… because you are worth more than the societal dictation of what your body “should” look like.
Diet culture equates thinness to worth.
Diet culture is deeply rooted in patriarchal control that makes us [women] believe we should take up less space. We should be smaller, thinner, leaner, and we will never ‘just be enough’.
… and what does diet culture result in?
Our continuous spending on businesses that make money off our insecurities. Those that make us believe striving for thinness is the same as striving for greatness (it is not).
How many women do you know (and this may include you), that have tried one fad diet after another? Paid for a dieting subscription, seen results, stopped paying the subscription, put weight back on, paid for the subscription. They make money by selling unsustainable dieting practice. It is a great business model. But it is not helpful to you as the end consumer.
With diet culture comes great negativity.
I hate the word “diet” because it is always used in the context of weight loss. It implies negativity, restriction, ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ foods, lack of enjoyment, guilt and ultimately failure. This negativity around food can lead to unsustainable eating behaviours, disordered eating, and in extreme cases, eating disorders.
‘Diet’ is just the food that you choose to eat. You need to eat to survive. Some people eat more food, some people eat less food. We all eat different types of food, at different times, in different volumes. We are all individuals, and we are all able to make choices about the foods we eat. We cannot categorise foods as “good” or “bad”. There should be no judgement towards your diet. You should never be made to feel uncomfortable about what you are eating or feel like you must justify your choices.
Eat to thrive. Yes, eat enough nutrient dense foods, choose lean sources of protein, choose colour, choose variety. Stay within a sensible calorie limit to maintain a healthy body weight. But you did not “syn” because you ate a biscuit. That slice of cake was not toxic. That glass of wine will not cause acidity in your body. You do not have to fear food.
Emotional Eating
“When people turn to food and they’re not physically hungry, it means that they’re using food for something else besides satisfying the needs of the body. They’re using it for a different kind of hunger – an emotional hunger, a psychological hunger…”
Geneen Roth.
Emotional eating is normal. We do it in an effort to improve our happiness and mental well-being particularly during times of stress, loneliness, anger and depression. We turn to ‘comfort foods’ to satisfy an emotional and physical need. Comfort foods vary from person-to-person depending on our upbringing, culture and experiences growing up; they are usually nostalgic and remind us of childhood and home cooked meals.
Is emotional eating a concern?
The concern around emotional eating is very dependent on the frequency of occurrence and reliance of an individual on it as a coping mechanism. It can lead to overeating and disordered eating patterns; however, it is a much safer coping mechanism than turning to recreational drug use or the overconsumption of alcohol. Inherently, turning to food for comfort is not a problem and is a normal human response to emotion, but it should not be the only coping mechanism available for use.
Overall diet quality is important for both physical and mental health; ensuring you are getting adequate nutrition daily (hitting your health targets) will ensure you are not going through periods of excessive hunger. Hunger is an additional stress on your body; when you purposely restrict your intake beyond normal eating occasions, you are increasing the risk of stress-eating later in the day. Understanding your feelings around hunger and responding to this appropriately to nourish your body is the first step of dealing with emotional eating. If you find you are going through frequent periods of uncontrollable hunger, take control. Allow yourself to eat a little bit more at meals times or as a snack to prevent painful hunger pangs that can often end with the overconsumption of highly palatable foods leading to feelings of shame and guilt.
Regulating intake effectively allows for the separation of psychological hunger & physiological hunger. This means you can tackle emotional eating without clouded judgement. Drop me an enquiry for help.
Always remember: If comforting eating seems like the only thing you have to look forward to at the moment, now is not the time to judge or belittle yourself for it. It is not inherently weak to comfort eat.
A consideration for exercise.
I am not a personal trainer (although I do own a gym), I leave that to the expertise of my husband. But, whist I like to stay in my own lane when it comes to the science, I must recognise and share the importance of exercise, in combination with nutrition, when it comes to health.
Nutrition and physical activity go hand-in-hand. We need to consider both when addressing health. A focus on fitness as well as diet will give you the best possible outcome on your health journey.
It is not all about losing weight.
Focus on fitness not fatness. It is amazing what your body can do when you start to focus less on “burning” calories by slamming away endlessly on a treadmill, and more on functionality, ability, and strength.
Building muscle is not just for men, it does not make you look less feminine, and you won’t get too bulky.
Building muscle will help to improve your body composition, improve your shape, make weight management more sustainable, and improve overall health & longevity. And it is much more fun and empowering than just concentrating on weight loss.
For many people exercise can be a bit daunting – PE may not have been your favourite lesson in school and that could have damaged your relationship with moving your body. But there are many different types of exercise, and when you find one you enjoy, stick with it. You will improve at it, and you’ll see the results in your mind and your body.
What’s more, exercise makes you feel good. When you feel good, and you feel like your health is improving, you start making better food choices. Not because you are being forced to ‘diet’, but because you start to appreciate your body and all the things it can do. You choose to fuel it with nutritious foods. One health behaviour tends to lead to another.
Steps are more than just ‘calories burned.’
Steps are important independent of exercise. Regular exercise has positive effects on our ability to control blood glucose and circulating triglycerides after a meal. High levels of blood glucose and triglycerides after a meal are linked to increased risk of type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The quicker these are cleared from the blood the better.
This benefit of exercise is not seen in sedentary individuals; for example, a person who allocates one hour a day to ‘exercise’ but spends the rest of their day sat down (behind a desk). A recent study16 showed that 5000 steps or less per day impairs the ability of an acute bout of exercise to increase fat oxidation and triglyceride clearance after a meal.
The research concluded that 8500 steps per day protects us against the negative effects of inactivity. The risk associated with prolonged sitting seem independent of ‘exercise’.
