Caroline Dooner - The F*ck It Diet

CAROLINE DOONERis a writer, storyteller, performer, and yoga teacher (who mostly just teaches resting), a former yo-yo dieter, and the creator of The Fuck It Diet. She studied improv at UCB and received a BFA in acting from NYU, and consequently spent her early twenties in leotards, or standing in front of casting directors who told you what kind of person you looked like.

After putting herself through over a decade of obsessive, chronic, miserable dieting and bingeing, her own deep misery and dysfunction led her to investigate, research, and create another way: The Fuck It Diet. Caroline hosts a podcast on her approach to food and teaches online courses in intuitive eating and self-acceptance. This is her first book.

WWW.THEFUCKITDIET.COM

COPYRIGHT

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2019

Copyright © Caroline Dooner 2019

Caroline Dooner asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © February 2019 ISBN: 9780008339845

‘Doing the work of The F*ck It Diet brought me to a place where I am actually intuitive and automatic with food . . . with every other plan I tried, I was faking it.’

‘ The F*ck It Diet is the Riddikulus Charm for Dieting and Diet Culture.’

‘I just ate half a donut and then threw the rest of it away because I didn’t want it. WHAT?!!’

‘I struggled with “gut issues” for years, tried elimination diets and was on 4 medications to control my symptoms. Now I am in remission. Know how I did it? The F*ck It Diet . EATING FOOD.

More food, enough food, every day. Amazing, huh?’

‘Caroline and her program gave me the permission I needed to just eat, enjoy, and move on. The permission to live.’

‘I can eat without guilt (but I’m no longer bingeing – what?!?) and I am accepting my body more every day – which is new to this 53 year old who has hated my body since I was a teen.

It has truly been a transformation.’

‘This is the only book that has viscerally lessened the shame I have felt around food.’

‘I wasn’t expecting this course to improve my own clinical skills so much to help clients. I came into this program for me, but what I am learning is making me a better therapist too.’

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO CHEESE—

I WILL NEVER FORSAKE YOU AGAIN.

Cover

About the Author

Title Page

Copyright

Praise

Dedication

Introduction: This Is Not a Diet Book

Who This Book Is For

ONE: WHY ARE WE SO ADDICTED TO FOOD?

Let’s Go on a Famine

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment

What Is Normal Eating?

The Big Weight Myth

Guess Which Industry Makes $60 Billion a Year?

The F-Word

Your Diet Might Be a Cult

Diets Unraveling

What If You’ve Already Tried?

You’re in Charge (Finally)

TWO: HOW THE HELL DO I ACTUALLY DO THIS?

THE PHYSICAL PART

Tool #1: Allow Food

The Noble Role of Weight

You Are Not a Car

Our Fear of Hunger

The Diet Pendulum Swing

Eat When You’re Hungry

The Trap of Mindful Eating

Why Are We Eating the Smallest Amount Possible!?

There Is No Perfect Stopping Point

The Trap of Seeking Balance

Our Goal Is to Neutralize Food

Will I Be Eating This Much Forever?

No Food Is Off Limits

Your Cravings Are Your Friend

In Defense of Carbs and Sugar

In Defense of Delicious and Decadent Food

In Defense of Salt

In Defense of “Shitty” Food

Shitty Diet Food

Purity Doesn’t Exist

You Don’t Need to Go on a Green Juice Cleanse

So Many, Many Diet Rules

But What About My Health?

“But I’m a Binger!?”

What to Actually Do During a Binge

Doesn’t The Fuck It Diet Cause Obesity???

“But Really, What If I Have Health Problems?”

Tool #2: Lie Down

The Noble Art of Rest

What About Exercise?

How Will You Know This Is Working?

Your Body Is Freaking SMART

THE EMOTIONAL PART

Emotional Eating Versus Bingeing

The Emotions We Avoid

We Have Sooooo Many Emotions About Our Weight

Humans Use LOTS of Things to Numb

Fear of Pain

You Can’t Avoid Being Human (Sorry)

We’re All Stuck in Fight-or-Flight Mode

Tool #3: Breathe and Feel

The Myth of Stress and Breathing

Think You Can Hate Yourself into Improvement?

Who Can We Blame????

Surrender to the Messiness

THE MENTAL PART

Untangling the Knot

Tool #4: The Brain Dump

The Power of Our Beliefs

Your Beliefs Become Confirmation Bias

Mental Restriction and Bingeing

We All Have Our Reasons

What We Think Being Skinny Will Give Us

Losing Your Identity

Why We Panic

The Avoidable Kind of Pain

Stop Shoulding All Over the Place

You Can Release Your Limiting Beliefs

Tool #5: The Belief Release

Nothing Is a Cure-All

It Was Never Your Fault

Diet Culture Trauma

The Luck of the Thin

Fat Phobia

You Are Making the Stakes Too Damn High

How to Trust When You Don’t Trust

Let It Feel Crazy

Waiting to Not Be Hungry

It’s Allowed to Be Messy

THE THRIVING PART

What Do You Stand For?

Practical Boundaries with Food and Weight

Frivolous Downtime

Emotional and Existential Rest

Become Your Own Damn Guru

That’s It!

Acknowledgments

Notes

About the Publisher

This book is meant for chronic dieters. I am not a medical professional, and if you are engaging in any extreme restrictive eating or self-harm, you must seek professional medical help. This book cannot stand in for eating disorder treatment and is not meant to treat any physical or mental conditions.

I will share the work of many doctors, nutritionists, and weight and metabolism scientists to help assure you that I am not a lone, crazy brownie eater, out to ruin your health and happiness . . . but, again, I’m not a doctor. This book isn’t medical advice. Okay. You get it. Moving on.

If you’ve read as many diet books as I have, maybe you’ve noticed how similar the introductions are. It’s normally a sensationalized promise that this is the diet you’ve been waiting for . And it goes a little something like this: