You’ve given yourself permission to eat all foods. But when it comes to that ONE food, you can’t seem to stop eating it! What do you do now?

It’s my birthday. So I made myself a gigantic New York cheesecake with lemon curd topping – that thing has like $30 worth of ingredients in it, it’s so laden with cream cheese that it weighs a ton. I think lifting it out of the fridge is basically my workout for the day.

I’m sure there was a time, many years ago, where I would have found it hard to have that cake in the house. Not because I wasn’t allowed to eat it, but because I was afraid I’d eat too much of it.

This is something I know many of you struggle with. You eat pretty well for the most part, but you have a trigger food that just sets you off. You’ll tell yourself that you’re allowed to have a piece of cake because you’re not restricting foods anymore. Those dieting days are behind you! So you’ll have your piece, but for some reason it just doesn’t satisfy you.

So you cut a little bit more. But that’s not enough either. Little slivers of the cake go missing throughout the day. You try to fill up on other food but it keeps calling you. And before you know it, there’s hardly any cake left. Might as well just finish it off now, right? Get it over with and out of the house?

It’s really common to get stuck in this place. And it all comes down to your mindset.

You may have given yourself permission to eat all foods, but you haven’t given yourself permission to eat as much as you want of those foods. Usually this is because there’s still this part of you that’s scared of gaining weight. You’ll think you’ll blow up like a balloon and let yourself go completely.

It’s that thinking that is keeping you stuck (and honestly making weight gain more likely).

Because when you cut your slice of cheesecake (or whatever your particular food is), you say to yourself, “I’ll just have this one piece.” And when you go back for more you say to yourself, “Just one more and that’s it.” And the third time you tell yourself, “This is the last slice.”

That self-talk creates a mindset of scarcity. The food may not be off-limits to you anymore, but you still have a mental restriction around how much of it you’ll allow yourself. This signals to your body that you’re in a state of stress because food is not abundant. Better get in as much as I can while I can, your body thinks. So your body rebounds by increases your cravings for that food.

And then you overeat.

This is particularly common when you’re first letting go of dieting, as your body is still learning to trust you again. You’ve put it through a fair few famines (diets) so when you eventually start feeding yourself enough again, it reacts by making you really hungry. It’s like a “Just in case Lucy stops eating tomorrow!” reaction.

And as you work through that period, honouring your hunger, honouring your cravings, rolling with all the crazy food demands your body seems to be asking you for, things settle down. Your hunger decreases. The cravings for junk food subside an you start drifting towards the vegetables in the supermarket, daydreaming about how good a salad would be for lunch.

(I’m 100% serious. I know you might be rolling your eyes but it WILL happen!)

But to get there you need to create a mindset of abundance, not scarcity. You need to allow yourself as much as you want. And if you run out and still want more? You get more.

And finally, things will settle down. And then you’ll get the final test. This is when you’re physically full but your body just needs to double check that you really are listening to it now, so it’ll make you want more of that food just to check that you’ll do it! I can’t think of a better way to describe it. I see it over and over and over again with my clients who are working towards food freedom. They think things are finally settling down but then their body throws a final test or two at them!

And if you pass the test, congrats! Food freedom is yours! But it’s very easy to slip back into thoughts of, “I should really only have one piece” so you need to stay vigilant when it comes to your mindset around food.

I’m such a strong believer in mindset making all the difference that I’m teaching a Live Workshop How to STOP overeating with 3 mindset shifts in a couple days’ time!

Enrol now and I’ll walk you through the 3 mindset shifts you need to make to kill this overeating habit. This isn’t just a knowledge-dump, it’s as practical as it gets. We’ll be nailing down the actions you need to take specific to you and we can even work through your individual scenario if you want. It’s like having a coaching session with me for a fraction of the cost!

Let’s make 2025 the year you get find peace with food. See you at the workshop!