You don't need a meal plan. Here's why.
Chapter 3 Find Your Food Voice book discussion.
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Hey there Voice Finder,
Back when I worked with clients, almost all would request a meal plan. Clients were in my office moving away from dieting into intuitive eating. They hit diet rock bottom yet didn’t know how to eat without a set of eat this, not that food rules.
I appreciate wanting concrete direction while the world is yelling at you to make better food decisions. I can also see why food seems like a right or wrong decision and how agonizing it is to make hundreds of these choices every single day.
I made exceptions yet usually didn’t give clients a meal plan. I learned a secret while helping people stop dieting: it’s a f*cking mess. The only way to eat on your own terms is to start in the muck and rebuild on a new foundation.
Unfortunately, those requested meal plans are outdated equipment.
🗣 Discussion time: There’s a reason clients scheduled appointments with me— something hurt so much during the last diet, they knew they were at diet rock bottom. Have you been there? Do you remember what those moments were like? Tell me about the time you found non-diet work whether it was Intuitive Eating, a non-diet podcast (which one??), or just knew there had to be another way. Share in our shared Voice Finder chat or in comments here.
Chapter 3 of Find Your Food Voice helps you define your food voice.
Your Food Voice is an internal system you were born with to communicate when to eat, how much, and what choices to consume based on what is available. This communication may be through body awareness like hunger, fullness, fatigue, mood, or satisfaction. This communication may also be through thoughts and feelings or guided by structured self-care techniques. Your Food Voice will be unique to the individual yet always flexible, kind, and nurturing. Its primary function is to help the person prioritize eating enough. It is a knowing with an unconditional permission for food yet compassionate when outside circumstances block access.
I need to admit something to you: I felt very silly writing about the magic wand in Chapter 3 but I couldn’t think of another way to crack open the layers from the diet industry.
🪄 Go to page 60 and re-read the introduction to the magic wand. What does your magic wand look like? feel like? Share in the comment box below or in the Voice Finder Chat (you can see it on the Substack app).
Thank you for thinking through these tough questions. You are doing great work!
I hope you felt fleeting moments with your food voice before—whether with this exercise or in a memory.
📣 Describe what it is like to connect with your food voice—whether you’ve known it for yours or just seconds. Describe what you know to be true about your innate ability to make food and movement decisions—without a meal plan. Share in the comment box below or in the chat.
That’s all for now!
Pencil me in for Monday at noon for my next UnDiet Monday live! I host it on Substack. Next week (Friday June 6) I will drop Chapter 4’s discussion questions.
If you got something out of this discussion so far, liking and especially re-stacking (a Substack thing in case you are reading this email) helps more people find my work—so TIA!!
Warmly,
Julie