Our minds like to focus on the negative because our brains see that as a way to prevent danger. So we tend to focus on the no. And often in intuitive eating saying no is associated with restricting.
The fear of saying no to food leaves many people feeling stuck afraid they’ll go back to restricting their food and fall back into that old mindset. It makes it difficult when people try to navigate saying no to food that sounds good because it doesn’t make them feel good.
The trick is to realize when saying no to one thing, you’re really saying yes to another.