“Hope” is not all it’s cracked up to be, when it comes to food and weight.

In fact, it is often the very misguided hope—
that one day, I’ll find the magic sauce and get my “food under control,”
if I just try hard enough, seek long enough, or find the “right” solution,

that more often than not, is exactly what keeps women stuck 
in diet-mentality, restrictive thinking, and subsequent rebellion (aka binge-eating).

I often look back on my most hopeless moments with food and dieting,
and think to myself,

“Thank God.” 

“Thank God, I got to the place where I can finally see how fruitless, how vicious, and how oppressive these attempts at body-control really are.”

Had I not, at some point, become utterly hopeless on my quest for food and body control,
I might still be hanging onto dieting today,
and continuing to live in the true purgatory of diet-binge cycling, body-shame, and generally feeling crazy around food.

If I could give any advice to those who feel hopeless in their attempts to control their food or their bodies,

it would be the very unorthodox suggestion to Embrace Hopelessness—
so you may finally Give Up those efforts that are clearly not serving you.

Sometimes it takes hopelessness,
to relax into letting go.