Happy New Year! Tis the Season of Diet Culture
It’s the New Year and we are being blasted on every front with diet culture. I can’t watch 5 minutes of television or scroll through my newsfeed without someone trying to sell me some sort It’s a time of year when we are all thinking about change and some of us are looking to make up for some of the fun we had over the holidays. If you are struggling with body image, some of the advertising can seem really compelling. You can sort of imagine yourself getting quick results and feeling happy with your progress. This gives your brain a little burst of dopamine excitement and you may feel ready to jump in.
When you are navigating these messages, I want you to keep in mind that diets don’t actually work. Diets are proven to fail 98% of the time. You may see short term results but there are a number of biological roadblocks that eventually slow down your weight loss and cause rebound weight gain. The research is telling us that 98% of dieters regain the weight they’ve lost within a couple of years and two thirds of them weigh more than they did before dieting. For the most part, the positive effects of such diets diminish after about 6 months. This isn’t because dieters have failed or they don’t have self-control. It is because the human brain and body are hard wired to fight restriction in many ways and maintain body weight.
If you are struggling with body image and self-shame regarding your size/weight, the best way forward is seated in self-compassion. Know that you can be healthy and happy at any size. You can learn to accept and love your body, and repair your relationship with food while improving your health and your lab values with eating philosophies like intuitive eating and mindfulness training. Beyond eating, we can improve our health and well-being by being good to ourselves and tuning into what our bodies have to say.
Our bodies are constantly sending messages about what they need. Unfortunately, we are really good at ignoring these messages and many of us no longer recognize them. They are no longer even on the radar. We can learn to listen, identify and build awareness again of what our bodies are saying with mindfulness. When we activate our inner care givers and respond to all of our body’s physical and emotional messages, we feel better and we get better. If you are ready to say good bye to weight shame and diet culture and you want live healthier, happier life irrespective of size, I want to help you. I can coach you in learning body acceptance, eat intuitively, mindfulness and other areas that contribute to your overall wellness. ~