After years of learning the number of calories in all foods, it can be hard to turn the food math off. I remember checking my calorie counters multiple times a day just to make sure I got it “right” and trying to stay on track. And that habit is challenging to stop.
But it is possible to stop counting calories and create a better relationship with food.
Why it’s so hard to stop
It can be so hard to stop calorie counting because for so many years it was the center of diet culture. The focus fully on calories in and calories out left many people feeling obsessed with tracking their food. And all the years of mentally calculating calories create a strong practiced habit.
So it’s hard to stop because it’s a habit to count your calories. If you want to stop counting calories it just takes time and practice to break the habit.
How to stop counting calories
Creating a healthier relationship with food is the best way to break the habit of counting calories. Diet culture teaches ideas like counting calories as a way to track food and monitor yourself.
But it doesn’t teach you how to trust yourself around food. Really, counting calories teaches you not to trust your body’s hunger and fullness cues. Instead, you’re taught to believe your calorie tracker over your body.
If you’re ready to stop counting calories to create a more peaceful and trusting relationship with food.
Find your why
The reason you choose to change a habit is important because how you choose to motivate yourself changes how it will go.
When it comes to dieting, way too often people end up trying to motivate themselves with shame. They hate their body, judge their appearance, judge their food choice, and so on. So they try to change their eating habits to stop feeling bad.
But this type of motivation only lasts so long and really makes it harder to stick with. While shame and other negative emotions can motivate you for a while, from my experience working with people it doesn’t last long and it’s not the most effective way to make a positive change.
So choosing a reason why you want to stop calorie counting that comes from a more positive place helps with making the change.
Question why you want to track the calories
Understanding why you do something will help to change the habit. So question where you learned you “should” track calories. Find those beliefs that drive the habit of counting calories and question them.
Practice new beliefs
As you start questioning and breaking old beliefs, you can start practicing the new beliefs that you want to become your new habit. Like creating a more neutral relationship with food which I talked about in this post.
Repeat challenging beliefs as more and more come up
Finally to stop counting calories, you’ll repeat the process of challenging old beliefs and testing new ones until the habit of counting calories is broken. If you’re looking for an approach to eating that is free of rules, intuitive eating could be the option for you. Read about my intuitive eating before and after experience in this post.