Ditching the “Diet Mentality”
Let me ask you a really juicy and beautiful question: Who would you be without your dieting identity?
How many of us have made food choices, exercise decisions, or even social plans based solely on the goal of losing weight? Over time, these patterns solidify into a strong dieting identity that can be hard to shake. We obsess over calories, agonize over "good" and "bad" foods, and judge our self-worth by the number on the scale.
The mental space that I, personally have allowed dieting culture access to in my mind over my lifetime is appalling. Lately, I’ve often wondered what I would have been able to accomplish with all that freed-up time and energy. You too may have wondered the same.
The problem is that we have only ever been aware of two equally distasteful options:
A) Obsession: A hyper-focus on food and body (aka keeping everything “in check”)
B) Anarchy: Eating everything, having zero discipline, zero rules, and being unacceptable to society.
This dichotomous narrative is very much “in-line” with a dieting mentality and the classic all-or-nothing thinking.
This all-or-nothing mentality is a hallmark of diet culture. We've lost trust in moderation and our own ability to make good choices. Instead, we're constantly looking outside ourselves for the "perfect" diet or eating plan. But here's the truth - those external solutions don't exist. That's why we end up bouncing from fad diet to fad diet, never finding lasting peace or satisfaction. But this distrust moderation is because we are unfamiliar with it rather than incapable of doing it.
The real problem lies more in the fact that we have absolutely lost all trust in our innate ability to make good decisions for ourselves when it comes to our nutrition and our health. We are constantly looking for answers outside of ourselves and guess what? Because it doesn’t actually exist, we are having a hard time finding it.
So what does ditching the dieting identity even look like?
For me, it means selecting food and movement based on how it makes my body feel. It means having a high degree of trust in myself to make smart choices and viewing my body as an amazing partner, and not an entity meant to be overridden. It means mostly eating foods that I love that love me back. And finding ways to enjoy the process.
Shopping at the farmers market. Photo Credit to: Lilyfire Photo
Shedding dieting mentality is life-long work. I don’t know that it ever goes away entirely or it’s just that you simply learn to manage it better and that it is a worthwhile process.
I have experienced this journey in a privileged body but it doesn’t make my own experiences and my own mind-fu&king (of myself) any less harmful or less awful.
I want you to know that there is a very real alternative to dieting identity that involves taking really good care of your body, mind, and spirit. If you’d like to learn more about it, reach out when you’re ready. I’ll be here