3 Ways to Make Every Meal a Sit-Down Meal

When it comes to mealtimes, do you often find yourself scarfing down food because you know you have to eat rather than savoring every bite?

 

Too often I find that my clients are eating their meals either in their car or at the kitchen counter rather than at the table.

 

I’ve had several clients tell me they do not feel worthy of a sit-down meal! They do not think they deserve to enjoy their meal in a pleasant environment, free of distractions.

 

There are several reasons why they feel this way, and you might find that you identify with some of them.

 

Let’s look back and figure out where this belief might have originated:

 

  • Is it something you saw mom or grandmother doing?

 

  • Is it something you were led to believe by someone you trusted?

 

  • Were you ever told that you “shouldn’t” be eating because you are “fat”?

 

While it’s important to understand the origin of this belief, please know this…

 

You deserve to eat, every meal of the day, every day. And you deserve to sit down and enjoy your meal and savor each bite.

 

You may say that you have no time to plate your meals, that you are busy, constantly on the go and it’s just easier to grab when you can, or just graze throughout the day.

 

I understand being busy, but it’s all about priorities.

 

You CAN restructure your day to include mealtime. This means you sit at the table with a plate of food and enjoy it in good company.

 

3 Ways to Make Every Meal a Sit-down One

 

  1. Breakfast

 

Instead of eating breakfast in the car, wake up a few minutes earlier and plan to sit at the kitchen table to enjoy your breakfast. To make this even easier, prepare what you can the night before, so you have fewer steps to do in the morning.

 

  1. Lunch

 

Instead of eating lunch at your desk, schedule 30 minutes into your schedule to leave your office to eat lunch. Maybe there’s a break room at work, a local park with picnic tables, or on occasion, a nearby restaurant you can eat at. Your mealtimes can be a good time to reflect and really tune into what your body is telling you.

 

 

  1. Dinner

 

Believe that you are worthy of eating a well-balanced dinner, sitting at your table. Make it a point to finish cooking, plate your food and sit down. Put a nice tablecloth on your dining table and use a nice plate instead of a disposable plate.

 

Savor every bite. Really tune into the taste, texture, and flavor of the food you are eating.

 

Be fully present.

 

By actively savoring each bite, you will find yourself more satisfied with your meal rather than when you pick at food mindlessly.

 

Plating and sitting down to your meals throughout the day will help you feel more satisfied, and you won’t find yourself searching for food during the day and night.

How to Talk Back to the Food Police

It’s Valentine’s Day which typically means a night out with the person that you love. While the only thing that should be on your mind is the person sitting across from you, you can’t help but have running thoughts on all the calories you’re eating.

 

Perhaps you knew that a big dinner was on the menu so you “prepared” by doing one of the following: Skipping lunch so you can save calories or points for dinner. You didn’t eat any carbs during the day, so you can eat from the breadbasket at the restaurant. Or you negotiate with yourself and you “allow” a big meal binge knowing tomorrow you will only choose “healthier” foods.

 

All these ideas are the food police speaking, screaming unreasonable rules at you. And in each of these cases, what do you think happens? You arrive at the restaurant and sit down to dinner in a ravenous state and more than likely, you end up eating to an overfull state. Then you feel physically uncomfortable, emotionally miserable (guilty, shame), and you follow that with food restriction!

 

Restriction, cutting back on your food intake or choosing only “healthy” foods if the scale is higher the next day, is dieting. It’s the opposite of being intuitive.

 

The food police, however, would like to have you think it IS the reason, and therefore it is shouting rules at you to eat less today, to avoid carbs, and to only choose “healthy” foods.

 

Shout back at the food police by doing these 3 things:

 

  1. Identify the distorted irrational dieting thought and disarm it.

 

It is not always easy to recognize when you are having these dieting thoughts. When you start using words like calorie or scale, take a step back. Acknowledge that these words are likely linked to a dieting mindset.

 

  1. Recognize that a higher weight this morning may be due to some other reason.

 

Your body weight fluctuates day-to-day based on many factors. Weight is a measure of the weight of your tissues, which includes your bones, organs, muscle and fat tissue AND the substances that pass through such as water, food, and waste. If you weigh more this morning than you did yesterday, it doesn’t mean that you have more fatty tissue today because you ate the chicken parmesan at last night’s dinner.

 

  1. Don’t weigh yourself.

 

Throw away the scale and begin to cultivate the trust in your body to make food and nutrition choices that are right for you.

 

Enjoy your meal without the guilt, you deserve it.

3 Tips to Manage Stress Around Food in Your Life

The winter can be a challenging time for many, the days are shorter, which can make it impossible to get even the simplest task done. From work to cooking to getting daily movement in, it can all seem overwhelming.

 

A common habit when feeling stressed is turning to food.

 

Food has become a way for so many women in my community to distract from pain, procrastinate from work, and deal with the stress they experience in their lives. The problem is that food does not fix any of these things!!

 

Food is supposed to be enjoyed. Yet, when speaking with so many clients, and potential clients, they tell me that food is stressful. All aspects of food, whether it’s deciding what to eat, shopping and preparing food for meals, or even the thought of going out to eat food.

 

And certainly, the guilt they feel after they eat what they think they “shouldn’t eat’!

 

Stress, stress, stress!

 

So today I wanted to share some strategies with you to help you manage food-related stress, without turning to food to cope!

 

If you have had a difficult relationship with food for some time now, then you can probably relate.

 

I know you probably want food to be a non-issue in your life. And you know what? It can be.

 

Let’s first start with 3 strategies that you can put into place immediately to help you minimize the stress around food:

 

Strategy #1: Set up your environment for success.

 

While I’m all about teaching you how to be intuitive in your eating, I am also very practical. It is important to be mindful of your eating and one way to do that is to reduce your external eating cues. That means put all food away after you’ve eaten and don’t leave food on the counters or table. If food is left out, it can very easily lead to mindless munching which then leads to feelings of guilt and frustration for eating when you weren’t hungry.

 

Strategy #2: Seek assistance from your family members.

 

Food shopping and meal prep doesn’t have to just be your responsibility. Get everyone involved in the menu planning. Even better, assign everyone a night to prepare the dinner. This way the whole family is involved, the kids will more likely eat what they help to prepare, and you get quality family time too.

 

Strategy #3. Start to use meditation and visualization.

 

Meditation can be a powerful tool to help keep your mind clear and stress-free. You can use meditation as a way to visualize yourself being stress-free around food and, by visualizing that, you can start to believe it will happen too.

 

These strategies are a good place to get started and you can use them as a way to figure out what works best for you. If you are looking for more guidance, join my Intuitive Eating for a Diet Free Life Facebook Community.

3 Ways to Heal Your Relationship with Food

With the New Year upon us, social media is buzzing with resolutions, many revolving around weight loss. Weight loss advertisements flood TV and radio, making it challenging to avoid the pervasive diet culture. If you’re feeling like I am, you might be tired of constant diet discussions and the frustrating cycle of gaining and losing weight associated with traditional dieting.

 

Maybe you heard me speak about intuitive eating recently at a summit, or you’ve read the Intuitive Eating book by the original authors and have been trying to practice the principles and become an intuitive eater for a few months, maybe even a few years. Intuitive eating sounds logical to you; you realize this can help you heal your relationship with food. However, you still want to lose weight.

 

There are many intuitive eating and HAES (Health at Every Size) advocates that would say shame on you for wanting to lose weight. Love the body that you have.

 

I’m not saying shame on you. I want to acknowledge your desire to lose weight. I want to show you compassion for the physical discomfort you may be experiencing. But I also want to encourage you to put weight loss out of your mind as you work on healing your relationship with food. I know this is difficult.

 

You see, it’s not “weight loss” itself that is problematic, it’s the pursuit of weight loss that is the problem. There’s a big difference here.

 

You’ve already tried to pursue weight loss via the many diets, restrictions, detoxes, cleanses, food group elimination, and demonizing of foods. All this caused was a disordered relationship with food and your body.

 

As you begin to change habits, behaviors, thoughts, and feelings around food and your body, you may lose weight, and that’s fine. No one is going to say to you “that’s terrible, how could you have lost weight!”. Your body will do what it needs to do, in its natural way, in its own time. The interesting thing is that you cannot determine that. Your body determines that.

 

But please understand that the process of intuitive eating is not a weight loss program. Some people may lose weight, some people may gain weight (especially if they started at a low body weight or a place of severe restriction) and some people maintain their weight.

 

So, how do you get weight loss out of your mind as you heal your relationship with food?

 

  1. Write down your WHY! 

 

Why do you want to stop fighting with food and your body? Dig down as deep as you need to uncover the true reason. Chances are there is a very meaningful reason why you want to stop the food and body war within yourself. And it’s way bigger than losing a few pounds. Then write your meaningful why on an index card or post-it notes and put it in a place you see it often. Read it daily and re-commit to it each time your mind goes back to weight loss.

 

  1. Identify the BIG 3! 

 

Instead of constantly thinking about your weight, focus on 3 amazing characteristics that you possess. Unsure what they are? Ask a friend, family member, or partner. I’m sure they will be happy to share with you how kind you are, funny you are, helpful you are etc. Then on a day that you seem to be worrying too much about your weight, switch it off to focus on the BIG 3!

 

  1. Seek Support! 

 

Every one of us needs support throughout our lives. This includes times like this when you are swimming in new waters. If you haven’t yet joined my Intuitive Eating Support Community, come on over.

 

In your journey to heal your relationship with food, remember that true well-being goes beyond the number on the scale. Embrace the principles of intuitive eating, focusing on your WHY, celebrating your unique qualities, and seeking the support you need.

 

Here’s to a healthier and happier you in the New Year and beyond!

5 Ways to Slow Down Your Eating

In today’s fast-paced society, it’s only natural that we rush around trying to get everything done before the day is over. You rush to work, school, and everywhere else you must go. You probably even rush through lunch to get back to your busy day at work.

 

Think back to your last meal, did you inhale it or take the time to enjoy every bite? How long do you think it took you to finish your meal? If it’s less than 20 minutes, then keep reading.

 

If you feel like you’re the only person who does this, you’re not! Most people devour their meals in about 5 -7 minutes flat. They put a forkful of food in their mouths and, before they even swallow, the next forkful is ready to go. Do you find yourself doing this too?

 

While moving fast may be a necessity for you, eating fast can be detrimental to your health and body.

 

When you eat fast, it becomes difficult to savor your meals. You’re not able to truly listen to your body and engage in mindful eating. Slowing down as you eat will allow you to really taste every bite and get the most satisfaction out of the meal as possible.

 

Eating quickly also prevents you from eating until you are comfortably satisfied because you don’t pay attention to your inner fullness signals. Instead, you’ll eat until the food is gone.

 

It takes your brain 20 minutes to realize that your stomach is full, so if you clean your plate in record time, you likely miss that fullness cue and reach for more food. By the time the fullness signals kick in, you are now uncomfortably full, having eaten more than your body physically needs. You are likely also experiencing bloat, heartburn, and other uncomfortable gastrointestinal symptoms (in addition to the emotional side effects of guilt and shame).

 

Here are 5 Tips to Help You Slow Down Your Eating:

 

  1. Set a Mealtime

 

Set an allotted amount of time to sit down and eat your meal, pick whatever time works for you! There is no “best” time to eat. Just be sure you plan it into your daily schedule, and that means breakfast and lunch too!

 

  1. Rest Your Utensils

 

Put your fork and knife down between bites – this means completely putting it down on your plate until you’re done chewing what’s in your mouth. Then, and only then, pick up the fork and take your next bite.

 

  1. Turn Off the Devices

 

Eat without distractions, meaning no T.V. or Phone, we all know how difficult this can be. I suggest making your kitchen/dining room an electronic-free zone! If your phone is in another room, then you are not tempted to look at it when you hear that notification. Make sure the kids know too that mealtime is not tech time.

 

  1. Switch Your Eating Hand

 

Use your non-dominant hand to hold the fork, this is a simple way to help you slow down. Since your non-dominant hand is usually weaker, you’ll have to pick up smaller forkfuls and really concentrate to keep food from spilling over.

 

  1. Eat with Someone Else

 

Ask a family member or friend to help you reach your goal of slowing down at meals! You can engage in meaningful conversations between bites and, before you know it, you’ll realize you are engaging in many of the tips stated above.

 

Challenge Yourself

 

Set the timer on your phone and see how long it normally takes you to finish a meal. It might be 5 minutes and you might think that stretching it out to 20 is impossible. It’s not! Continue to use the tips above every time you sit to eat to help lengthen your meal minute by minute. Before long, you will be eating slower and using your inner fullness signals to guide you when to stop. You’ll enjoy your meal a whole lot better.

4 Tips to Best Handle Life’s Stressful Events

As we approach the end of the year, it’s a time that can get a bit overwhelming for many. If you’ve been on the dieting rollercoaster, the upcoming new year and all the resolution chatter might add an extra layer of stress. It’s easy to slip back into old habits. Even if you’re an intuitive eater, the buzz around resolutions can make it tricky to stay on track and you might find yourself revisiting some old dieting patterns.

 

The truth is that no matter where you are on your intuitive eating journey, stressful life events are bound to occur. It is okay to feel stressed or anxious at times, but you don’t want to lose yourself to life’s surprises.

 

When you feel life weighing you down, it may feel most comfortable to turn to food, but the thing is, food is meant to nourish you, not be used as your crutch.

 

So, what can you do to keep moving forward during stressful times?

 

4 Tips for Moving Forward and Not Backward During Stressful Events

 

  1. Focus on your big WHY

 

When you feel like you are falling apart, ask yourself the reason you embarked on your intuitive eating journey. Was it to feel better in your body? Was it to stay healthy for your kids? Was it to get off medication?

 

Chances are your “why” still resonates somewhere within you, even on your darkest days. Let this motivate you. Some days are easier than others but if you keep your “why” in focus, you can navigate the bumps along the way.

 

Instead of letting the bad times discourage you from working to better your health and yourself, use mindfulness to clear your headspace and find peace within yourself.

 

  1. Prioritize yourself

 

Make every day the best it can be by prioritizing your own needs. That may mean making a list of goals, tasks to tackle, or fresh produce to pick up from the grocery store. Each step in the right direction is an important one.

 

You can make the most of each day by scheduling time for your own priorities into your daily routine. There is a time for work, a time for taking care of the needs of others, and a time to care for yourself. This includes time to sit down for meals and to be engaged, and mindful and do nothing but focus on your food.

 

  1.  Take time to unwind each day

 

This can be exercise, taking a bath, catching the newest episode of your favorite TV show, or talking with a friend. Remember that you do not have to navigate alone. At times life is too much to balance on your own so reach out to friends, coworkers, family, and loved ones for support when you need it. By letting go of pent-up emotions, you will be clearing your mind and allowing more room for mindfulness.

 

You may be thinking “but I don’t have TIME to relax.” Trust me, I know the feeling. With busy schedules, sometimes it may feel like there is just no time to unwind. Even just taking 15 minutes to vent to a friend or to decompress your thoughts onto paper will benefit your day and your overall goals.

 

  1. Listen to your body

 

Tap into the messages your body is sending you. Your body speaks to you, yes it does. But too often during a busy stressful time, you don’t hear it because you are not listening to it. Instead of putting energy into fretting about the worry at hand, stop and listen to the messages your body is sending to you. Is it tired? Hungry? In need of a conversation with a loved one? This will help you gain clarity and continue to move forward, honoring yourself and your body.

 

The truth is, life comes at you fast. You cannot go back in time, but you can make the most of your present and future. Homing in on your intuitive eating and mindfulness will help you navigate through life’s obstacles so you can enjoy being the best version of yourself.

 

Always remember, when you are feeling low, there is nowhere to go but up! If you keep your focus and mindfulness, you will find inner peace on even your worst days.

Savoring Every Bite: Unveiling the Power of Your Taste Buds

For a long time, it was believed that our sense of fullness was exclusively linked to our gut, triggered only after consuming a meal. However, a recent study has revealed a surprising twist, not only does our gut influence satiety, but so do our taste buds.

 

Yes, our taste buds have the power to curb our appetite.

 

The brain’s cells have been found to regulate eating speed based on signals received from taste bud receptors. This intricate process involves a delicate balance: our bodies craving for something delicious, and our brain’s encouragement to slow down to avoid eating to sickness.

 

This study highlights the collaborative role of both taste buds and the gut in controlling our satiety cues.

 

So, what does this mean for us as Intuitive Eaters?

 

As mindful eaters, we understand the importance of staying attuned to our bodies during meals. We pause at each forkful, relishing the flavors and signaling to our brains that we are enjoying a delightful meal, potentially prompting us to slow down and savor the experience. Moreover, we intermittently take a pause while eating to gauge our level of fullness. We are listening to the gut signaling, telling us that we’re full!

 

This study out of California published in Nature has proven what we know from being Intuitive Eaters for years! Eating is more than just the stomach; it is about the whole experience.

 

Practicing mindful eating is crucial for comprehending our body’s satiety levels.

 

Here are 4 ways to kickstart your journey into mindful eating:

 

  1. Create A Safe Space

 

You may be used to eating in your car in the morning to save time or perhaps you ritually sit in front of the television with dinner. These distractions cause you to lose focus on your food, and often you will be eating without realizing that you are past the point of fullness. Instead create a space at home away from distractions, where you can focus on your meal.

 

  1. Slow Down 

 

Are you typically the first person at the table to finish your meal? Before you begin eating, think about how you will proceed to eat your meal. Consciously decide that you will slow down and allow at least 20-30 minutes to eat. Take the time to appreciate the food you are eating. And remember, you can always save whatever you don’t eat for leftovers.

 

  1. Savor your Food

 

Focus on each bite of food that you put into your mouth. Experience the taste, texture, flavors, and aroma of the food. Try to identify the different flavors of the food. Is it sweet, salty, sour, crunchy, or smooth? Do you like it, dislike it, or it’s just okay? If you aren’t fully satisfied with it, don’t finish it. Try not to feel pressed to finish foods that don’t satisfy you.

 

  1. Be in the Moment

 

Are you fully present when you are eating or are you eating with a bunch of distractions around you? Be sure to turn off the television and avoid reading or talking on the phone while eating. These activities take away from the mindfulness of eating. You may even need to take a moment to zone out of the conversation around you to fully immerse yourself in the meal.

 

Savor each bite mindfully, as your taste buds and gut hold the keys to genuine satisfaction.

Source: Truong Ly, Jun Y. Oh, Nilla Sivakumar, Sarah Shehata, Naymalis La Santa Medina, Heidi Huang, Zhengya Liu, Wendy Fang, Chris Barnes, Naz Dundar, Brooke C. Jarvie, Anagh Ravi, Olivia K. Barnhill, Chelsea Li, Grace R. Lee, Jaewon Choi, Heeun Jang, Zachary A. Knight. Sequential appetite suppression by oral and visceral feedback to the brainstem. Nature, 2023; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06758-2

3 Tips to Help Navigate Diet Talk as the Holidays Approach

Can you believe that it is already November, and the holiday season is upon us? This week is Thanksgiving, which means you’ll likely be surrounded by family, friends, food, and wine! The holiday season brings with it all types of emotions, some happy and some sad.

 

Add to these emotions the fact that you are surrounded by dieting messages at every turn.

 

Whether it be on the radio or the television or it can even be from your peers. There is constant pressure to change how you look to fit some societal expectations.

 

I’m here to tell you there is nothing wrong with you, just as you are now!

 

If you have achieved a peaceful relationship with food and your body, then you are in a place where these media messages are benign to you. They don’t affect you, except make you mad as hell that the diet industry is praying on those desperate to lose weight.

 

But thankfully, that is not you anymore. You appreciate your body, you are at peace with food, and you are enjoying the holiday meals without guilt. And I am so happy for you.

 

If you aren’t there yet, just know that I realize these next weeks may be challenging for you. If you are surrounded by family members who are dieting, you will hear comments at your holiday meal such as: “I shouldn’t be eating this, but…” “I can’t eat that dessert, you are?”

 

How you handle these comments will determine whether you slip back into a diet mentality or not.

 

Here are 3 Tips to Help You Navigate the Diet Talk at Your Holiday Meal:

 

  1. Maintain Awareness

 

That word right there, awareness, will be the difference between you throwing in the towel or standing your ground. Stay present within your body and make purposeful food choices that honor you! If at any point you find yourself losing that awareness, that’s okay. Bring yourself back to the present moment with a pause and a few deep breaths.

 

  1. Tune out the diet talk

 

When the family starts getting into all the diet talk, just tune them out. Start to sing your favorite song in your head, think about the good time you had on your last vacation, or excuse yourself from the table for a stretch and walk around the house.

 

  1. Change the Topic

 

When the conversation goes to the food and should/shouldn’t, change the topic! Be the leader in moving the conversation to where you want it to go. A good idea is to have some conversation starters ready to go such as:

 

“If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?”

“If you could have any superpower, what would it be?”

“What’s your biggest pet peeve?”

 

You have the power within you to resist falling back into a diet mentality. Keep reminding yourself of this, especially throughout this holiday season.

3 Powerful Approaches to Defying Diet Culture

In my last blog post, I called out the 3 biggest crimes of Diet Culture.

 

As a quick review, the 3 biggest crimes of Diet Culture are: Dishonesty, Disregard, and Destruction!

 

Any eating pattern that emphasizes how you look over your mental and physical well-being is detrimental. Diet Culture thrives on dichotomous thinking, also known as black-and-white thinking. Eat foods on the good list and you’ll be “thin,” eat foods on the bad list and you’ll be “fat.” Thin = win!

 

In reality, no one food has the power to make you “thin” or “fat”.

 

I realize this might not be a popular belief among dieters or programs and people that spew dieting information. But if you think about it long and hard, I believe you’ll come to this realization eventually.

 

So, what can you do NOW to help you come to this realization before you jump back onto the diet bandwagon?

 

Let’s address the 3 Powerful Approaches to Defying Diet Culture

 

  1. Non-Diet Living and Intuitive Eating

 

Non-diet living and intuitive eating used to be less traveled paths, but more people are choosing these with great success. Dieting is physically and mentally exhausting and people are simply tired – tired of dieting and tired of hating themselves, 2 things that go hand-in-hand.

 

Intuitive eating, along with the Health at Every Size movement, is striving to shift the focus away from body weight and demonizing food. They are displacing the current definition of health, broadening it to encompass more than simply a number on the scale. This shifts the perspective inward, focusing on listening to what your body is telling you, and on habits and behaviors for improved long-term health, versus how many pounds you’ve lost. Research has found that practices such as intuitive eating help people with disordered eating habits become more in tune with their bodies again.

 

I recognize that the idea of no longer dieting is a scary thought if you’ve been dieting for many years. Logically you realize that diets have never given you long-term weight loss. In fact, you weigh more now than when you started dieting all those years ago. Research will back that up.

 

Diets lead to weight gain, end of story.

 

So, what would help you on this journey? This takes us to approach #2…

 

  1. Self-Compassion

 

Diet Culture thrives on you hating yourself. If that sounds harsh, it’s because it is. Dieting is about willpower and when you don’t have enough willpower, you start beating yourself up, telling yourself you’ll always fail.

 

Try something different. Try using self-compassion.

 

You’ll find that treating yourself with kindness is much more satisfying because it’s impossible to hate yourself into positive change. You’d never dream of speaking to your friend the way you speak to yourself, yet Diet Culture has taught you to do just that. After decades of believing it, be gentle with yourself in your escape from that mentality. It took time to build, and it will take a long time to break down. It’s important to remember there is no perfection in the healing process. It will most certainly be challenging but you are most certainly worth that effort.

 

Sounds logical, right? When asked if you’d speak to your friend who is struggling with her food the way you speak to yourself, of course, the answer is no, you would not.

 

Part of this journey is body acceptance. A very important part of accepting your body where it is now is the 3rd approach to defying Diet Culture.

 

  1. Weight Inclusivity

 

Accepting and respecting the shapes and sizes ALL human beings come in defies the perfectionist ideology of Diet Culture. There is no one height/shape/weight everyone should be. Our culture needs to move further toward a mindset where judgment is no longer passed on to people who don’t meet Diet Culture’s moving target of “perfection.”

 

Research has supported the idea that being a certain weight or looking a certain way does not equate to being “healthy” or “not healthy.” Intuitive eating and Health at Every Size are teaching internal acceptance as well as acceptance of others and appreciating diversity. They temper the internal diet wars being waged.

 

The principles of intuitive eating remind you how different everyone is and help you to accept and respect your body where it is right now.  It is key to stop passing judgment on others which will make it easier to stop passing judgment on yourself.

 

So how do you mesh these 3 approaches together, so you can defy Diet Culture?

 

Start with having a heart-to-heart sit down with yourself. Ask yourself the tough questions:

 

Has all the dieting I’ve done helped me achieve weight loss that I can maintain for a lifetime?

Do I bash my body every day, maybe even multiple times per day?

Do I wish food could just be a “non-issue” and mealtime can be relaxed?

Am I afraid to try this new approach of intuitive eating?

Do I need support and a partner to walk the journey with me?

 

Great job! Email me and let’s defy Diet Culture together!

The 3 Biggest Crimes of Diet Culture

Have you ever found yourself caught up in a passionate discussion about food or the latest diet trends?

 

It’s a scenario that unfolds frequently when I’m out to dinner with friends or family. It’s not surprising, really, because we all share the common need to eat, and it seems like no one can escape the constant barrage of diet-related messages.

 

Even with my many years of experience counseling individuals on intuitive eating, I’m still taken aback when I’m asked, “What are your thoughts on that new diet book by [celebrity’s name]?”

 

The most troubling aspect of Diet Culture, or as some would say, “Diet Cult,” is the potential harm it can cause to everyone involved. Diet culture revolves around a set of beliefs that prioritize weight, shape, and size over health, often equating thinness with social status and self-worth. The negative impacts it has on both adults and children are significant.

 

Many so-called “healthy” diets are considered disordered eating or even full-fledged eating disorders.

 

I am here today to call out the CRIMES OF DIET CULTURE.

 

Crime #1: Dishonesty

 

“Don’t eat carbs. They make you fat.”

“Dairy will keep you from losing weight.”

“Avoid gluten! It’s bad, bad, bad.”

 

When you look back at the history of food, Diet Culture has spent a great deal of time and money on criminalizing one food or another. This food is “good” for your health and weight, this food is “bad.”

 

When saturated fat was the offender, we saw an influx of fat-free, chemically altered foods. When sugar became the offender, we were bombarded with products containing sugar alcohol and messages to avoid sugar at all costs. Food fads are encouraged by Diet Culture with the support of the food industry. When scientific research is published, Diet Culture cherry-picks the information that best supports its agenda and launches campaigns to herd consumers to jump on their bandwagon, spending money on its products, and lining their pockets.

 

Diet Culture never has your best interest in mind and it’s betting on the fact you don’t realize it. So, they call their foods “healthier” than the others and have you thinking it’s better for you.

 

Crime #2: Disregard

 

Any eating pattern that emphasizes how you look over your mental and physical well-being is detrimental. Diet Culture thrives on black-and-white thinking. Eat foods on the “good” list and you’ll lose weight (“good”); eat foods on the “bad” list and you’ll get fat (“bad”). Thin = win!

 

Here’s the thing – people are literally dying to be thin, and Diet Culture completely disregards this. Your body does so many amazing things for you every day, but Diet Culture has you focusing on how many calories you’re eating, pounds you lost, or dress size you wear.

There is peace in accepting your body as it is at this very moment. But Diet Culture doesn’t want you to have this peace. So, it influences you to keep striving for that “perfect” body, comparing yourself to celebrities, models, and reality stars.

 

I remind my clients that what they see online and in magazines are not real. They are photoshopped images and even more, they are just the highlight reels of people’s lives. What they decide to post and publish are just snippets of their reality, particularly the snippets they want everyone to see. They edit out nearly a lifetime of moments, yet you use those carefully selected highlights as a comparison to your own life. This is exactly what Diet Culture wants – to keep you running back for more.

 

Crime #3: Destruction

 

Diet Culture’s most egregious crime is telling you that you’re not good enough. It doesn’t know you at all, but it’s making you question yourself, often calling attention to things you never considered flaws.

 

“Got a muffin top? Never eat these 5 foods again to get rid of it!”

“Do your thighs touch? Do this cleanse to fix that problem!”

 

Messages like these are toxic to women of all ages. It’s teaching them from a young age that they are nothing more than a sum of their parts and if those parts don’t add up to an unrealistic ideal, they need to do whatever it takes to get there. This has the potential to lead them into a dangerous relationship with food and exercise, twisting their self-perception. Diet Culture destroys self-esteem.

 

It’s Time to Defy Diet Culture

 

The truth is that body size doesn’t always equate with health. There are plenty of people who are in smaller bodies who have a plethora of health issues. On the flip side, there are people in larger bodies that have no medical issues at all.

 

Why is the thin “couch potato” more culturally acceptable than the larger triathlete?

 

Diet Culture wants you to be at war with your body because that’s how companies who support it make billions of dollars every year while young girls are skipping meals, ultimately missing out on nutrients critical to their growth and maturation. What’s even worse is that these diet messages often come from parents who suffer from disordered eating patterns over decades of being at war with their own bodies.

 

It’s a cycle of abuse you are paying dearly for with both your wallets and your well-being.

 

If you’re ready to fight back with all your might, I’d love to support you. Just email me and we can set up a time to speak!