have the information you can just do it, go all in, cold turkey. But the reality is that (and we discuss this a bit) there is a stretch of time, if you go cold turkey and change everything you eat where you go through withdrawal from the crap food. That withdrawal is physical, mental and emotional and even sometimes spiritual. We tie so many non nutritional things to how we eat. It can be like a religion. It’s not just what you eat. It’s why and how and when and with whom.
So what does disordered eating look like in active people (athletes)?
https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/risk-groups/eating-disorder-athletes
Signs of AN in athletes
Fixation on body weight, shape or size.
Calorie counting.
Intense fear of gaining weight.
Preoccupation on contents and nutritional aspects of food.
Declining/skipping meals.
Refusing to eat in front of others.
Food rules.
Distorted body image.
Participation in an aesthetic sport (dance, gymnastics, figure skating, wrestling, equestrianism).
Unusual food behaviors.
Reported lethargy, difficulty with stamina.
Impaired concentration.
Signs of Bulimia - binge eating followed by compensatory behavior purging, fasting, or excessive exercise more common in athletes
Binge eating behaviors after practice, interrupted or followed by trips to the bathroom.
Eating in secret.
Hiding food.
Preoccupation with body weight/shape/size.
Distorted body image.
Eating beyond fullness.
Expressing shame or guilt around eating.
Possessing/purchasing diuretics and/laxatives.
Excessive coffee drinking/fluid consumption.
Scarring on the knuckles.
Binge eating
Eating in secret.
Hiding food.
Expressing shame/guilt around food and/or eating.
Eating at a fast pace.
Reported feelings of depression or low self-worth.
Nourishment in public is observed to be inappropriate with the amount of energy output.
Weight fluctuations.
Lethargy.
Does anything on that list sound familiar to you? A lot of these overlap and exist in regular diet. And diets can actually reinforce and reward disordered eating patterns. We need to be very careful as coaches that we aren’t contributing to more pressure and unrealistic expectations around food and nutrition. Part of that means we stay within our scope when it comes to nutrition recommendations , that we’re aware of these signs in clients and ourselves and part of it requires us to be honest with clients about our own experience. Just like sometimes we don’t see our body accurately when we look in the mirror, sometimes clients make assumptions about us that may or may not be true based on how we look.
Cold turkey is not the best way to go about making the long term behavior changes that need to happen to support the cold turkey diet change. Believe me I’ve done it. Several times. Several different ways. And each time those cold turkey kinds of diet changes did what they claimed for the time I was compliant. But I don’t like dogma and deprivation on my plate.
Ultimately I wanted a healthy relationship with food. I believe food is more than nutrition and can go beyond what the eyes can see to nourish the body, yes, but also the mind and the spirit. So what happened after those cold turkey style diets? I kept everything that I loved about them and let the rest go. Ultimately that made me much better off, much more self aware and mindful about what I put on my plate and when and how and all that. Because all of that matters.
I think one of the reasons people are drawn toward the cold turkey dieting style is because it’s prescriptive. Just like most of us would prefer to take a pill than go for a walk, a prescriptive diet takes some of the thinking out of the equation of what to eat, when to eat and how to eat.
When did we stop trusting ourselves when it comes to our own body? Seriously, ask yourself that question. When did I stop trusting myself? Now give yourself one thing today that you can trust yourself to do. It doesn’t have to have anything to do with food but it could. Could you trust yourself to drink a glass of water today? How about eating a piece of fruit? What about taking a walk around the block or calling a friend to tell them about this great podcast you heard? (Just kidding, maybe…)
Thanks for listening today! If you like what you heard and wanna know more about how you can raise the standard of excellence in the fitness industry or get one on one business coaching for your fitness business head over to savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin for todays show notes, free resources and links to book a call.
Hey there!
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.
Savage Grace Coaching is all about bringing resilience and burnout recovery. Especially for overwhelmed entrepreneurs, creators and coaches in the fitness industry.
Schedule a free consulttation call to see if my brand of actionable accountability is right for you and your business.