Discover how to challenge diet culture and reframe your beliefs with these five empowering techniques. Break free from food morality, exercise for joy, embrace diverse body sizes, honor your hunger cues, and set boundaries in a diet-focused world. Learn to navigate diet culture effectively.
Being vulnerable about your eating disorder can be terrifying, even with the ones we most love and trust. The shame and stigma surrounding eating disorders make it difficult to breach the topic of your mental health with the people who care about you.
Diet culture often influences us to try new weight loss methods perpetually, be it Weight Waters, Noom, or trendy diets such as Keto or Intermittent Fasting. Although society sees these as “healthy” or “normal,” the sustainability and benefits of these restrictive dieting practices are harmful to most individuals.
If you or someone you love struggles with food and body distress, you are not alone. Unfortunately, over 30 million Americans struggle with eating disorders. When we talk about healing, we often talk about how important recovery is, what it involves, and how you can get there. But where is there? Recovery can feel like a leap of faith into the unknown, so here are four tangible reasons to heal your relationship with food.
Instead of dedicating energy to satisfying your eating disorder, redirect it towards showing yourself kindness and compassion. Loving yourself can seem like a distant destination, but it is a feasible goal.
You may know that diet culture is damaging, but what exactly makes it so harmful? Diet culture can affect mental health in many ways, even for those who do not have eating disorders. Because of exposure to diet culture our entire lives, it can be challenging to unlearn these mindsets, especially if one is not aware of how diet culture affects them.
Have you ever been unhappy with your appearance and decided to go ‘on’ a diet? Perhaps at first, you feel really good about this decision. You cut out certain food groups and start to lose weight. Eventually, you miss the foods you are no longer ‘allowed’ to eat and decide to eat them. Once you’ve broken the seal, you choose to go ‘off’ the diet and eat what you want, maybe even more than you want. You are filled with guilt for ‘failing.’ Sound familiar? If so, you may have been trapped in the diet cycle.
Happy New Year! Diet culture takes advantage of this time when individuals feel they have a fresh start and a new year to look ahead to. It is easy to get swept up in the message that you must push yourself and make changes to have a meaningful year.
We only see a narrow standard of beauty represented in film and television. This limited demonstration of what people look like is harmful to everyone. However, for those living with or recovering from an eating disorder, the media can render itself a challenge. Tv and film fail to center body diversity. So, finding ways to interact with media while still honoring your mental well-being is crucial.
The holiday season and New Year brings about many challenges, particularly for those struggling with their relationship with food and body. One of the many challenges is the inevitable bombardment of ads filled with promises on how to start the new year off “right” by going on a “diet.” The multi-billion dollar diet industry has a lot to gain ($$) by slamming you with advertisements for “quick fixes.”
Challenge societal beauty ideals by understanding their subjective nature, mindful social media use, setting realistic expectations, and embracing diversity.
Explore common misconceptions about intuitive eating and learn how this philosophy promotes mental and physical health, debunking myths about intuitive eating.
