The words we use here. What do these terms actually mean in this practice?

Definitions

Non-diet

An approach to eating that doesn't rank foods as good or bad, doesn't restrict categories of food, and doesn't treat weight loss as the point of nutrition. The goal is a working relationship with food, not compliance with a plan.

Food freedom

The state of being able to eat without the constant background noise of rules, guilt, and negotiation. Not "eating with no thought at all," but eating without a running moral scoreboard attached to it.

Gentle nutrition

Making food choices that satisfy you and support your health at the same time, rather than treating "healthy" and "satisfying" as opposites you have to choose between.

Mindful eating

Actually being present while you eat: noticing taste and texture, slowing down, and paying attention to your own hunger and fullness instead of eating on autopilot. It's a practice, not a rule about which foods are allowed.

Addition, not restriction

The idea that the fastest way to change how you eat isn't cutting things out, it's adding things in — more protein, more fiber, more actual meals — until what wasn't working gets crowded out on its own.

The restrict-binge cycle

The pattern where restricting food tightly leads to intense cravings and eventual overeating, which leads to guilt, which leads to restricting even harder — starting the cycle over. Loosening the restriction, not tightening it, is usually what breaks it.

Food rules

The private, often unspoken rules people build around eating ("no carbs after 6pm," "earn dessert first") that came from somewhere — a past diet, a comment, a magazine — that most people have never actually questioned.

Fear foods

Specific foods someone feels they've lost control around, to the point of avoiding them entirely rather than risk it. Usually the food isn't actually the problem; the history with it is.

Emotional eating

Reaching for food to feel better rather than because you're physically hungry. It's common, it's not a character flaw, and the fix usually isn't "stop doing it" so much as having other things to reach for when the feeling shows up.

Binge eating

Eating a notably large amount in a short window, often with the sense that you couldn't fully stop once it started. When it's frequent and comes with real guilt or shame afterward, it can be binge eating disorder, which is a diagnosable, treatable condition — not something to self-manage through willpower.

Food guilt

The feeling that eating a certain food, or too much of any food, makes you a bad person. It's learned, not automatic — nobody is born feeling guilty about eating — which also means it can be unlearned.

Hunger and fullness scale

A rough 1-10 way of checking in with your body before, during, and after eating, instead of relying on the clock or the plate being empty to decide when to stop. There's no exact number to hit; the point is checking in at all.

Body composition (not weight loss)

What your body is made of — muscle, fat, and everything else — rather than just what the scale says. Two people at the same weight can have very different bodies; this coaching pays attention to that difference instead of the number on its own.