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“How do I get to a place where I am confident enough to tune out diet culture? (When it’s …everywhere?)”

The truth of the matter is that weight loss and diet talk are everywhere. It’s actually, in many ways, the definition of diet culture: a culture where dieting and weight loss attempts are the norm – and are everywhere.

But when it gets hard, or when we don’t feel so great, or so confident, we wonder if we’ve made a mistake. If maybe, the diet that your co-worker is now on is maybe the one you should have tried before you gave up dieting. You wonder… maybe… maybe I really didn’t give it my all. Maybe I really was happier then.

I don’t think it’s much about “tuning out diet culture” as it is about being super honest with ourselves when we start to get pulled in by the siren song … what are we looking for? What are we craving or missing that we think intermittent fasting is going to give us? What beliefs might be rearing their head? It’s an opportunity to look at how our minds work, get some more awareness, and do some more healing.

One of the big core fears, (or beliefs if you will) is the fear that when we stop dieting, “we are not taking care of ourselves”. That dieting is responsible, and not dieting is irresponsible. And when we are having a rough day or a rough week, or new or recurring health woes, wanting just want to know that we are taking care of things and taking care of ourselves. Feeling responsible is often what we are craving.

And nobody will stop talking about how responsible dieting is.

So… we panic. Oh no. Oh no. Maybe I really should be intermittent fasting. Maybe I really would be happier and healthier if I were on keto. Maybe I should be intermittent fasting and doing keto.

Dieting is not the answer. And dieting is not a cure-all. And dieting is wired to backfire. It’s even not so good for us long term. So if you’re having trouble remembering that, remind yourself:

“Why did I stop dieting in the first place?” Answer the question. If that doesn’t remind you (or if you haven’t actually stopped yet…), start reading. Read The F*ck It Diet. Read Body Respect. Read or listen to whatever helped you wake up and snap out of it in the first place.

And then, ask yourself: “How can I make sure I’m taking care of myself today?”

Health is not a black-and-white thing. Sometimes all we want to know is that we are, in fact, taking care of ourselves, and in the moment we sometimes assume that a diet is best (or only) way to do that. (It’s not.)

So, take a moment. Ask, “what can I do to take care of myself today?”

Maybe the answer is to take a walk. Maybe the answer is to lie down. Maybe the answer is to cry. Maybe the answer is to call a friend. Maybe the answer is to cancel plans. Maybe the answer is to make plans. Maybe the answer is to stretch. Maybe the answer is to eat two pieces of cake. Maybe the answer is to go grocery shopping for vegetables and sauté them up. Maybe the answer is to make a doctor’s appointment. It doesn’t matter what the answer is, but ask yourself what little thing you can do to take care of yourself today, and then do it! Even if it’s just: take two deep breaths!

The Holidays are here, and with them will come … lots of diet talk. If you haven’t read the book yet, you can check read the beginning and get some other helpful intro lessons from here. And if you’ve read the book you can get lots of resources to support next steps over here.

Show Notes:

0:00 – New podcast music!: “Extremely Sneaky Cat”

7:00 – Q&A: How do I tune out diet Culture?

16:52 – Story about how my sweet angel dog got attacked on Thanksgiving and how I’m now traumatized, but realized I was traumatized right after, because I’m fascinated by how trauma works. (+ lots of musings on trauma). And I just realized that I talked about this for 44 minutes on this podcast….