I believed it for a long time, despite what my lived experience proved. Through ditching dieting and keeping more / all foods available and as options, I’ve experienced them losing power, slowly but surely.

See, we’ve been taught that we will behave one way when tempted by *forbidden* foods, but reality plays out differently.

When we are fed and satisfied, and faced with an abundance of formerly *forbidden* options that we know we can have anytime we want, THEY LOSE POWER.

What’s missing from the conversation around so-called hyper palatable foods is the behavior patterns we have when we are constantly hungry (starving, even) and deprived versus those we have when we are well-fed and in abundance.

The ice cream, chips, and cookies lose power.

This doesn’t mean we won’t and don’t eat them. It does mean we don’t feel like *we can’t control ourselves around them*. I say that with emphasis because it’s a line many of us have likely spoken before.

When I can have it at anytime, I often want it much less than when I could rarely (or never) have it.

What about you?

Note that this process takes time. And I am in the thick of it myself. But the more I experience it firsthand, the more I believe it.

The most powerful way I’ve found to stop dieting is to simply eat to full satiety whenever I’m hungry. A radical notion, I know. But if you know, you know.