When dieting, it is very easy to get trapped in what I call the "avoidance mindset". For example, you go to a restaurant and the waiter asks if you would like a drink, to which you might respond "I'd love to, but I can't drink alcohol at the moment.". Or when a friend offers you a chocolate at work; "I can't eat sugar".

Now don't get me wrong, dieting does require restriction in one form or another, whether it is restricting portion sizes, restricting food groups, restricting eating times etc. However, instead of focusing on what you are restricting, it might be easier to shift the focus to all the foods you are still able to eat.

Here is a quick reframe:

You need to give yourself unconditional permission to eat anything. You then choose to restrict food.

Please read the above sentence again ☝️. It’s extremely important that you understand this.

So...

“Food X,Y,Z is off-limits”

or

“I can’t eat X,Y,Z”

becomes...

“I’m making a choice not to eat that for this period of time”

A really great study by Loria-Kohen et al (2012) (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22209501/) illustrates the importance of your perception of a restriction. In this study 2 groups of women were split in half. Both groups were given a calorie restricted diet but only one group were told they had to remove bread from their diet.

The result of the study were that the group told they had to remove bread from their diet had worse rates of adherence and a higher drop-out rate.

So to summarise, stop focusing on foods you aren't eating, and instead switch your focus to foods you are eating.