Are You a Victim of the Diet Cycle? Here’s Why Dieting is Dead (and What to Do About It)
Do you feel like you’re constantly on a diet rollercoaster? You swear you’ll stick to this new plan, the results will be amazing, and you’ll finally conquer your weight loss goals. But then, a few weeks (or days) later, the cravings hit, frustration sets in, and you find yourself back at square one.
Sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone! The diet industry is a multi-billion dollar machine that thrives on this very cycle. They bombard us with unrealistic expectations, quick fixes, and guilt trips, leaving us feeling like failures when the inevitable yo-yo effect kicks in.
But guess what? Dieting is dead. Here’s why:
1. Diets Don’t Teach You How to Eat; They Teach You How to Deprive Yourself
Restrictive diets focus on what you can’t eat, fostering cravings and a feeling of scarcity. This sets you up for failure because it’s simply not sustainable. Imagine living a life constantly thinking about the foods you can’t have. Not exactly a recipe for a healthy relationship with food, right?
2. Diets Ignore Your Body’s Signals
Our bodies are incredibly smart! They have built-in hunger and fullness cues that tell us when to eat and when to stop. Diets often ignore these cues, leading to overeating or undereating, both of which can be detrimental to your health.
3. Diets Focus on Looks, Not Wellbeing
The relentless pursuit of a certain body image is a cornerstone of the diet industry. The Diet industry sets unrealistic body standards and then uses your insecurity and pressure to meet these standards to make a profit.. The problem? It ignores the bigger picture: your overall health and wellbeing. Healthy eating is about feeling your best – energised, strong, and confident – not just fitting into a certain size of jeans.
4. Diets Often Lead to Unhealthy Relationships with Food
Constant restriction and guilt can lead to a warped relationship with food. You start to see it as the enemy, something to be controlled rather than a source of nourishment. This can have a significant impact on your confidence and mental health.
So What Do We Do Instead?
Ditch the diet mentality and embrace a more sustainable approach. Here are some tips to get you started:
1. Focus on Nourishing Your Body, Not Restricting It
Think about food as fuel for your body. What does it need to give you long lasting energy to run around after your kids, to help you focus and concentrate at work, to keep you strong as your body gets older and to improve your mood? Choose whole, unprocessed foods that provide your body with the nutrients it needs to thrive. Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats are your new best friends! You can be friends with all foods, but your besties are the ones that will support you for life.
2. Tune into Your Body’s Signals
Learn to recognize your hunger and fullness cues. Eat when you’re hungry, eat slowly and stop when you’re comfortably full, not stuffed. It takes practice, but it’s a skill that’s worth mastering.
3. Make Peace with Food
All foods can fit into a healthy diet, even the “indulgent” ones. Enjoying less nutrient dense foods in moderation is an important part of building a healthy relationship with food. Permission to eat chocolate granted!
4. Find Joy in Movement
Exercise shouldn’t be a punishment for eating. Find activities you actually enjoy, whether it’s dancing, swimming, hiking, or even just taking a brisk walk. Join one of our free classes and be surrounded by uplifting people. Celebrate how movement makes you feel, not just the calories you burn. Plus the energy and strength eating lots of nutrient dense foods gives you will make exercise a lot more easier and enjoyable!
5. Focus on Non-Scale Victories
Let’s move beyond the number on the scale. Celebrate the non-scale victories: increased energy, better sleep, improved mood, and feeling more confident in your own skin.
Building a Sustainable Relationship with Food
This shift towards a more intuitive and positive approach to food takes time and effort. There will be setbacks, but that’s okay! The key is to be kind to yourself, learn from your experiences, and keep moving forward.
Forget about what everyone else looks like. ‘Healthy’ comes in many shapes and sizes! What you see splashed all over the media is most likely not healthy.
Explore different foods, discover what feels good for your body, and ultimately learn to nourish yourself from the inside out. You deserve to feel good – not just in a certain size of clothing, but in your entire self. Ditch the diet mentality, embrace food freedom, and find the path to true, sustainable happiness and health.
Ready to ditch the diet cycle and embark on your own journey to healthy living? Start by checking out our recipes, where you will see what both nourishment and enjoyment looks like.
Remember: You are not a victim of the diet cycle. You have the power to break free and build a healthy relationship with food and your body.
- Thomas, L.P.D. (2021) “Breaking Up With Diet Culture,” in How to just eat it: A step-by-step guide to escaping diets and finding food freedom. Trafalgar Square, pp. 71–74.
- Truby, H. (2019) The hunger games, Monash Lens
- Tylka TL, Kroon Van Diest AM. The Intuitive Eating Scale-2: Item refinement and psychometric evaluation with college women and men. J Couns Psychol [Internet]. 2013 [cited 16 March 2023]; 60(1): 137-53
