For my long time readers, you probably know by now that I don’t subscribe to faddy diets. To me, the term diet is short-term, restrictive and rather than being kind and nurturing it promotes a disordered relationship with food and your body. Unfortunately, the diet culture is massively ingrained in our lives and has become a societal norm. Whether it’s the latest celebrity diet doing the rounds in a magazine, the latest quick fix exercise routine or ‘superfood’ to help us lose weight, dieting is everywhere. I really hate that the media almost refuse to go against the grain and use their powerful voice to speak up about ditching the diet culture and loving your body.
I’m deeply passionate about inspiring women to be kinder to themselves and love their bodies now, not 10lbs later. It’s not a shock that women think that if they take up less space on this earth that they’ll instantly feel better about themselves – we’ve been conditioned to think this way. However, losing weight isn’t the holy grail. There are millions of women who have reached their magical goal weight, but inside there is still the same sinking heart. Being healthy is about more than the food that you eat or the number on the scales, it’s also about your mindset, which the diet culture fails to acknowledge.
There are lots of things that I hate about the diet culture (as you can probably tell) and one prime example is that it takes the pleasure out of eating. Food is there to be enjoyed, to feed your soul as well as your body. Instead, we’re told to strip away everything we love to eat and end up on a boring food plan that we end up hating. Also, it teaches us to scrutinize our food, pull it apart, question every morsel that passes our lips, which quite frankly is an unhealthy approach to adopt.
Also, I just want to highlight, that if losing weight is your goal, then great, go for it! There is nothing wrong with weight loss as long as it’s coming from a place of love. However, if it’s fuelled by negative self-talk, hate for your body and you think being smaller will make you feel better about yourself – I think some work around self-love and realising your worth is required. When you love yourself, that’s when the real magic happens! In this moment, this is when you believe that you are worthy of amazing things and you start to take care of yourself on a deeper level.
The diet culture doesn’t touch on self love, it focuses on what you can take away for your every day as opposed to what you can inject into your life to bring more abundance and happiness. Let’s face it, you’re only given one body in this lifetime, so you might as well love the one that you’ve got, plus you deserve it!
Today, I’m diving in deep, sharing my top tips that have helped me move away from the diet culture mentality and embrace a more balanced life, which in turn has helped me show up in my life more happier, confident more forgiving towards my body. It’s not easy, it takes a lot of practice, but like with anything that takes time, it’s so worth it!
I believe that diets will never help you lose weight. But a healthy lifestyle will. I think that there’s nothing wrong with having a burger if you crave for one, or a pizza, as long as you balance and moderate it. You can’t live on diets all your life, seeing how once you finish one you put on the weight you lost.
I really love the mentality in this post. Eating healthier is much easier when you like who you are, and this in itself reduces the need for diets.
I am so with you there is so many fad diets out there, I have to admit some of hem really scare me with the ideas they try and get people to follow.
I’ve been on a diet for most of this year and I’m getting fed up with feeling hungry now! I’m nearly at my ‘goal weight’ I just hope I’ll be able to enjoy eating healthily when I get there, and not be hungry all the time!
Totally agree…diet mode can be so unhealthy and even if there is a weight loss at the start, it is not maintainable 🙂 x
I do think traditional diets just don’t work and it’s more about a lifestyle change if you’re looking to lose weight and be healthier x
Rather than go on a diet, I’ve tried to completely overhaul my diet and exercise to make it a long term lifestyle change x
I have never dieted before but now eat majority of healthy food. I find regular exercise also helps to stay healthy.
What a great read and this is so helpful. I’m so guilty I am doing the Unhealthy diet I make my body sacrifice to not eat instead of eating healthy food.
So agree that ‘diets’ take all enjoyment out of food. When I was 16, I joined one of these faddy groups with a weekly weigh in and a certificate for the person who’d dropped the most lbs that week. I was far too young for this kind of competitive weight loss (and had the unhealthy belief that I needed to lose a lot of weight to feel some self-respect), that it thrust me into being a bit too competitive and I ended up verging on the edge of an eating disorder. Getting older makes you realise that your body is fine, no matter what shape or size, and that eating well 80% of the time is a lifestyle change which ultimately makes you feel better, not a chore!
Some diets are really worrying. I keep seeing people selling dieting coffee and I just can’t see how that can work. I’ve lost my headphones so I can’t watch the video ???
It’s such a negative and dangerous road to go on. I used to be jumping on fad diets left, right, and centre in my 20’s and it’s such a damaging course both for your body and soul. It’s great that you bring so much awareness to celebrating ourselves as we are now. x
When I want to lose weight I prefer to tackle to with portion control and exercise, if I ever go on a diet I end up eating more because I’m depriving myself from all the food I love and that just makes me sad. It’s a vicious circle
I am always saddened when I hear fellow women say only at a certain size will they be happy. I agree diets are restrictive, instead of losing weight healthily we want the fast route and end up destroying our own bodies
My mummy hates the culture of diets and hopefully short term dieting will be replaced with healthy eating. We believe everything in moderation!
Such a powerful and amazing post. I hate the diet culture we are all sucked into. I know I am fat, but I am quite healthy with low cholesterol and blood pressure. We don’t eat processed foods, jars or tins of things. Everything is cooked fresh with pulses and lots of vegetables and little red meat. I love my food though and take great pleasure in preparing a cooking so I just can’t deal with diets. They take the joy out of food and the experiences you have with it!
Totally agree I am not a fan of the diet culture its not possible in the long term, I believe in moderation is key
Honestly, I have never been one for diets. Apart from the fact that I find them extremely hard to stick to, I also think that dieting is not a healthy long-lasting way to lose weight. Everything should be eaten in moderation!
Like many commenting on here, I’ve never been one for diets. I don’t think it’s sustainable or healthy for the long term x