Do you struggle to accept your body image? Frustrated you are easily gaining the weight you once lost? Tired of dieting and food restrictions? In this post, I shared 4 ways to accept your body image and debunk diet culture. So you can place your time and energy on YOU rather than on food.
What is Diet Culture?
Diet culture is a system of beliefs that glorifies thinness and smaller body frames. It promotes that smaller body frames are healthier and more successful. Diet culture encourages us to shrink our bodies so we can fit in and feel good. Feel happy and worthy of being who we are.
Do you think you will feel happy when you choose to lose weight and having a smaller body frame over better health? Will you feel worthy and happy when you are constantly eliminating food groups from your diet? Will you feel good when you look at someone with a bigger frame and think otherwise of that person? Do you truly believe that you will find happiness when someone compliments you on your weight loss? How long do you plan on sticking to dieting? Do you plan on skipping meals and sipping on water at family get-togethers and conferences? And, what do you think will happen once you stop dieting?
Dieting doesn’t work long term. Take it from someone who has tried the military diet, lost weight only to gain all and several more pounds later down the road. I’ve also tried the Keto diet, which I honestly couldn’t stick to. Instead, I craved more carbs than anything else and felt tired and sick from all the diary I was consuming! Not forgetting intermittent fasting!
Diet culture forces us to obsess over food and lower our self-worth for consuming a treat which according to their system of beliefs is not “good.”
No one should be criticized or make fun of, for the way they look or for wanting to eat something they crave. However, that’s diet culture’s mission. To make us feel sick and shame of our bodies if we are not built or look a certain way.
How To Debunk Diet Culture?
Diet culture deprives us of living our truth, being happy and healthy. It robs us of the opportunity to live a diversified life freely.
Here’s the thing – we are unique, and we are enough just the way we are. We don’t need a slender body and a pretty face to feel worthy and do the work we came here to do. Because guess what? If you can’t feel worthy of who you are now, having a slender frame won’t do it for you either. It’s the brutal truth!
Worthiness comes from within!
Diet culture attacks us in many different forms – from wellness industries who promote diet culture, billboards, influencers to family members, or an inconsiderate jerk on social media.
View your body as a temple and aim to be healthy. Love and accept your body image and embrace it to the fullest!
Here are some ways you can rid diet culture from your life.
Educate yourself
Continue to bring awareness to yourself by taking care of your health and eliminating this system of belief, that you have to look a certain way to be successful or feel beautiful and happy. Read blog posts and listen to podcasts that encourage living a healthy lifestyle through anti-dieting.
Two podcasts I highly recommend are:
Read books that encourage intuitive eating. Here’s some you can choose from:
- Anti-diet: Reclaim your time, money, well-being, and happiness through intuitive eating by Christy Harrison.
- The F*CK It Diet: Eating should be easy by Caroline Dooner
- Intuitive Eating: A revolutionary anti-diet approach by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
Follow fitness experts with similar body image/type
Whether it’s on social media or listening to a great podcast discover fitness experts who have the same body type as you and learn from them. Do not fall into the comparison trap. But, rather see them as an inspiration to guide you in becoming the healthiest version of you!
Unfollow/unsubscribe accounts that promote dieting
What do you see when you open your social media platforms? Are you seeing ads promoting lose weight quickly with before and after pics? Overnight fixes and magic pills?
I’m sure you’ve seen some of those before. Unfollow or mute these accounts. Unsubscribe from magazines or any programs that promote quick fixes and the diet culture. And begin following accounts that promote anti-dieting and living a healthy life.
Remove yourself from dieting conversations
Diet culture is everywhere! On family occasions, at the workplace, Facebook groups, and the list continues. When diet talks come up, try removing yourself from these conversations. And remind yourself that dieting does more harm to your body than good. Keep the focus on building a healthy lifestyle through balancing and staying active while eating intuitively.
Debunk diet culture through positive self-talk
Remind yourself that you DO NOT have to be a size 2 to embrace your ambitions and live your best life. You are worthy of being you, and you are enough regardless of your body frame. There’s no need to feel shame or guilty about your body type.
Relate post:
4 Ways To Accept Your Body Image
Intuitive eating: Improve your relationship with food
Women who struggle with their body image often tend to have an unhealthy relationship with food. Many times – we eat or don’t eat because we are depressed or anxious about the outcomes of our eating. With intuitive eating, you do not have to worry about diet plans, meals restrictions, or having the willpower to stop eating or eat only when you are hungry. Intuitive eating allows you to trust your body to make the best choices for foods. Foods that your body needs without the guilt or influence from diet culture.
Intuitive eating is learning to reclaim our freedom to eat. To truly listen to the clues that our bodies are signaling to us. It’s about filtering out the lies that diet culture has thought us. It’s not about having “cheat days” or “weight loss or weight sustain days.”
Intuitive eating allows you to end the war with your body and food by making peace with your body and food. If you need additional support when it comes to getting the most out of intuitive eating, again, I highly recommend you listen to the podcasts:
You can also grab yourself these books:
- Anti-diet: Reclaim your time, money, well-being, and happiness through intuitive eating by Christy Harrison.
- Intuitive Eating: A revolutionary anti-diet approach by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
- The Intuitive Eating Workbook
Another great option will be working with a dietitian or certified intuitive eating counselor.
Cultivate acceptance of your body image
Embrace and accept your body regardless of its size. Respect your body, by treating it as a temple. Prioritize your health and strength over being skinny or at the “perfect weight.” You may be thin, but what about your joints and chronic illnesses. How are you feeling mentally, physically, and emotionally? Be confident and have faith in yourself and your efforts. You don’t need to have the perfect body to be confident. And if you’re thinking – once you attain your perfect body you will become confident, think again. It takes more than having the perfect body to be confident. It’s about strengthening your self-worth through self-love.
Embody that next best version of you. The version you want to be and begin thinking like her. Grab your journal and ask yourself these questions and remember asking why at the end of your answer to take it deeper.
- How will the next best version of you show love to herself?
- What will her thoughts be?
- How will she feel about herself?
- What will her routines be like?
- Who will she surround herself with?
- What will a day in her life look like?
Take the time to honestly ask yourself these questions and step into this version of yourself, because let me tell you, deep down in your bones, you are this person. And now is the time to tap into that version of yourself and walk in her shoes, think and act like her. Trust me, everything will easily fall into place. Don’t let the noises from the diet culture hold you back from being your true authentic self. You are so much more than your body!
Accept your body image and ditch dieting
Do you feel like you need to lose weight, before getting on camera or starting your own business? Are you thinking – once I lose 20 pounds I will begin shopping for new and modern clothes? Have you mastered the mindset that only when you lose 20 pounds and can see your “magic number” on the scale you will feel happy?
If any of these sound familiar, it’s time to ditch those thoughts because your ego is lying to you. You can create anything in this one life of yourself regardless of your body image. Say it out loud.
” I am not define by the way I look, I can be everything that I am.”
If you need to, write this affirmation out and stick it any and everywhere you need to see it. It will remind you that you do not need to look or be of a certain body type to achieve your goals. You can show up and be that person today. All you need is to believe in yourself. You have the power to create and live your dreams.
Remove all thoughts of dieting to lose weight.
Your goal should be to achieve strength and feel healthy by living a healthy lifestyle. Not restricting yourself from the food your love and crave and going on fasts to lose weight.
You didn’t come on earth to focus on dieting or to be thin and have a love-hate relationship with your body. You came here to live your fullest life and you can do that regardless of your body image.
Many times it’s our ego that’s holding us back from achieving success, and not necessarily our weight.
Be your own inspiration by accepting your body image
Every once in a while your ego will try to take control of you. Don’t allow it too!
When thoughts of not feeling loved, or you are not worthy and you feel like punishing yourself for the way you look. Take a moment to choose again by acknowledging your thoughts and knowing that it’s not true. Then reframe that negative thought into a positive belief. A belief, you will take with you wherever you go.
For example; you got invited to a reunion. But your ego kept shouting out – you’re not beautiful and won’t fit in with the crowd. Acknowledge your ego by understanding why you are feeling this way. Is it because you are concern about what others think of you? You’re afraid of being judged? Remember, it always helps to ask yourself why after your answers to get to the root problem.
Now, ask yourself:
- How do you want to feel today?
- Why do you want to feel this way?
- What will make you feel worthy?
- Doing what will make you feel worthy?
Create a new belief surrounding the negative thoughts you had above and feel into those beliefs, honoring and loving your authentic self.
Your new belief can look something like this:
” I’m grateful for this body of mines. It allows me to live life and that’s exactly what I am going to do. Live life!!”
” I’m enough and worthy of being who I am. I deserve to be able to show up and be me.”
Seriously, give it a try the next time you are being harsh on yourself. There’s nothing to lose other than your ego.
Final note
Accept your body image with confidence and be your biggest cheerleader. Instead of hiding and feeling shame or guilty about your body image.
Are you still going to fall victim to the many wellness ads that promote diet culture? You know the magic pills, weight loss teas, and overnight fixes?
Or, are you going to accept your body image and work towards balancing your health and strength? What’s your first step gonna be when it comes to debunking diet culture and accepting your body image?
Share with me in the comments. I would love to know!
Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog post is not a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be used to treat any medical conditions.
I love this. I love the tips you have listed, they are so helpful/
I’m so happy to hear this, Ashley!
This is such great advice. I loved when you mentioned follow others with the same body type. Representation really does matter.
It sure does!
It can be difficult to figure out what works for each of us. I find that I am doing my best when I try my best to do what is right for me and not worry about what works for everyone else.
Yes! I love this blog post. It took me many years to realize this. Starting as a teenager, I hated my body. I always compared myself to the skinny girls at school. I think I tried some diet fads. The only thing that made me feel better about myself is just to accept my body the way it is, and try to eat as healthy as I can, to be the healthiest I can be. It took many years to get to that point. I also became a vegetarian/pescatarian in my early 20’s and I still eat this way in my early 40’s. It was a lifestyle choice, not a fad diet. I overall feel healthier and lighter. But I recognize the importance to accept my body the way it is.
Isn’t that the most beautiful gift you can ever give yourself, Dana?! I’m so glad this post resonated with you.
The most important thing is being healthier and feeling good! These are all good things to think about.
I remove myself from diet talks quite frequently. Especially because I want my daughter to have a positive relationship with her body.
I’m just in the midst of transition from my yo yo dieting life to a more intuitive and me-based lifestyle change. This is a great guideline to remind us to debunk the diet culture. Everywhere we turn – there is talk about restrictive diets and secrets to fat weight loss, etc etc. So it’s so nice to see more about the whole person rather than the removal of food, shaming, doubt, etc etc. This is a great reminder, thank you!
I’m so happy you are making the right choices Deb!
This is so motivating! “Be Your Own Inspiration” Yes!!!