This Year, We Should ALL Resolve to Cut Out Diet Talk
Every Body celebrates inclusivity and the representation of human beings in every shape and form.
We are fresh into the new year and it’s happened again: we’re being bombarded by posts all across every form of media telling us that we can look better, feel better and more importantly, be better. The biggest way to achieve this, the message goes, is if we could just lose weight.
Diet talk is everywhere and each and every single year, it seems harder and harder to escape. With each refresh on Facebook or Twitter, there are slews of cringe-worthy headlines about how to achieve the “New Year, New Me” body through fitness or diet. It can feel suffocating and be triggering and no matter where we turn, there is someone trying to escape a body that has deemed unworthy by society.
Just look at the character of Kate (Chrissy Metz) on the television show This is Us. Kate is an overweight character who struggles with weight loss and faces size discrimination from her family and peers. Her experience is probably relatable to too many women viewers.
Why is it that all throughout our formative years, we’re told that “thin is in” and that being skinny is more desirable than having any other body type? We’re taught that our bodies are social currency and in order to become socially rich, we must conform and change our bodies and the skin we are in. Each and every year, the diet talk and weight loss propaganda hit peak intensity as the new year approaches. But really, why?
Besides diet talk and weight loss advice being super ableist and fatphobic, why aren’t we more willing to embrace our skin as it is and embrace a more positive outlook on ourselves and the bodies we inhabit? One of the biggest challenges in life is to really embrace our bodies, to truly love ourselves from the inside out. It takes more effort to tune out the negative self-talk we aim towards ourselves and work hard at building a positive body image.
For many folks who have experienced a heightened sense of negative body image, there are so many feelings, including shame and anxiety, attached to our bodies. Having been there, I know that it can be difficult to break the cycle. But regardless of one’s size, shape or age, only you have the power to break the cycle of negative body image and cut out the diet talk.
It may surprise you to learn that of all the people that diet around the world, research has found that only five percent can actually keep the weight off for five years or more. The destructive cycle of yo-yo dieting isn’t even sustainable. So his yew near, rather than trying to achieve ‘diet goals,’ it should be seen as more challenging and way more positive for your mental and emotional health to eliminate diet talk and weight loss goals from your life, entirely.
This New Year, I challenge you to develop a healthy relationship with food and set up positive affirmations for yourself. Embrace your imperfections and try to identify (and name) your negative self-talk. Stop holding yourself to high standards and whatever society holds as ‘ideal beauty standard’. Stop focusing on your weight and the size of others. Relax your own standards towards yourself and provide yourself with empathy. Work on cutting out the diet and weight loss talk out of your life and focus on developing a beautiful and fulfilling relationship with your body, as it is. Trust us, it will be the best decision you make in 2018.
Are you over diet talk? Tell us @britandco!
(Photo by Catherine Ledner/Getty)