Eat For You Dietitian

Rejecting the Diet Mentality

I recently saw an instagram post this week providing advice on how to stop ‘overeating and restricting’ cycle. The first step being ‘Ditch the Diets’. Is it really that simple? And where do we start?

This takes a massive amount of un-learning to do from all the messages we get from all around us. Personally, throughout my life from a young child I was told that I was ‘fat’, praised for losing weight as a teenager and then again in my twenties, told that I was ‘fat’ again and why wasn’t I on a ‘diet’. Anyone who’s grown up in a Latin-American family may understand and can possibly even imagine the language that was used. It’s quite interesting thinking back that I would be told that I was ‘fat’ by the same person giving me an adult-sized portion of food as a child. Growing up in the 90’s and 00’s the messages all around us fed my fear on gaining weight and I made all attempts to avoid it, which meant trying out every ‘calorie-restrictive diet’ after the other.

This continued throughout my undergraduate degree in Nutrition but just before I started by postgraduate degree in Dietetics I finally said, enough is enough, I am more than just my body shape and size. A message I want to repeat to any person who is in the ongoing cycle of going on another ‘diet’, being ‘good’ and trying not to be ‘naughty’. This is a multi-billion dollar industry feeding off our body insecurities that we are taught throughout our life. We were not born disliking our bodies or counting calories. 

Where to start? 3 Tips on Rejecting the Diet Mentality

1. Delete any apps that track your calories, portion sizes, weights of food. Delete now. 

You may think, but if I don’t add what I eat, how will I know what to eat? Let’s keep it simple for now, during the day aim for regular meals (a source of protein, carbohydrates, vegetables), maybe you want a snack in between meals. That’s ok. 

2. Stop making food choices on the total amount of calories 

This is easier said than done when the total amount of calories are on all food packets and restaurant menus now. That’s a topic for another blog post. You don’t have to go for the ‘lighter’ biscuit just because it has less calories. Your body and mind needs more than just ‘calories’, it needs nourishment and joy. Stop and think about what you really want to eat. 

3. Choose to not engage in ‘diet talk’ 

This means in the workplace, with family and friends and on social media as well. If you are following someone’s platform and they are making you feel negatively for your food choices or about your body image then it is time to click the unfollow button. For a long time I held back on this action as I still enjoyed part of their content but the ‘What I Eat In A Day’ always made me feel bad about myself. Like I said before, enough is enough and we are each unique. 

Let me know your thoughts and if any of these steps were helpful to you.