How to Eat Normally Again After Years of Dieting
If you’ve spent years, maybe even decades, of your life dieting, it can be hard to remember what “normal eating” actually looks like. Many clients come to therapy feeling out of control around food, worried they’re addicted to certain foods, or convinced they just lack willpower.
But I’m going to let you in on something, it’s not you. It’s the dieting at fault.
In this blog, I’m exploring what “normal eating” really means, why diets disconnect us from it, and how you can start healing your relationship with food, no rules or meal plans required!
🚫 Dieting Isn’t Normal Eating
Most of us have been taught from childhood that “normal eating” means controlling portions, avoiding “bad” foods, and being constantly mindful of calories. But these ideas come straight from diet culture, not real nutrition or psychology.
When we diet or restrict food, we override our body’s natural hunger and fullness cues. Eventually over time, we stop trusting ourselves around food. This results in feeling out of control, binging, obsessing, or swinging between rigid control and chaotic eating.
Dieting might feel like the solution, but in reality, it’s often the cause of long-term food struggles.
✅ So What Is Normal Eating?
Normal eating isn’t perfect. It’s flexible. It allows for satisfaction, hunger, social occasions, and emotional ups and downs.
Normal eating might look like:
- Eating when you’re hungry (even if it’s not a “mealtime”)
- Stopping when you’re full, or realising you missed that fullness cue and being kind to yourself anyway
- Enjoying foods for taste, comfort or connection, not just nutrition
- Sometimes eating too much, sometimes not enough, and trusting it all balances out
- Not overthinking every bite
To sum up: normal eating is based on trusting your body, not trying to control it.
🔁 Why It’s So Hard to Relearn
If you’ve been on and off diets and/or restricting food for years, your internal cues might feel unreliable or even non-existent (hunger cues tend to disappear once ignored for long enough!) You might be thinking:
- “I don’t even know when I’m hungry or full anymore.”
- “If I let myself eat what I want, I’ll never stop.”
- “I can’t be trusted with food.”
These are incredibly common fears. When your life has been spent seeing food as something to control, it can feel scary letting go of that control. But these signs are your body and brain trying to protect you from restriction. The good news is that you can get your internal cues back!
🌱 How to Start Eating Normally Again
Here’s where to begin:
- Ditch the Diet Mentality
Let go of rules like “no carbs after 6pm” or “I need to walk off this cake.” These rules fuel guilt and disconnection from your body. You can begin by noticing when those thoughts pop up and gently challenging them, this gets easier with practice over time. For extra support, you could even note down these thoughts in a journal and challenge them on paper.
- Give Yourself Permission to Eat
This is scary for most chronic dieters, but permission is the foundation of food peace. When food is no longer off-limits, the urgency to eat it lessens over time.
You might feel like you’re eating “too much” at first, but that’s completely normal. It’s part of the process of rebalancing physically and mentally. (I ate cookie dough every night for a month before it set in that this food wasn’t restricted anymore…and I realised I didn’t even really enjoy it!)
- Reconnect With Hunger and Fullness (Without Judgment)
Try tuning into how hunger feels in your body, not just your stomach, but energy levels, focus, mood. The same goes for fullness. Think of it as gathering data on your body, it’s not about getting it “right” or perfection.
- Satisfaction Matters
Eating “clean” but unsatisfying meals often leads to cravings later on. Ask yourself: What do I really want? Then honour that when you can. Remember that satisfaction is part of nutrition too.
- Compassion Over Perfection
You will have moments of overeating, emotional eating, or doubting the process. That’s okay. What matters is how you respond to yourself in these moments. You don’t need to “make up” for overeating by restricting. Try to keep in mind that shame keeps you stuck; compassion helps you move forward.
👣 You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
Relearning how to eat normally after years of dieting can feel like fighting an uphill battle, especially in a world that still pushes weight loss and thin beauty standards at every turn.
Working with a therapist who understands disordered eating and intuitive eating can offer the support, structure, and compassion needed to unlearn diet rules and rebuild trust in your body.
🌟 Ready to stop dieting and start healing?
If you’re ready to feel more peaceful around food, without another plan, app, or weigh-in, I’d love to help support you on your journey. If you’d like to find out more about how I work and ask any questions, you can book in a free consultation call today!