The Surprising Way Post-Its Changed How I Eat

Photo courtesy of Kelsey Miller.

There's an old diet trick -- you might have seen it in movies -- where you cover the refrigerator in sticky notes, reminding you that "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels!" and "A moment on the lips, forever on the hips!" or simply, "Do NOT open this!" Sometimes you might amplify these helpful hints with photos of either very fat people or very thin people, depending on which makes you feel worse about yourself. Basically, you taught your fridge to fat-shame you. I tried it, obviously. And it was super effective at making me feel like a piece of shit every time I opened the fridge. But I still opened the fridge. Anyway, it didn't make much difference because the sticky notes never lasted long. The only thing worse than being shamed by an appliance is being humiliated when your visiting friend goes to grab a soda, only to encounter an all-caps reminder that, "NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE YOU!"

It's been years now since I tried any diet trick, having given up dieting and learning intuitive eating. It took a lot of practice and professional help to undo the damage I'd done to my body and brain with things like fridge-shaming. In fact, it still takes practice, and the old struggles sometimes resurface, but for the most part, I eat normally. I can hardly believe it, but it's true. I can look at all the foods in my fridge as neutral and allowed. But when it comes to my freezer, that's a different story.

Ice cream, damn it. Every dieter has an in...

Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - October 14, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news