Diet culture loves the new year. And 2021 will be no exception. January is the main month they launch new rounds of tired programs. Diet ads and fitness influencers will not only rely on their messaging variations of “you’re fat, you need to fix yourself” standbys. But diet culture in 2021 will add in the
I knew dieting was hurting my health. But I didn’t know what else to do. I just remember feeling so stuck. Part of me was ready to walk away from the significant amount of effort and brain space it took to micromanage my food and sustain my fat loss. While the other side of me
Diet culture wants you to believe that losing weight will improve your body image. But your body image is actually tied to your mental health—not your appearance. This is why when we hit our weight loss goals, the excitement lasts for only a fleeting second. We’re left dissatisfied. Mentally exhausted from the effort of restriction.
There are so many goals to set and wins to celebrate in disordered eating recovery. When you’re doing the important work of un-learning diet culture and healing your relationship with food, fitness and body image, you are able to reconnect with your God-given intuition and achieve so much more for your health. The trajectory of
Weening off (and finally deleting) MyFitnessPal food tracking app was the HARDEST part of my intuitive eating journey. But realizing the extent of my obsession with it made me fully accept that I had an eating disorder. Even after I stopped carb cycling, I would come up with every excuse as to why I needed
Diet culture is anything that promotes weight loss or thin bodies. Weight stigma is judgement and discrimination against bodies that are not thin. Diet culture and weight stigma together is the underlying message that you are only healthy if you are thin. And therefore you are unhealthy if you are fat. Diet culture and weight
There’s a lot of myths out there about Intuitive Eating. Most intuitive eating myths are perpetuated by diet culture as a scare tactic so you purchase their weight loss product or program. But unfortunately healthcare professionals (including personal trainers, nutritionists, registered dietitians, and doctors) are guilty too because they truly don’t know any better. They
No one talks enough about how much your job can be making you unhealthy. It’s frequently not even the work itself. But the managers and colleagues you are exposed to 8+ hours of your day. We often think it needs to be some extreme, cutthroat environment before we’re allowed to call out our jobs as
While the majority of Before and After photos are posted to sell a diet program’s results, sometimes Before and After photos are posted with relatively good intentions. Someone set a goal for their body and they’re celebrating progress towards their appearance goals. In either case, the intentions don’t actually matter because Before and After photos
Have you been stress eating or emotionally eating this past week? That’s okay—you’re normal! Instead of feeling disappointed in yourself though, you should consider what may have triggered you to stress eat. Read more to learn what stress eating is. When it’s okay. And when it’s a signal for help. There are typically 2 stress
There’s a frustrating, murky middle between dieting and food freedom. I believe the majority of women who have spent years chronic dieting must past through this low valley before they can begin their intuitive eating journey to food freedom. I remember how scared I was to give up carb cycling and intermittent fasting. Part of
When I began my intuitive eating journey, I really struggled with feeling my hunger. Because after 3+ years of Intermittent Fasting, I had destroyed my hunger cues. Intermittent Fasting has become a socially-accepted way to not eat when you’re hungry. To instead define a certain period of time, known as an “eating window,” where you
Imagine you’re standing in your pantry deciding what to have for a snack. Your eyes fall on a bag of cookies. “Oooh those look good!” you think to yourself. Do you eat them? Let’s find out! You will ultimately make your food selection based on if you have a diet mentality or a non-diet mentality.
Once you get married or in a serious relationship, you disordered eating impacts more than just you and your body. It affects your relationships. This is my story of the moment I realized I trained my husband to enable my disordered eating. Lunch for everyone. But me. It was around noon and we were planning
There’s often a secret looming behind those “after” photos that diet/lifestyle programs so often post to prove what amazing results others have achieved. Before/After Photos Get ‘Likes’ on Instagram. One of the most common sales tricks for diet culture is to use before/after photos. They are proven to generate a lot of likes and engagement
On a beautiful Fall afternoon, I went into my local Starbucks to order a grande chai tea latte to enjoy during my son’s baseball game. While standing in line, the college-aged girl socially distanced in front of me was up to order. Calories over Desires “What has less calories: a grande pumpkin spice latte or
Dieting focuses on two goals only: weight loss and inches lost. Both are related to altering your appearance and have nothing to do with actual health goals (despite what diet culture will tell you.) I get it. I used to think shrinking my body was the only goal that mattered too. I was able to
While I confidently practice Intuitive Eating now, I still have moments where I realize how far my recovery has come. And how much I let my diet culture BS impact my kids. I restricted my kids from treats. Yesterday I went grocery shopping. I had Oreos on my list (which had already been a huge
Below are 10 signs you’re a chronic dieter. Take this as a quiz and answer “yes” or “no” to each item. You might discover that your dieting behaviors are causing you to be more unhealthy! If you do 1 or more of these things, you’re likely a chronic dieter. If you do more than 2
While the path and journey of recovering from chronic dieting look different for everyone, it ultimately comes down to loving yourself towards healthy instead of hating yourself towards skinny. And what that really means is not depriving yourself of food or using fitness as punishment for what you ate (or what you’re about to eat.)