I’ve been working with women heal their relationship with food for 2 years as a nutrition therapist and there’s a part of the work that I secretly love the most... PERMISSION.Full. Unconditional. Permission.

Working to help women gain full permission to enjoy all foods without judgement, fear or anxiety is my absolute FAV. Let me tell you why…

The biggest barrier I hear from women working on reconnecting to their intuition with food  fall into this fear:

“If I allow myself to eat whatever I want, I’ll want it every.single.day. and that can not be good from my health."

My response: THAT MAKES SENSE! If you have been depriving yourself of brownies for the past 10 years because you judge them as

“bad, sugar laden, inflammatory, empty calories etc” OR

“I need to exercise more or eat less later” {compensatory}

then you’ve given the food some power where the brownies are now “special” and create an emotional response

{guilt, shame, anxiety, stress} when consumed. PERMISSION helps you heal this dynamic and ultimately, this is far more supportive for your health than the chronic stress of being paralyzed with guilt & anxiety at making food decisions. Unconditional permission to eat the brownies can help take away the novelty of the food, reassure your brain that you have access to the food {hi, neurobiology!} and decrease the stress and anxiety response that accompanies restriction {READ: inflammation and poorer health outcomes}.

Will giving yourself unconditional permission leave you eating brownies for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next 2 weeks? Maaaaaybe (#realtalk, probably not). In my experience, the novelty typically wears off pretty quickly- after a few experiences with the food, you might think to yourself:

“I found out I was hungry like 40 minutes after I had breakfast, maybe i need something with a bit more sustenance”

“I’m really actually over having chocolate every day, I’d really like something savory”

“Those brownies look so good, and I know they’re not going anywhere, so I’ll choose X instead”AKA, you find that once the food is available & accessible to you, your desire diminishes and the panic, stress and fear that typically accompany it decrease as well. This desensitization period as we call it in #dietrecovery world can vary for every individual depending on the length and severity of the rigidity around food beliefs, rules and history of deprivation with food. Often, it can be SO helpful to have a RD help you walk through the process of reintroducing foods in the intuitive eating process, I’d love to help you do so! Send me an email to chat at: jaren@empoweredrd.com.