I want to try and remove the black and white thinking and instead focus on growth mindset. To start seeing the world with more curiosity and less judgement. Carol Dweck says in her Ted talk “That the words “not yet” instead of “fail” can be life changing.” Imagine we spoke to ourselves like that. When we didn’t achieve something, instead of saying I cannot do it, saying I have not achieved that yet. Dweck says resilience is built by regular progress and consistent effort. We need to push ourselves out of our comfort zones.
Do Diets actually work?
Even with regular progress and consistent effort, the answer in short for 95% of us is no.
More on that later on but first. Can we get real about eating disorders? How many people suffer with them? Many of those young adults are girls and boys are aged 15 -25. How sad is that? These are our most impressionable years and instead of learning to love our bodies. We our taught that smaller is more beautiful and that the numbers are the only ones that count. The number on the scale, the number on the pants and our dress size, represent value in our diet-obsessed culture. We are taught to hate our bodies so early on that we don’t even know that we are doing it.
Awareness is key here.
To start to notice diet culture. And eventually not to have it trigger you. This can be tricky when we are constantly bombarded with diet culture messaging. Healing is a journey.
So, what actually is Diet Culture? Rachel MacPherson BA CPT What Is Diet Culture? (verywellfit.com) Describes Diet culture as “the pervasive belief that appearance and body shape are more important than physical, psychological, and general well-being. It’s the idea that controlling your body, particularly your diet—by limiting what and how much you eat—is normal. “
Is long term weight loss unattainable?
Have you have tried a diet? Have you have tried many diets? And how many actually worked? Here are the truth ladies …
“Diets don’t work- “98% of people who lose weight are going to regain it within 5 years.” (Fildes et al.2015; Harrison 2019) Anti-diet “Up to 2/3 of dieters gain back more weight than they lost. (Mann et al 2007)” Christy Harrison
Want to know more check out (anti-diet by Christy Harrison).
Intuitive eating is a journey…
I finally found another book called Intuitive eating, after hearing a podcast that spoke about it, in 2022. The concepts changed my life for the better. I was so tired of “failing at every diet I tried.” I honestly thought it was my fault. I thought that my bingeing was the issue and not my restrictive, disordered eating? I couldn’t understand why I so out of control with food. I honesty felt like there was wrong with me.
The light bulb moment happened for me when I realised that the binging was not the issue but rather that my restriction with food was causing my binging. Here is my question for you, how many hours of your day are consumed by food? Do you feel out of control with food?
There is another way. Get in touch for support getting started on your journey with making peace with food.