So you have gut issues, but you’ve been wondering, “how to stop dieting in the long term?” Because you’re tired of it.

My ugly dieting past has taken on many different forms, but I now realize that not only is it a dieting past, but it’s a very ugly dieting past.

Note: this post was originally written in 2012, long before I would heal for good. It’s been updated in 2024 to reflect not only the past, but also what I have learned + what you, too, can do to stop dieting. Spoiler alert: I do not engage in any sort of negative dieting health behaviors today, and I will tell you that it’s for sure one of the reasons I was able to heal my gut for good.

You Cannot Diet Harder

…..and there are 2 reasons for this:

1. If you haven’t been appropriately tested (not via Dr. Google), then dieting harder makes no sense. In other words, “What are you dieting harder for?” Isn’t the point of a diet to solve a problem? If you don’t know the problem, you can’t solve it.
2. Dieting harder won’t change all the other lifestyle factors. If there is one thing I have learned during these past 10 years of going through all the motions, it’s that diet, while critical for healing, is far from being the only healing variable. Maybe there is something else keeping you sick and miserable. Stress levels? Too little/much activity? Not enough sleep? Poor relationships? Using skincare and makeup that contain hormone disruptors? Your environment? Etc. 

My Ugly Dieting Past

I have known for a very long time now that my patterns of fad diets and chaotic food intake since the 1990’s have been anything but typical. 

And the very first time I began to see how my food choices (or maybe a lack thereof) were affecting various health conditions was after attending a live conference in 2012.

I heard from people like Mark Sisson, Julia Ross and Geenene Roth. And then I was even more confident than ever that these were not just “restrictive diets” to write in my history book. 

They were simply eating habits that formed my ugly dieting past.

Mark Sisson

During a presentation, Mark Sisson referred to this as his “health disaster.” 

He noted that after a long time of incessantly working out, counting every calorie and living by all the “quick fix rules” we’ve heard make us “diet successful,” he became weak, ill and injured.

I, too, have been there in my ugly dieting past.

Julia Ross

Julia Ross talked about dieting as the #2 cause of binge eating, pointing out “dieting” as it refers to:

• fasting
• diet foods and sodas
• low cal
• skipping meals
• low fat
• caffeine
• appetite suppressants
• artificial sweeteners
• vegan/vegetarian

I, too, have been there in my ugly dieting past.

Geene Roth

And finally, Geenene Roth spoke about her own ugly dieting past. 

I related to so many of the yo – yo diets she’s adopted at one point in her life. 

Sadly, I even related with her “brown diet,” which consisted at one point of Diet Soda, Coffee and Cigarettes. You think, “gross,” but I guarantee there is a whole slew of people out there on a very similar diet at this exact moment.

I “got” Geenene. 

I, too, have been there in my ugly dieting past.

After the conference was over, I thought about the words those 3 individuals presented.

I thought about my own chronic dieter tendencies I’ve put myself through.

And then I thought about the effect of the diet cycle on my life today. 

I began to wonder,

Have I fully moved beyond that? Or do I sometimes just pretend?

The first step was addressing them within.

Not just for me, but for you, too. 

We all like to think we hold the keys to a healthy habits, and diet plans that “work.”

But when we use the 4-letter “d” word constantly and assign it different meanings (ie. gluten-free diet, Paleo diet, Vegan diet, low-fat diets, keto diet, low-carb diets etc. etc.) it soon becomes a word which is likely not associated with our true health goals any longer. 

Instead, it just becomes another part of our dieting history and ultimately an ugly dieting past.

How to Stop Dieting

So then, how to stop dieting?

Because diet culture is alive and well, it’s not easy. And when you couple that with gut health issues, it’s no wonder that we create impossible food rules and get into an addictive cycle of dieting.

Diet culture tells us that the pursuit of weight loss is the greatest goal we can set for ourselves.

Couple that with any form of a gut-healing diet you may have researched or been told to follow, and that leave us with an extreme form of restrictive eating.

And while we might have the best intentions, most will fall flat time-and-time again.

So what did I personally do? 

Well, I’ll share with my 7 best tips for how to stop dieting in order to actually start healing.

7 Tips to Stop Dieting

Click HERE to save these for later.

Useful quotes to think about as you consider your own ugly dieting past….

I want to leave you with some incredible quotes I heard that weekend at the live conference. 

Mark Sisson,

Julia Ross,

Geenene Roth,

Healed

I will tell you that, on the other side of it all, it’s not easy.

Sure, I was ready to leave diet mentality in the past in 2012. 

But it took years to arrive in that place I was at, and it also took years to recover from it.

One thing I had to do was let go of those feelings of guilt: WHY did I engage so long in a chronic dieting cycle that destroyed my health even further? But you MUST let go of that, and instead accept what is was while making the decision to move on from it.

If you liked this article on how to stop dieting, you might also enjoy:

1. Food Fear and Gut Healing
2. 21 Gut Healing Lifestyle Components
3. Heal Your Gut. Heal Your Life.

Ready to get started healing for good? Consider joining us in Gut Healing: ELEVATED.

Because of my staunch position on diagnosis, diet, and lifestyle, I created a SYSTEM that acts as your ultimate gut bloat detox for banishing the bloat and achieving optimal bowel movements.

It’s called: Gut Healing: ELEVATED and it’s for women who are type A, over-achieving, exhausted AND super bloated who seek relief and a less stressful journey for achieving it all.

This is not just another course to take without seeing results due to your actions.

I’m not here to lecture your ears off (you have plenty of people in your life to do that for you).

Instead, short instruction and MASSIVE action I help you take.

Time is precious.

The longer we stay sick, the longer it takes to heal.

Xox,
SKH