It is the time of year when we are inundated with New Year’s Resolutions, and there are strong ad campaigns for just about every diet program out there. If you aren’t familiar already, know that some of what I am about to say will go against cultural norms. It might surprise you.
It may not fit with what you have believed, or it may challenge some deeply held beliefs.
You may experience some emotional discomfort. You may experience some resistance or defensiveness. Growth often feels like that.
Do take care of yourself. Know that it often takes some time to process this information if it is new, but maybe see if you can remain open and notice your response.
We have been lied to and tricked by the diet industry.
We’ve been taught and conditioned to believe that thinness is ideal, that thin is healthy and moral. We’ve been taught that weight loss is the path to happiness and well-being. This set of beliefs is often referred to as diet culture. Diet culture has us believing we are always broken, not good enough. It compels us to spend MASSIVE amounts of time and energy and money trying to shrink our bodies. It demonizes certain ways of eating and elevates others, so we are constantly comparing ourselves, our bodies, and food choices or how we are eating. Diet culture is making over 66 billion dollars a year from us believing this way.
Diet culture is everywhere, and I am tired of it. This time of year, it is super loud!
There is another way of thinking.
Intuitive Eating and Health at Every Size can help you break away from this pervasive and sketchy belief system. As an eating disorder therapist, this is the approach I promote and teach. As a person who once had the chains of diet culture tightly wrapped around me, this is the approach I apply to my own life. One thing I have learned is this change can be challenging. Diet culture shows up almost everywhere. Unless you are unplugged from any technology, isolating from other people, and not reading any books or other media, it is so hard to escape. Even then, we may have old programming showing up in our memory.
For so long, I have felt I wasn’t as knowledgeable as many of the amazing anti-diet teachers out there. And maybe I’m not. One thing I do know….we need more anti-diet content out there, so I am going to offer it more here. My hope for this space is that we can learn together and figure some things out. I’ll share some things I have learned and ways I’ve grown, and it won’t be perfect. This anti-diet world can feel complicated, but let’s journey and learn together!
Photo by Jorne Hermans on Unsplash
