Welcome to How to love your body today we are sharing 10 important steps you need to take to get closer to food and body freedom.  This episode is brought to you by our 10 steps closer to food and body freedom guide you can grab it at bit.ly/undiet10steps 01 Diet Mentality This is number one for a reason. If you only do one thing in this work, be aware of and work on shifting the way you think. How we THINK about and what we believe regarding food and our bodies is what creates our unhealthy relationships with these things. The first step is to be aware of our thoughts and beliefs. Diet culture is so ingrained in us that we assume what we think is true and “just the way it is”. But it isn’t. Guilt around food isnt natural. Picking your body apart isnt natural. Wanting to control the way your body looks isnt natural. Counting calories and following food rules isnt natural. That is all learned. Working through the diet mentality means being aware of these thoughts and beliefs, unlearning them and then discovering a new truth for yourself when it comes to food, movement, your body and wellness. 02 Intuitive Eating Intuitive eating is an amazing resource. It truly is intuitive, both of us read the book after we were already a ways down the path out of dieting and when we read it we thought that’s what I’m doing! It is natural, this is the way we’re born - listening to our hunger and fullness, eating with ease and flexibility and not having negative emotions around any of it. If you never dieted, weren’t full of the diet mentality and just ate “normally” since you were born, you would be an intuitive eater. This is something that you can learn to begin the steps forward but it’s also something you’ll naturally fall into when all of the mindset, body image, self love, is worked on. 03 Weight Gain Fears THIS IS THE #1 thing holding people back. We know this. It’s the scary part because of the world we live in but it’s also the thing we need to consciously practice letting go of. The FEAR itself does not help us, it can feel like control, it can feel like it’s keeping us from going wild but it isn’t, it’s just keeping us from freedom. The first step out of fear is to take action. What is the fear of weight gain/ not losing weight holding you back from doing? Do those things (if you know it something you want for yourself). Such as beginning to allow more foods, loosening food restrictions and food rules, ordering what you want instead of what you think you SHOULD have. This fear can be diminished so you can move forward in a way that honors your body instead of a life that is just about controlling your body size. 04 Get Rid of Guilt  Guilt can hang on even when we start allowing all foods. This is when a lot of people reach out and ask - I’m eating the food and it’s not “working”, I’m still stressed about it, thinking about it all the time, bingeing and its not getting easier. Mental allowing  (not feeling guilty or like you really shouldn’t be eating that) is also needed in order to find freedom with food. Putting the food in your mouth is a great start, your body needs the calories and it needs to know it won’t be going into another famine (diet) again! But to get the mental benefits like not thinking about food all day, being able to have food in the house and forget it’s there, not feel stressed every time you eat a dessert - you need to be OK with eating the food you’re now allowing. This comes with time but there are also a lot of mindset shifts you can work on to make this happen more quickly.  05 Body Acceptance Let’s be real - our tumultuous relationships with food started because of not accepting the body we had at the moment. The funny thing is that we talk to so many women who say WHAT was I thinking? I looked great back then! We don’t see ourselves accurately AND