Hello! It’s so great to have you with us, last week we discussed the harmful effects of diet culture on our physical and mental health. If you haven’t had a chance to read it you can find it, here!
This week we’re discussing how to tune out all of the toxic diet cultures that seem to focus around cutting food groups, drinking disgusting shakes and exercising constantly. This is going to be a long post, so strap in with a snack, tea, or a cheeky bevy and let’s get into it.
Tip 1; Unfollow influencers and celebrities that don’t make you feel good about yourself. Yes, there are fitness models, influencers, and celebrities that make money off looking amazing but for everyone else it doesn’t help our mindset to see such models daily. So unfollow them and anyone else that makes you hate yourself, trust me its a game-changer to feeling better.
Tip 2; Is for those who like to keep active or those who want to start being more active. Set achievable goals. We’ve spoken a bit about this in past posts and a key example we come back to is having goals such as; drink more water (500ml), limit takeout, go for a walk once a week (pick whatever day you feel like), include a vegetable with dinner, have a piece of fruit as a snack today. Slow and steady goals that don’t cause you stress but help you make an active and conscious change is how you live a better life.
Tip 3; It’s a marathon and not a sprint. As tip 2 points out, setting achievable goals for both food and exercise is how habits are made that positively impact your life. Remembering that it takes time, that it’s not a race (even though this metaphor suggests otherwise, sorry) and that there are going to be both positive and negative days (some days you’ll reach your goals and others you won’t) but the point is to try to make changes and in the process, love yourself.
Tip 4; Journal how you’re feeling internally each day. For example; “this morning I feel ____” (fill in the blank with physical sensations such as; bloaty, sore, not bloated, not sore). Doing this will help change our mindsets from “I look like ______”, to “I feel“.
Try it right now.
“I look like “I’m so fat and bloated” therefore I feel shitty about myself” to “I feel bloated from eating dairy, therefore I’ll lay off the dairy for the rest of the day”.
Tip 5; Won’t happen straight away but by implementing tips 1-4 it will eventually and more quickly than you realise. Tip 5 involves changing the ideas and expectations society has put into our minds. There is no scheme that works long-term, no diet that is ever maintainable for the rest of our lives so why put ourselves through a relentless diets just to put the weight back on later? Instead, let’s focus on eating food that is going to provide nutrients to our bodies while also enjoying a few naughty treats once a week and enforcing positive attitudes about food and exercise. Society has made us think that for people to be fit, healthy, and HAPPY we need to conform to dangerous standards of diets, cutting food groups, exercising to extremes, and putting our bodies through constant stress. But that is the furthest thing from the truth and is very very dangerous for our bodies. By changing the way we perceive body types, body expectations and not conforming to an unrealistic “one size fits all” culture is how we pave the way to ending toxic diet culture.
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