Trusting Your Body : Beyond Diet Culture

You can keep hating your body. You can keep hoping it will magically change. You can keep trying to shrink it and silence it ; but it will not get you far. Only by learning to accept and appreciate the skin you’re in will you find peace within. Learning that self-worth comes from beyond our appearance is a part of healing a negative body image. 

You might be afraid that if you let go of all the rules you have around food you'll just never stop eating?

That you will gain so much weight?

Our bodies are smart creatures. We're just disconnected from their inner knowledge.

Do you see babies starving themselves? No of course not! 

Do you see them overeating? Not really!

You need to trust that your body knows what it's doing.

It's the constant cycle of restricting and bingeing that keeps you going up and down.

There is what we call the set point theory ; your body will naturally be comfortable around a certain weight. You were born with a certain blueprint. The more you will fight it, the more harm you will cause to your body.

If you have to restrict, obsess, control your eating and excessively exercise...it is not your ideal weight. No matter what society might tell you.

We don’t judge our pets for being different shapes and sizes, then why should we judge ourselves?

If all your focus and energy is always on controlling your appearance, not only will you be unhappy but this is quite detrimental to your health. Stress and diets have more side effects than any BMI ever will. 

Sadly, so many people living in larger bodies are still told to lose weight by medical professionals, even when they have an eating disorder. It is frustrating to know that regardless of your pain, the medical system might still enable more self-destructive behaviors. Doctors do not have comprehensive training on eating disorders or the diet culture. 

Food is not good or bad, right or wrong, and it doesn’t make you a horrible human for eating it. It is not a question of willpower or motivation. 

It is a question of conditioning. Beauty standards and the fitness industry were created to make you feel insecure about yourself, to make you spend more money. If you eat pizza and chocolate with a glass of wine on a Friday night, gyms will expect you to come workout on Saturday morning, full of guilt, shame and remorse. 

You think you just enjoy food too much? That’s why they created detox teas and appetite suppressants. 

You think you’re just too lazy? That’s why they created shapewear, toning belts, and expensive 12-months online memberships. 

You think you’re just too bloated? That’s why they created juices and cleanses, detox products, “clean eating” and intermittent fasting. 

You think you need to gain muscle quickly? Here comes protein shakes.

You think you need to lose weight fast? That’s why diets exist!

But, none of them actually do what they promise you. 

They only create more problems to their “solution”. 

Intuitive eating is the idea that you eat to feel at your best, not to look a certain way. It’s knowing that your body is able to nourish itself ; that you do not need to fight your hunger. It’s also listening to your cravings, understanding that there is a reason why you want to eat those foods and that it is okay to do so! As long as it is medically safe for you ; please be mindful of any allergies and intolerances. It is about giving more importance to your relationship with food than the food itself. 

Your self-love cannot be conditional.