As a “plus-sized” woman for my entire adult life, I am more than a little familiar with the shaming, blaming, and criticism that comes with being overweight. I’ve never been much of a dieter, but I’ve seen those around me try Weight Watchers, restrictive diets, shakes. diet foods, and everything else they could think of try to lose weight. (I’m not saying I’m above all that, just that I know how bad I am at restrictive dieting, so I rarely even tried it). The biggest problem with all that is that it just doesn’t work. But there is an alternative.

The Intuitive Eating Plan by dietitian Kirsten Ackerman offers a new way of relating to food and to your body. Intuitive eating focuses on healing the relationship you have with food, without restrictions or judgments. Intuitive eating is not a diet. It has no restrictions or judgments, and there are no weight goals. Instead, you are encouraged to accept yourself the way you are and find joy in the foods you choose to eat and in the lifestyle you choose to live.

Instead of that toxic diet mentality, intuitive eaters are encouraged to honor your body by paying attention to hunger and to satisfaction. You make peace with food, respect your body, and honor your emotions as you journey towards a healthier, non-shaming mindset and a healthy relationship with eating. You focus on addition, not subtraction. Instead of trying to stop eating to comfort yourself, you add other ways you can find comfort and stress relief. Instead of restricting foods that are “bad,” you add foods that bring you joy. Instead of forcing yourself to take a run you hate, you add activities that make you feel connected to your body and your soul.

With mental exercises and journal topics, The Intuitive Eating Plan helps guide you away from the diet mindset, the weight-loss mentality, the restrictive life choices that make you miserable and helps you find the path to weight inclusion, to self-acceptance, and to joy. This is an eating plan I can feel good about and can see following for the rest of my life.

A copy of The Intuitive Eating Plan was provided by Rockridge Press through the Callisto Media Publisher’s Club, with many thanks.