Yesterday I was getting dressed into a costume for a show I am rehearsing. (I’m a sometimes-actress, all-the-time-anti-diet-teacher). I had just eaten a big, delicious dinner at my friend’s house and was really, really full.

And as I stood in the dressing room, stretching out my tights and pulling up my underwear so the velcro of the mic pack belt didn’t scratch my skin, but also making sure it fell at the right part of my waste under my tights so it didn’t look bizarre under my costume… I remembered all those times when I would have been doing the exact same thing, but let feeling full ruin my night and take over my brain.

Body dysmorphia – and all the irrational thoughts that accompany it – is a real beast. Seriously… it is the thing that can keep people stuck for a long time.

Because, as I’ve said many times, our feelings and beliefs about our bodies are at the root of everything that the Fuck It Diet is trying to fix and heal.

Try to fix your eating without fixing the way you look at your body, will leave you in limbo.

Your feelings about your body are at the heart of the matter.

Last night I remembered how skewed my thoughts would quickly become about my body. I would zoom in on every little thing. I blew things out of proportion. I worried about what other people were thinking about my body (note: 90+% of the time they were NOT thinking about my body). I worried about what fullness meant. I worried that I was doing things wrong. That I had made a mistake by eating the way I ate. And on and on and on.

This is hard habit to heal. I want to tell you that it’s simple, easy, quick and straight-forward. But this is the panic that you will induce very easily during the beginning of the Fuck It Diet. You will bump into your old beliefs about your body and your eating, and you will need to face them and deal with them.

We need to examine the limiting beliefs below our stress to pin-point the cause of our panic. Really be kind and patient with yourself and examine what your brain is doing when you stress out about your body.

These are learned beliefs that I encourage you to unlearn. That is what I encourage and guide the people I work with to do.

Yesterday I ate a lot of baked goods, donuts, and bagels, and a huge dinner before getting back into very tight tights. This would have been a reason to freak out, worry, spin, and decide that my body and eating were completely out of control and how would I get them back under control?!?!?!

Truth is: everything with your body is normal, good, and fine.  Fullness is normal. Body fat is safe and acceptable and beautiful. Bodies are resilient. Keep coming back to this, and I promise one day you will be able to get into tight tights when you are extremely full, and the way you used to panic will be only a distant memory.