“Eat a Tiny Piece of Cake, I Won’t Tell!”

The title of today’s blog says it all. Diet culture is like a poison, once it gets into your blood, it takes a strong antidote to get rid of it. We’ll talk about that antidote in just a few minutes. But first, let’s look at a prime example of how the diet mentality is a force to be reckoned with.

Yesterday was my birthday. I had wonderful happy birthday wishes from many of my friends. Among the many wishes were comments such as:

“Happy birthday…fat free cake?”

“Happy birthday! Are you allowed to eat a teeny slice of cake today? I won’t tell your clients!”

“Happy birthday! You can have my slice of cake, I won’t tell!”

“Happy birthday! Eat a healthy salad for dinner so you have no guilt eating the cake later”.

Grrr! Honestly, I’m immune to these comments already, well sort of. I truly love my friends and know they mean no harm. What gets me is they know my philosophy on dieting and labeling food as good and bad. Yet, they still make comments like this. It just shows me that as much as they “agree” with my philosophy, the diet mentality comes out in their talk and actions without them even realizing it! Yes, diet culture and the resultant diet mentality is a force to be reckoned with.

I eat cake! I eat cake and have NO GUILT eating cake. You know why? Because I have given up demonizing food and I realize that food does not have as much power as people give to it. Once you learn to eat with attunement and trust your body, you no longer have to live by external food rules.

Do I eat cake every day? No, I don’t. Not because I “can’t”. But because my body doesn’t feel good when I do. I get to make this choice, not some arbitrary diet or health guru.

The Antidote to Diet Culture

If you’ve been poisoned by diet culture, I have the antidote. It’s called Intuitive Eating.

Intuitive eating is a mind-body health approach created by two registered dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. “Intuitive Eating is a personal process of honoring health by listening and responding to the direct messages of the body in order to meet your physical and psychological needs”, says Evelyn Tribole.

When you embark on your intuitive eating journey, it’s not just about eating when hungry and stopping when full. As a matter of fact, as a dieter, this will be challenging to do at first as most likely your signals have silenced somewhat, and your diet mentality will have you second guessing yourself. So the first step is to work on your mindset.

You’ll find as you begin to pay attention to your thoughts, that the dieting messages will rear their ugly head in many situations. Just like the comments from my friends. But it’s important to call them out for what they are, the more you do, the less they will come.

I’m not saying this is an easy process. But it is a process well worth the effort if you want to be cured of diet culture’s poison.

Any questions, I’m here to answer. Just comment below.

If you’re interested in starting your intuitive eating journey to finally make peace with food and your body (or you need support on your already started journey), read more about my intuitive eating program here.