Let’s talk about a huge component of body image and food struggles: diet culture. It’s the culture, especially in the western hemisphere, that emphasizes weighing less, eating less, and dieting in order to reach an arbitrary number or size that may or may not be attainable for your body type.
The sad part is, diet culture is all around us. It’s in magazines, commercials, at the gym, in daily conversations, and can even become integrated into our own thoughts and minds if we let it.
From my experience with myself and my clients, diet culture can create a diet mentality, if we allow it to. As women, especially young women who are just discovering who we are and who we want to be, when we are exposed to diet culture day in and day out it comes as no surprise that some of us implement this into our daily lives and mindset.
- “Eat this, not that.”
- “Get a summer body in 30 days.”
- “Lose 10 pounds by eating gluten-free.”
- “Fit into a size 2 by summer with the new workout plan inside.”
The problem with this thinking? It implies that who you are right now, at this exact moment in time, is not enough. The heart of the message is that you need to be better, do more, eat less, and ultimately be different from what you are now. For many women, this creates the diet mentality and a feeling of not being enough.
How can I learn to love my body exactly as it is, when the media and culture around me is constantly trying to make me different?
Be more critical of social and media messages and replace them with more body positive people
Stop following people on social media who are promoting the diet mentality and cancel magazine subscriptions that focus on dieting and weight loss (this was a BIG one that helped me). Start searching for and following women who are living unapologetically in their normal bodies. Expose yourself to a wide range of ‘normal bodies’ by noticing in your daily life how normal women’s bodies are and become comfortable with the wide range you see.
Define what healthy and happy means to you
When we give into the diet mentality, we give away some of our power on deciding what healthy and happy looks like to us. It tries to falsely make us believe that happiness and health will only come when we weigh less, do more, eat healthier, etc. To combat this, start defining what health and happiness mean to you. Does health mean being able to go for a walk with a loved one and chat without getting winded? Does happiness mean loving your self and body everyday, despite the size you are? Start getting really curious about what health and happiness mean to you in your daily life. Then start implementing that and finding ways that you can feel healthy and happy right now (without losing weight or changing yourself in some way).
Get up close and personal with your body
This is a big one gals! In order to really shift away from the diet mentality and the culture around it, we need to learn to love our bodies unconditionally.
AHHHH! The sound of that may scare you, I get it, but stick with me.
How far have you gotten with not loving your body? Has that mentality helped you reach your goals and allowed you to stay there? I’m going to take a leap of faith and say no. Real change starts from a place of love, not one of fear or disgust about your body. The ultimate answer is love.
Each day, I challenge you to look at yourself in the mirror (really look) and tell yourself that you love yourself and your body. Look directly in your eyes and say this.
“I love you and I love my body.”
To be truthful, this may be one of the most challenging things for you to do. It may bring fear, tears, and uncomfortable emotions to the surface. But push through. Choose love over fear.
Once you are more comfortable with this, I would encourage you to start going through various body parts that you normally don’t feel are “good enough”. Maybe it’s your stomach, your hips, or your arms. Whatever it is, infuse it with love. Look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself (in the eyes) how much you love that body part. Recognize all that it does for you.
Those three strategies are just skimming the surface of so many ways you can strengthen the love you have for your body. I encourage you to start with these. Implement them and take time each day (in front of the mirror) to let yourself know how much you love your body.
Like what you read? I have an entire 7-day Body Acceptance Course that would LOVE. Plus, it’s totally free. For more info, click the image below xx
