Why You Need to De-friend Diet Culture and Befriend Intuitive Eating
I was introduced to Intuitive Eating three or so years ago. Finishing up my dietetic internship and an avid podcast listener, one day I came across a term, ‘intuitive eating.’ It was something I never heard of in the two years of schooling for my second degree to become a dietitian. This podcast (no idea which one) intrigued me to such an extent, that I went straight to amazon, purchased the Intuitive Eating book and with Prime, starting reading in it in the next day or two. Nutrition is always evolving and changing, one reason why I love it so, for it keeps me on my toes, continuing to learn in order to help others. However, I was not reading intuitive eating to help others (yet), rather, I was diving into intuitive eating myself. Intuitive eating has been a game changer for me, my health, my relationship with food and my body and overall happiness. Have I intrigued you? If you have not met intuitive eating, we will discuss more about it later in the post, but before we get there, I first need to make you aware and finally introduce you to a biatch called Diet Culture, someone you need to de-friend ASAP.
Photo from @Lauryannraik
Meet Diet Culture
Diet Culture snuck into my life 15 years before officially being introduced. Finally having a mutual understanding of each other, my eyes were opened to Diet Culture through podcasts, books and following diet culture haters on social media. Understanding the different aspect of Diet Culture, I was able to see how much this A**hole (diet culture) negatively effected my life and most likely, it is effecting your too.
Diet culture teaches us what we should look like and what and how we should eat. This falsely entitled jerk shows us the ‘picture perfect’ life of health and happiness and then sells us never-ending products, services, diets, lifestyles etc. to obtain that perfect body and life. And, of course, if you should not obtain that body/life after buying/using/implementing DC’s product or service, the only person to blame is yourself. What results in a never-ending cycle of trying new diets, workouts, cleanses, wraps, nutrition coaches, health coaches, pills, detoxes etc. etc. until you find or never find the one that gives you that body that you have always wanted and that Diet Culture tells you you should want.
Quick Exercise: Close your eyes and envision a perfect version of yourself or maybe the perfect mom/dad, business woman/man, teacher etc. etc. What do they look like? Have or do you want many of their features? Have you changed your way of eating, moving etc. to try and look like them? This is your ‘picture perfect person’ diet culture has put into your mind, made you feel shameful for not having that body and then gives you ways to fix yourself.
Reality Check: There is nothing wrong with your body. I repeat, there is NOTHING wrong with your body. Let’s remind ourselves that people come in different shapes and sizes. There are larger and smaller framed people just like shoe sizes and heights. Seems too obvious right? So, why do we put forth so much time, effort, and money into trying to change who we are rather than accept and embrace?
It’s important to note, diet culture doesn’t mean “being on a diet” because you do not have to follow any sort of official diet to be caught up in the culture of dieting. Diet Culture gives us a rule book for food and exercise. DC tells us Carbs make you fat, no fat makes you fat, no sugar makes you fat. It tells us not to eat after 7:00, the need to intermittent fast, to be within a normal BMI or give up rice for cauliflower rice. Ever tried the 20 bite rule? aka diet culture tells us we need to slow down eating in order to feel fullness and to do that you should put your utensil down between bites or chew 20 times. Diet culture also makes us fear getting ‘fat,’ or gaining weight. It tells us to suppress our appetite, to workout more, and moreover, takes away the natural trust we have/had in our own body. Healthy eating and healthy lifestyle changes can also have diet culture all over them. For most of what passes as ‘wellness’ these days is diet culture in disguise. Diet culture can come from your mother, sister, best friend, father telling you need look like your sister, not eat so much food, act like a lady, lose the belly or them telling themselves these things. It is your friend wishing she had a flat stomach like JLo or wishing to have six-pack abs like that professional athlete. It can be a TV commercial, the news, an influencer, friend or celebrity on social media, in a magazine, on an advertisement, or even doctor. I had one client, who is in a healthy weight range, come to me wanting to lose 10 pounded because her doctor said she needed to…
Intuitive eating small group program
Transform your Nourishment & Relationship with Self & Food! Learn how to DITCH DIETS, find FOOD FREEDOM & take back your relationship with food in my 8-Week Online Group Program.
Two 30-minute consults, weekly group calls, modules as well as exercises to begin implementing this approach of healthy habits.
Take out the stress of feed you and or your family & relearn how to nourish your body & mind.
Transformation begins March 8th
Diet Culture liberation, Welcome Intuitive Eating into your life
Wondering how you can de-friend Diet Culture? Your wish is my command as Intuitive Eating is a way to liberate us from it. Being finally introduced to diet culture above, it might be obvious that part of intuitive eating is rejecting diet culture and diet mentality. This is actually the first of 10 principles (not rules) that IE is built upon. Even though, labeled 1-10, the principles can be worked on in any particular order, allowing one to focus on the next principle that works best for him/herself. If you follow me on social media you have already been introduced to many of the principles.
Honoring your hungry & Feeling your fullness
Two separate principles, feeling our fullness bring us back to how we ate as a toddler, before our parents told us to eat everything on our plate, and thus, having us completely ignoring our fullness. While our hunger has been entirely screwed up by that biatch Diet Culture constantly telling us to “like” feeling hungry, to suppress hunger and forget about it. Who would have thought eating when hungry could be so difficult.
Make Peace with food
Aka giving ourselves unconditional permission to eat. Stop the food fight. Know that food is not out to get us. Think of all that time you get back from not stressing over food. Food will always be there, we make over 200 decisions involving food each day.
Challenge the Food Police
For the record your current food rule enforcer is wrong, brought to you by Diet Culture. So, we need to begin working on becoming a FOOD RULE BREAKER and screaming out NO to those thoughts that tell you food is good or bad. The rule book has been thrown out the window, rained on and run over by a dump trunk. Food freedom is your new friend (while still respecting yourself, wanting to nourish and flourish).
Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Food is meant to be pleasurable. You are not weak because you enjoy eating. And hey, eating what you want (while keeping in mind your overall health and wellness) will increase your satisfaction, and many times we begin eating less and limit the restrict/binge cycle.
Cope with your Emotions with Kindness
Stress eating is not a personal failure. It is normal and natural. The key is to identify the emotions/feelings, accept and feel them and then find other ways to work through them other than food. We are not told how to deal with our feelings, and go to food as a bandaid rather than actually dealing with them. Yes, I am very much a therapist with my clients teaching others how to press pause when making food choices and identifying how their emotions effect their eating habits can be life changing for many.
Respect your Body
Ooo this is a BIG one. There are different body types, shoe sizes, hair colors, inches tall etc etc. Your weight and worth are entirely separate. We need to respect and love ourselves more in order to start taking better care of ourselves. Start pointing out the things you like about your body rather than critiquing every time you look in the mirror.
Movement - Feel the Difference
I googled ‘workout class names’ and found a plethora of Diet Culture influence: Burn Bootcamp, Butt Busting Bootcamp, Fit to the core, Fat 2 Fit, Waist Removal, Dream Body Bootcamp, Lose to Win, Body Blaster, Max Burn, Choose to Lose, Six Packed Belly, Change your Body Bootcamp, Wishful Shrinking…. the list goes on and on. You hear, “get the body you deserve,” “burn off last night’s dessert,” and so forth and so forth. Do you remember seeing graphics of how many burpees you would need to do in order to burn off various Halloween candies? I use read all the articles selling us ‘5 Exercises for 6 Pack Abs’ or ‘Work Your Way to Flat Abs.’ I wanted flat abs, what do I need to do to get them? Our relationship with movement and exercise is just as important as food. It should not come from a place of punishment (for eating certain foods or believe you are overweight) or to look a certain way (skinny, thin, toned, lean). Rather, we move because we feel good, because it’s a form of self care, because we enjoy doing it the majority of the time. Stop working out to burn calories, Start working out because you like the way it makes you feel. #IntuitiveExercise
Honor your Health - Gentle Nutrition
Last for a reason, (even though I said you can do any order, I believe this is the last one for most) as this principle results in having a healthy relationship with food, and your body and mind. We remind ourselves that there is no perfect nutrition, eating, or plate. We make food choices that that our taste buds wants while also
Intuitive Eating: where to start
Intuitive eating is, moreover ditching food rules, restriction, diet mentality, the need to be thin, and rather beginning to trust your body again to tell us when and how much to eat. It is also essential for us to find joy and pleasure in food again and to love and respect your body, wanting to nourish and take better care of it for health and happiness. It is not a diet, I repeat, it is not a diet. So, how do you begin this new journey of de-friending Diet Culture and Befriending Intuitive Eating?
READ the Intuitive Eating Book or The F*ck It Diet or Anti-Diet
JOIN Michele’s upcoming Intuitive Eating Small Group Program or work 1:1 with Michele (fill out form below)
LISTEN to Food Psych Podcast
Start with one of the ten principles and take small steps towards habits.
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