Years ago, a client I’ll call Susan “confessed” to me that she’d eaten a bag of potato chips the night before her visit with me. She felt guilty and ashamed about blowing her diet which then spiraled into her feeling like a failure who could never lose weight, which led her down the path of hating her body, which then led to binge eating a box of cookies.
She joked that perhaps she should be sent to jail for not being able to follow the rules of her diet, but it wasn’t really funny.
When we talked about this, she realized that for decades she had been trapped in “diet culture mentality,” a mindset that promotes food restriction, equates beauty with a small body size, and promotes the idea that weight loss is a reflection of willpower and moral character.
It was also a mindset that did NOT help her lose the weight and keep it off.
Diet Mentality and Food
Susan shared that she lived in a constant state of deprivation and restriction. She lived in fear of letting go of being so rigid with her diet, believing that if she wasn’t strict about what she was eating, she would give into using food to feel better… to comfort, numb and distract herself. If she ate “good” food she was a good person. If she ate “bad” food, she was a bad person.
Diet Mentality and Emotions
The obsession over her food filled Susan with anxiety and fear. Using food to cope left her feeling guilty and ashamed of herself. She hid her binge eating well, knowing that if anyone found out what she was doing, she would be humiliated. Failure, guilt and shame were emotions she carried around like a heavy backpack she could never take off.
Diet Mentality and Body Image
Because diet culture perpetuates unrealistic beauty standards, most women stuck in diet mentality are dissatisfied with their bodies. Susan constantly compared herself to others and this led to low self-esteem. Over time she found herself withdrawing from social activities, wearing clothes to hide her body, and refusing to be in photos.
If you can relate, you’re not alone.
Nearly every woman I know shares a similar story.
The Cost of “Diet Mentality” Is High
Unfortunately, we’ve all paid the price of diet mentality, including me.
- The pressure to constantly track, measure, and count every ounce of food we ingest.
- The heaviness of self-criticism, blame, and disgust we feel in our bodies.
- The hits to our self-esteem when we let the scale define our worthiness.
- Losing weight and gaining it back, because we can’t stick to our diets.
As a registered dietitian, the price was especially high. I was expected to know better, do better, be better.
After decades of being stuck in diet culture, and never getting results, I decided enough was enough.
There had to be more to the story of weight loss. And that’s when I realized weight loss is not really about the food.
Of course, nutrition is important, but the truth is that diets don’t work and diet culture doesn’t help.
The Key to Losing Weight Is Understanding WHY We Are Over-Eating
In other words, weight loss comes down to what we are THINKING and what we are FEELING.
Because no diet will work as long as we are being driven by our emotions and what’s going on in our heads.
From that moment on, I started learning everything I could about how to:
- Let go of the emotions that were causing my cravings and emotional eating – including the diet mentality emotions of guilt and shame!
- Let go of the negative beliefs that were sabotaging me – including the beliefs that I was a failure and not good enough.
- Rewire my brain to help me lose the weight and keep it off.
The Results Were Incredible
I lost the weight, and I’ve kept it off for years. And my clients are doing this too.
For the past 20 years, I’ve been teaching women how to lose the weight and keep it off. But not by going on another diet. I’ve been there, done that. Quite honestly, I will never do it again.
I refuse to be a part of a culture where we set women up for failure and make them feel bad about themselves by promoting diet culture.
Instead, I’m teaching them how to lose weight from a place of love and respect for themselves.
If you’re ready to lose the weight and keep it off weight without the disastrous effects of diet culture, I warmly invite you to watch my FREE class on Weight Loss Success.
Backed by over 20 years of research into the neuroscience, psychology, and mindset of weight, this FREE class will help you learn how to lose the physical weight – and the emotional weight – and keep it off.
Also read, Are You Tempted by Promises of Quick Weight Loss?
Let’s Have a Conversation:
What issues have you had with weight loss? Have you suffered from the culture of diet mentality?
