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As you may already know, deprivation diets don't work. When you make a decision to let go of the stress connected to weight loss, and opt for a natural diet instead, it can be hard to stay the course though. There's so much fast food and convenience food out there, but this won't throw you off once you understand what makes you sick. The big problem is that many people around you can be very discouraging because they still believe in the false information that gets promoted so widely. Next thing you know, you're counting calories, scrimping on meals, and getting undernourished, and then binging because you're feeling deprived.
It can be really difficult not to get wrapped up in conventional diet trends when all your friends are talking about calories, carb points, and fat grams. Few people will even understand what you're saying when you talk of lactofermentation or the necessity of avoiding hydrogenated oils. The stares when you're enjoying a juicy steak or some ribs can make things even worse. In their view, you're not supposed to be able to have ribs.
Since eating is partly a social activity, it's not so easy to resist getting into other people's obsessive cycles. It's really bad if your overeating in the past took on an obsessive pattern. Even if you've solved the physical/hormonal/vitamin issue, there are still the psychological issues involved with being a long term natural nutrition lifestyler in a short term fad diet world.
Tune them out.
Have you ever known a person who always had problems, but whenever someone presented a solution, they wouldn't listen? You know the type who always has something to gripe about, and just drains your energy.
When other people start talking about dieting in conventional terms, treat them as you would or should if they were psychological vampires of any other sort: tune them out. In the case of nutrition, most of them are either just misinformed, or following the herd of misery loving company. Tuning out will be especially important when you've lost enough weight that people notice. You become, in their eyes, one of those "naturally thin" people who eats whatever they want and doesn't gain weight. They don't understand that this is because whatever you want happens to be mostly fresh vegetables, quality meats and dairy, and whole or traditionally prepared grains.
Some people will have legitimate questions and arguments, during which you'll have to remind them that a natural diet isn't "one size fits all". Many people though, treat dieting as a kind of powder room politics thing. If you're not following a plan that has a name, and try to give them good advice leaning towards the natural, they will treat it like the advice you give an emotional vampire. So when they start their griping about how hungry they are, and how their retaining a bit of water makes them feel fat and ugly, ignore it. Try to get away as politely but quickly as possible.
Don't let others drag you back into the calorie cow cycle. You're a human being who needs to eat according to your own needs, when you're hungry, and what your body is hungry for. Natural eating is a long term dietary change, not a short cut diet. So listen to people who are healthy and happy with themselves, and tune out the ones who are unhealthy and unhappy with themselves, and refuse to do anything to truly feel better.
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