Avoid the Holiday Trap: Ditch Fad Diets for Genuine Wellness
It’s no secret that the holiday season quickly leads into the New Year. Although you may do your best to savor this festive season, the “fresh start” of the upcoming year looms on the horizon. This usually brings with it a sense of resolution and restarting. However, that can turn sour when the “new year, new me” mindset becomes one of pressure and stress. So, now is the time to invest in authentic self-care and genuine well-being to avoid those diet culture traps.
By: Alexandra Carter
Understanding the Problem of Diets
When replacing fad diets with genuine wellness, separating what is helpful and what is harmful can be confusing, especially when diet culture dominates the conversation.
According to Lisa Du Breuil, a clinical social worker at Mass General Hospital, diet culture “interrupts and interferes with our ability to enjoy ourselves and to connect with others.” She explains that diet culture mischaracterizes size and health as the same thing based on the false idea that weight loss and thinness equal healthiness.
What Does That Mean For You?
No one is immune to the harmful effects of this false connotation. What is often considered healthy in our society is just glorified diet culture. Food rules, restrictions, and dieting separate us from our internal wisdom and connection to food and our bodies, all in the name of “health.” In reality, dieting promotes disordered eating, eating disorders, and outward appearance.
Practicing authentic health is the dynamic process of taking care of yourself based on actual health makers, like sleep, stress level, movement, emotional and social well-being, etc. It involves making any changes out of self-compassion, based on behaviors and environment, not body size, shape or appearance.
New Year, New Strategy
This time of year can be excruciating if you are struggling with food and body image distress. You may feel overwhelmed and anxious about the food you eat or how your body looks. You might be fighting to “control” yourself in situations that feel scary. Everything you know and everything society tells you is that the best way to feel better is to exert more control, restriction, and disordered behaviors. But let’s be honest. That never really helps you feel any better. It just keeps you stuck in the same cycle.
Let this be the year that you break that cycle. Let this be the season that you try something new, something for you.
Recovery-Focused Wellbeing
Picture this: You spend the holidays with your friends and loved ones. The space is warm and joyful, the company is engaging, and you are more present than you’ve been in a long time. You feel balance and relief. For the first time in years, you are looking toward the future with hope and confidence in yourself and your body.
That might seem like a dream, but it’s closer than you think. Genuine health and well-being aren’t on the other side of a diet or the perfect body; they are already within you. You must begin reconnecting and rebuilding those relationships with food, your body, and yourself.
And the best part is, you don’t have to do it alone. No more feeling stuck, struggling, and second-guessing yourself. There is no shame in seeking support. As stated above, our society does not teach us to care for ourselves compassionately. You deserve expert care and guidance on your path to well-being that meets you where you are and supports you in moving forward.
Investing in yourself might feel like a leap into the unknown. But the return on investment is unparalleled. Ditch the diets, drop the restrictions, and dump disordered behaviors. Start caring for yourself authentically. You are worthy of peace, freedom, and joy this holiday season, in the new year, and beyond.
Not Sure Where To Start?
If you are ready to reimagine well-being and rekindle your connection to food and your body, once and for all, you are in the right place.
BALANCE eating disorder treatment center is offering an exclusive two-week winter program! Conveniently designed to fit into your winter break scheduling, this program will help you jumpstart your recovery. Find a renewed sense of ease and confidence in the new year with a team of experts who will guide you toward lasting and meaningful change. Our two-week winter intensive program can help you jump-start your recovery. Our exclusive winter eating disorder treatment program fits conveniently within your winter break schedule, allowing you to invest in transformative care. Connect with our admissions team and learn more about our 12-day winter intensive program here.
This post was written by Intuitive Eating | HAES Content Creator, Alexandra Carter (she/her).
Alexandra Carter is a professional actor, turned certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and Health and Wellbeing Coach, turned Content Creator. After moving to NYC for her undergraduate degree in Musical Theater, Alexandra spent 10 years working all over the world as an actor/singer/dancer. Through her own healing journey, Alexandra found her way to the anti-diet space and went on to gain coaching and counseling certifications, in addition to starting her own coaching business. It was there she fell in love with content creation as a way of sharing ideas, genuinely connecting with people, and affecting powerful change. Alexandra is thrilled to be on the team at BALANCE, combining all her skills and passions to foster authentic healing.
Reference
Quraishi, H. (2021, November 24). How to avoid talking diets, weight loss and more during the holidays. WBUR News. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/11/24/how-to-avoid-talking-diets-weight-loss-and-more-during-the-holidays