✨ I have an inbox with several messages right now questioning diet culture. 👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼 it’s so easy to get caught up and confused in the anti-diet movement and until you’ve REALLY navigated through the layers of your own self it can be super confusing. It still is for me sometimes.
✨ so... here are my non-professional thoughts.
1. WHY. Why do you think weight loss is the answer. Unpack that. Work really hard on shifting your WHY from “I want to look good in photos” to “I don’t care what I look like in photos, I want to thrive.” Then, realize that weight loss isn’t the answer... it may be a side effect of your own personal self care but it should not be your goal.
2. Diets don’t work, and that’s science based factual info we’ve known since the 60’s. The weight loss industry wants. your. money. Period.
3. If you’re sensitive to certain foods and trying to avoid things that don’t make you feel good, congrats because that means you’re actually getting back into touch with your body and listening to it. Instead of RESTRICTING yourself, think of it as a choice. For example: Lately I’m choosing to not eat eggs in the morning right now because they really hurt my stomach. Instead I’ll eat a bowl of cereal, because believe it or not... I feel a lot better that way. It’s just enough food for my stomach to digest, and it works for me right now. 👉🏼 By the way, this is so interesting to me because I haven’t let myself eat cereal in YEARS.
4. Your choice = you have the power. Restriction = you’ve given your power over to a diet, leading to guilt, shame, and a lot of times disordered eating behaviors.
5. Being confident in your body and loving yourself is one thing. But trying to actually take care of yourself is another thing... especially if you’re trying to heal from disordered eating, orthorexia, and chronic dieting. This is your year of compassion. Let yourself just be right now and instead focus on healing your relationship with food and exercise.

By the way...I’ve learned a lot of this from my therapy sessions with @stephdodier.