Food Rules

When it comes to weight loss, most advice stops at “eat less and move more.” But what if the real reason you can’t lose weight, or keep it off goes much deeper?

In this episode of Before Dieting, Bronwyn Fletcher takes a closer look at the eating rules you absorbed in childhood and how they quietly shape your behaviour as an adult. From “finish everything on your plate” to “don’t be greedy,” these rules often run on autopilot, steering your eating without you even realising.

Through the story of Joanne, you’ll hear how dinner-table rules around vegetables, meat, and plate-clearing followed her into adulthood, affecting portion sizes, snacking, and even how she feeds others. You’ll also learn how thousands of repetitions of simple instructions like “eat up” hardwire rules so deeply that surface-level weight loss advice, like mindful chewing or stopping before you’re full, doesn’t stand a chance.

But here’s the important part: rules aren’t always bad. Some can be useful when you’re aware of them, like Julie’s simple rules that help her navigate social situations without overeating. The danger comes when you don’t even know which rules you’re following, and they’re driving you toward results you don’t want.

Bronwyn explains why diets get it wrong, how they clash with your existing rule set, and why no diet can rewrite your food story, rules, or eating system for you. Most importantly, you’ll discover that rules aren’t fixed. Once you uncover them, you have the power to choose, and that choice opens the door to real, sustainable change.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• • The difference between food stories, food rules, and eating systems
  • How childhood rules around eating follow you into adulthood
  • Why well-meaning rules like “finish everything on your plate” can override hunger signals
  • Why diet rules fail when they collide with rules already wired in
  • How conscious awareness of your rules creates space for new choices

Key Takeaway

Your food story, rules, and eating system are personal and unique to you. Once you see them clearly, you don’t have to be ruled by them.

Call to Action

If Before Dieting is helping you shift how you think about weight loss, please take a moment to rate the podcast and leave a comment. It helps other women caught in the weight-regain cycle find their way here too.

For more information read my Blog at weightingforhappiness.com.au

Or read the Transcript on my podcast page at weightingforhappiness.com.au/podcast