{"id":9863,"date":"2018-01-08T06:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T11:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=9863"},"modified":"2018-01-06T06:24:10","modified_gmt":"2018-01-06T11:24:10","slug":"not-recommending-dieting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html","title":{"rendered":"Why I Am Not Recommending Dieting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"appetite-1239056_1280\"Dieting– a word that begins with DIE!<\/p>\n

This can’t be good and in truth, it isn’t. Recently, I saw a headline about experts not recommending dieting. Well, for those of us who were on the front line working with patients and weight loss for years, and suffered through every popular diet imaginable, it’s about time we came to this conclusion. Forget\u00a0dieting and change\u00a0the way you think about and relate to food. That was the subject of my book, Press Pause Before You Ea<\/a>t back in 2009.<\/p>\n

Dieting involves deprivation–a concept that sets us up to want more. If I can’t have it, I want it. And what I resist, will persist! Whether you call yourself weight neutral, anti-diet, or some other term that opposes dieting, you fundamentally believe that pushing back at the dieting culture is a good thing. Dieting doesn’t work to sustain weight loss. Instead, we should focus on how we\u00a0think, feel and behave when it comes to our\u00a0interactions with food.<\/p>\n

Change your thoughts:<\/strong> Much of our eating is triggered by negative thoughts like, “I’m a failure, not good enough, not thin enough…” “I can’t _____, I won’t ______ and\/or I shouldn’t ______.” Fill in the blank with those pesky negative thoughts that lead to defeat and giving up. The battle is in the mind! We don’t measure up on so many dimensions of life! Changing your thoughts will go far in helping you eat for the right reasons (enjoyment, community, nourishment, etc.) and not condemn yourself for going off a dieting plan.<\/p>\n

Change your emotions:<\/strong> So many of us eat for emotional reasons–we are sad, happy, bored, depressed, stressed, etc. Realizing that food is used to medicate those emotions is the first step in making a change. Managing emotions without using food is key. You have to stay present and work through your emotions, not eat to medicate them.<\/p>\n

Change your behavior.<\/strong> Whatever the cue or trigger is to eat, do something else. When you learn to substitute another behavior instead of eating, you are conquering a big problem. Bored? Take a walk. Stressed? Work out in the gym? Sad? Call a friend. Lonely? Watch a funny movie. Don’t eat in response to problems or difficult life situations.<\/p>\n

So rather than diet, build a proper relationship with food and eating. Focus on health, fitness, and mental, emotional and spiritual wellness. Change your\u00a0lifestyle and stop battling food. As we say\u00a0in Lose it For Life<\/a>–Get off the scale and on with your life!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dieting– a word that begins with DIE! This can’t be good and in truth, it isn’t. Recently, I saw a headline about experts not recommending dieting. Well, for those of us who were on the front line working with patients and weight loss for years, and suffered through every popular diet imaginable, it’s about time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[918],"tags":[214,29,351,82,30],"class_list":["post-9863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-relationship-to-food","tag-diet","tag-dieting","tag-eating","tag-weight","tag-weight-loss"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I Am Not Recommending Dieting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I Am Not Recommending Dieting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dieting– a word that begins with DIE! This can’t be good and in truth, it isn’t. Recently, I saw a headline about experts not recommending dieting. Well, for those of us who were on the front line working with patients and weight loss for years, and suffered through every popular diet imaginable, it’s about time…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-08T11:00:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-06T11:24:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2018\/01\/appetite-1239056_1280-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why I Am Not Recommending Dieting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why I Am Not Recommending Dieting","og_description":"Dieting– a word that begins with DIE! This can’t be good and in truth, it isn’t. Recently, I saw a headline about experts not recommending dieting. Well, for those of us who were on the front line working with patients and weight loss for years, and suffered through every popular diet imaginable, it’s about time…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html","og_site_name":"Doing Life Together","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","article_published_time":"2018-01-08T11:00:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-01-06T11:24:10+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2018\/01\/appetite-1239056_1280-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Linda Mintle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@drlindamintle","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html","name":"Why I Am Not Recommending Dieting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2018\/01\/appetite-1239056_1280-300x200.jpg","datePublished":"2018-01-08T11:00:34+00:00","dateModified":"2018-01-06T11:24:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2018\/01\/appetite-1239056_1280-300x200.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2018\/01\/appetite-1239056_1280-300x200.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2018\/01\/not-recommending-dieting.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why I Am Not Recommending Dieting"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/","name":"Doing Life Together","description":"Relationship Doctor, Mental Health, Emotional Wellness, Relationship Advice & Entertainment","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142","name":"Linda Mintle","description":"It is rare that a trained academic who speaks passionately to the heart of people providing real answers to real life problems is so relatable. Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9863"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9866,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9863\/revisions\/9866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}