[POD] sneaky ways diet culture can ruin your life RAW
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[00:00:00] Hello, hello and welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Elizabeth Dahl, and today we are talking all about sneaky ways diet culture can ruin your life. Yes, we're getting into it today, but before we do, I want to share a couple announcements that I think will be of importance to you if you are looking to.
Change your relationship with food. The first is that the doors to our food freedom program, our full transformation, A to Z heal your relationship with food and your body so that you can have a happy life of balance with food is opening. In September. So all you have to do to learn more is get yourself on the wait list at a woman of wellness.com/food Freedom, and then you'll get all the information and the details about when that happens.
We're gonna have some fun, um, events leading up to that as well. So stay tuned here, stay tuned on Instagram and I'll be sharing, um, more about it. [00:01:00] But the best thing you can do is get on the wait list so that you can, um, learn a little bit more about it, um, on through email. So. That's that. The second thing I want to remind you, if you struggle with emotional eating, I have an entire emotional eating fix toolkit for you.
This is to help not only handle, um, moments of temptation and in that in the moment, um. What's the word? You know, starting of the spiral, but also prevent prevention of emotional eating and how do we prevent those episodes from happening? So this is a complete toolkit to help you hone in on healing your emotional eating, that guilt and um, that shame cycle, right?
When it's just I'm constantly starting over or I'm turning to food to deal with life. If any of those resonate with you, that emotional eating. Fixed toolkit is available for you as [00:02:00] a lifetime resource. I still personally use it, um, when I need some to make some adjustments and when I see that, um, you know, emotions are strong in life and, um, so get that for yourself.
It's only $27 and it's yours for life. You can click on the link in the show notes and, um, it's just an instant access and it's all yours. Okay, let's jump into the episode now.
Let's talk about diet culture today and. Why it could be sneakily, I don't know if that's a word, silently, you know, ruining or, or even, you know, we could be a little more gentle and say, affecting your life. So before I get into the episode, if you are interested in, um, kind of some journaling prompts around this, if, if you.
Are enjoying kind of what you hear and you, and you wanna take it a little bit deeper in the newsletter [00:03:00] this week for my email subscribers, I have a full, um, PDF to guide you through some journaling questions to help you identify diet culture in your life and what's getting in your way of having a. A happy relationship with food.
Um, so that's free. It just will go in the newsletter. So all you have to do is sign up at a woman of wellness.com/newsletter. Um, that link will be in the show notes as well, but just know that that's coming. If you're already an email subscriber, you will be getting that, um, Wednesday morning. Okay. Let's have a little bit of a story time.
I don't know if anyone has seen this. So, in America, several, several years ago, I don't even know. I wanna say like 2008 ish, but I could be totally wrong. Um, there was a series a, a reality series TV show, um, called The Biggest Loser, and it was a, a series where they took. Um, pretty [00:04:00] overweight individuals and worked them really, really hard and restricted their calories really significantly.
And the goal was to basically be the biggest loser, right to lose the most amount of weight. Well, my husband and I recently found. Kind of an a documentary about this and where many of these people are today. And it was fascinating. It's fascinating. Several of them that were willing to share their story have regained the way that they lost plus more.
Um, and they shared their story about just. The unhealthy approach and the extreme restrictions that they went through and all in the name of health, right? I mean, at the time it was like, oh, we're gonna get you healthy. But as you watch this documentary, you see how it's actually not healthy at all [00:05:00] and it's a very, um, diet culture approach to weight loss.
And we're gonna talk about that and I'm gonna bring it up in a little bit later, but, um. Sometimes things can be misconstrued as you know, all in the name of health, when in reality it can be really detrimental to us. And I want to help you identify that today. I wanna help you, um, kind of understand what your beliefs are.
That might be affecting your relationship with food. So let's talk a little bit about what diet culture is. What is diet culture? That's a good question, isn't it? Well, it's a belief system. Okay. It's a belief system that we've been taught, right? Either parents, society, all of the above. [00:06:00] Um, about. Our specific like health and wellbeing, so.
It's a belief system that includes things like prioritizing thinness or a specific body type over health and wellbeing. So we have, you know, prioritizing a certain number of on the scale, a certain body fat, a certain size. Um, instead of focusing on like, am I healthy? Am I feeling good? Um, it, it's a belief of this is what I need to be.
It also equates weight with worth. This implies that your value depends on your body size. So in diet culture, there's a belief, right, that a particular size is the right way. And actually on the Biggest Loser, one of the women talking said, you know, her marriage was really in shambles before she got on the show.
And then [00:07:00] when she. Got on the show or, or hurt the process of getting there. She's like, if I lose the weight then maybe my husband will love me more. Or, or, um, and that wasn't the issue. Of course there were other issues, but like that was the belief I would be more loved. I would be more accepted. Okay.
It's also a belief system that promotes restrictions and rules around food, exercise, and appearance. So you can't eat this, you can't eat that. You should restrict significantly if you want to dot, dot, it glorifies willpower and control. It makes you feel like you. Failure is your fault when you break the rules.
So it's saying, well, just, just do it, right? That Nike phrase of just like, just do it, um, it, it glorifies that. It shames normal di body diversity. So there's one body, ideal, thin, toned, and youthful, [00:08:00] right? That's the goal. So it's kind of this message that one size fits all, or one size should be. Diet culture.
Also, kind of what we talked a little bit about earlier is that you're not enough until you shrink your body, and that's what this woman on the biggest loser really felt like. Her body size was de, I guess her worth was dependent on her body size. Do you see how damaging this could be because we're, we create this belief system that this is the only right way, or there is one only right way, or look or image, um, or eating style or whatever.
Um, but the truth is that we are diverse individuals. We also have different interests, different desires. I'm not looking to be a, um. World class athlete per se, [00:09:00] but I am wanting to be my healthiest. So in contrast, when we think about food freedom and what that means, food freedom says that my body is wise and I can trust it and nourish it and feel at peace in it without dieting.
That's the difference is that instead of turning outward to a plan, a program that's telling you to believe that there's only one size, there's only one way to eat. It must be extreme, it must be strict. You must just stick to it. Right? Hold up that willpower. We're saying. Actually, I am capable of knowing and meeting the needs of my own body.
I can learn to ret trusts it. And I know it's easier said than done because diet culture is [00:10:00] sneaky, sneaky and we need to be aware of it. We need to pay attention because it's sneaky in ways such as health branding, right? So like everything is branded by this is healthy. Or this is optimal health. And so when we say the word health, sometimes it can sneak in by saying, this is healthy when it's really not.
Right. The biggest loser was saying, oh, this is healthy. We're getting these people healthy. And the reality is it wasn't. There were lots of problems that came, um, with significant amounts of weight loss so fast, but the branding was that, oh, we're making America healthy. We're, we're making these participants healthy so it can sneak in a little bit.
We have to define health for ourselves and what that looks like. It also kind of is [00:11:00] sneaky in that it tells us that popular is the best way. So if it's popular, then it must be the right way or the best way, and these things make it really difficult to filter. Through, well, what is white, right? What is wrong?
So I want you to think, just, just kind of think like, kind of create your own filter system. If it leads to comparison, it's probably diet culture because it's because comparison is comparing yourself to a particular standard. That isn't where you are right now, so you're comparing yourself to a standard.
It also can be masked as information overload, so we can receive a lot of information and it can feel overwhelming and. Just like, what do I [00:12:00] do next? And if you feel that it's probably diet culture, trying to give you the rules and take away from that body autonomy of, Hey, I am capable of knowing this. It also creates different expectations.
And I don't even know if this is a word really, but I kind of wrote down like de-identification, right? Like it, it almost like takes away our identity. Um. In pursuit of something else that may not be us. Now I am all for a healthy living and creating healthy change, and that does create some changing of your identity.
But at the end of the day, we all still have an identity, um, of who we are and what we want out of our life. And when we are kind of consumed by diet culture, it causes us to get a little bit, um. Flustered or maybe confused [00:13:00] about what health really looks like in our lives. So can you see how it might be a little bit sneaky?
Or a lot sneaky in that, oh, this worked for so and so, or, oh, this is working for so many people, or this is the healthy way because X, Y, Z. And yes, it can feel very, very overwhelming because some of it's true, right? Some of it's good, um, and some of it's not. And so I thought what we could do today is to kind of give you some helpful.
Be aware of, I guess, or how to identify if diet culture is creeping into or ruining your life. What do you watch out for? And I came up with six things that I think will be really helpful for you to sift through the noise to, um, filter the diet [00:14:00] culture noise from. What you internally need and want. Okay.
Number one, is it causing wasted mental energy? If you are constantly thinking about what you should or shouldn't eat, or how much you should eat, or what's good, what's bad? What's this? What's that? If you feel like it's chronic mental energy that is. Being taken away, wasted. I'm, I'm all a fan of using our mental energy for good positive things, but when it feels like all it is, is a cycle of stressing and worrying and thinking, that is diet culture, it's trying to get you to think.
It's a trying to get you to believe a certain way. Okay. The second is lack of self trust. If it takes away from you being able to trust your body's internal cues, your [00:15:00] hunger, your fullness, your satiety cues, and says, I have to rely on tracking. I have to rely on calories. I have to rely on weighing my food.
I have to rely on the meal plan that they gave me. We lose self trust. And so that's what, that's what the whole point is, is it you're believing that the diet system knows better, so you follow that. It's leading you to a belief outside of you instead of a belief within you. Number three, it steals food joy.
If you do not en enjoy food or. Find a joy in food because food is also joyful. It is emotional, right? Like there is so much about food that is, um, part of culture and life and memories and gathering, right? [00:16:00] And when you feel like you can't enjoy food because you're stressing about it so much, that's diet culture.
I telling you, you can't enjoy it because you need to follow these rules. It's a belief that food isn't happy. It's just fuel. Have you ever, have you ever felt that that belief or, or, or hurt it? Like, I just want food to be fuel and not worry about all the other stuff? Well, that's not reality. Food is fuel and much more.
Number four, you get stuck in the all or nothing cycle. So you're finding yourself in and out all the time, right? You're either all in and you're eating the right way or you're binging, um, because you can't control yourself. And if you're going in that cycle over and over again, that's diet culture.
Number five, diet culture. Ha hijacks our resources. It hijacks our time. It hijacks our [00:17:00] money. How much money have you spent on diet plans, programs, weight loss opportunities? Right. It hijacks some opportunities that we might have. I've worked with numerous clients who, because of the belief that diet culture has taught them, they won't get in a swimming suit and participate in activities that they love, that hijacks your life.
Not just the resources that you have but your life. If diet culture has given you a belief that you can't show up the way you are and do the things you do, I have clients I've worked with who, you know, don't, won't get in in the swimming suit, won't participate in the, the boating because they have to wear the swimming suit or, um.
I have to lose weight in order to be this or to be a hiker, someone that likes that hikes, I have to be a particular size, right? These are all phrases that I've [00:18:00] personally heard, and it takes away from the joy of life, and it also takes away those resources. Number six, it distorts health because the focus is only on weight loss versus self-care.
So if you feel obsessed with weight loss, you might be in that trap, right? It's okay for it to be part of a goal, but when it becomes the only thing that you're working toward and it's, it's just the sole focus and it. Not very happy, right? It's usually comes from a place of desperation or a desire to escape your body so it distorts health, right?
It really says this is the healthy way, rather than, Hey, am I taking care of my body? Am I trusting it? Is it able to do the things that I wanna [00:19:00] do? Can I feel good about that? Well, diet culture says no. A size a number a. An appearance is the right way. Okay. Do you have any of those? Did any of those resonate with you?
I, I have. So if you get the download in the email, which will come out Wednesday morning, um, and if you want it later, just let me know if you listen to this later. But, um. It's gonna help you like identify some of these things in your life. So if you wanna go deeper, that's gonna really help you. But here's, here's what, where we need to go from here, okay?
We need to get back to rebuilding trust with our body. That's how we escape diet culture, because diet culture is, remember a belief system. A [00:20:00] belief in this is there is one way, or this is the only right way, or they say better, right? I just walked you through six, six ways that it could be creeping into your life.
And so the goal here is that we need to kind of take back ownership of our bodies and our health. And recognize that we can rebuild that trust with our body because you were born with these signals. They're in you. They didn't, they didn't go anywhere. They're still there. We just need to rebuild it, re recreate those connections.
So I really hope that this episode just kind of brought some light to, um. What might be getting in your way of making progress. And if you're, if you've found that that is happening, um, that's okay. You know, diet culture is strong and [00:21:00] maybe you were raised with it. Maybe it's been in your life for a really long time.
So how do we, how do we heal it? Remember that diet culture thrives on mistrust and disconnection. Let me read that again. Diet culture thrives on mistrust and disconnection, so I want you to reframe your thinking to say, I can relearn how to trust and support my body, rather than I can't do that, or I've tried that before or that didn't work for me.
Can we relearn? You can always relearn. In fact, one of my motto is, you're either winning or you're learning. You're either winning at the behavior and getting the results that you want, or you're learning what you need to do to heal, um, to improve, to change. So this is if, if this, this is just scratching the surface, if you want to change your [00:22:00] whole be leaf system.
And rebuild that trust with your body. Get out of this diet culture cycle, this shame, guilt stuck cycle. That's exactly what we do with you in our food freedom program. Okay? It changes your com, your whole belief system so that diet culture doesn't have. Hold on you anymore and you can rebuild and learn to trust your body and get the results that you want.
Okay? You can still get the results you want even if you've seen the only way I got results, if it's if I was really strict and tracked my macros. In fact, we have many clients and students in our programs that learned how to, you know, come off those restrictive cycles and still achieve their health goals.
And still, you know, help their body get to a place where it feels confident and you [00:23:00] know, their healthiest self. So we need to rebuild trust with our body. And I thought I'm gonna just share two stories. Um. Some clients that I've worked with over the year to give you a little bit of hope, a little bit of hope that this is possible for you.
Um, one particular client spent 30 years on a diet plan. No carbohydrates, no sugars, and yeah, she lost weight, but. You know, as we work together, the biggest thing that she said was I've, I've been able to find joy with food again. She said for so long I wasn't allowed to eat a sandwich. And I have very fond memories of her sending me pictures of sandwiches and.
Colorful foods and like just plates of joy. And she's like, I can enjoy food again. And for 30 years I didn't, I just followed the plan because I was too afraid. [00:24:00] And, you know, in inviting those foods back into her life didn't cause her to gain weight because she learned how to build trust with her body and listen to her hunger and fullness cues.
I have another client who let, um, body image hold her back from participating in life, participating in events, participating in things that potentially could have brought her joy because of the fear of other people seeing her body and the fear of judgment. Un unheard judgment, I guess, you know, just quiet judgment of what people might say.
Um, and, and it held her back for years from participating in things that she loved. I don't want that to be your story. I anymore. If it's your story or at all, [00:25:00] don't let diet culture. Hold you back from living a life that you love. And if you've identified with any of those six steps that I, or six I guess not steps, but like six ways that diet culture might be really affecting your life, I want to invite you to change that, shift your mindset.
And return inward, refocus inward, and recognize that you have the ability to trust your body. If your body can be trusted, it may need some time to relearn it. And that's things that we teach you inside food freedom. Um, but I, I guess I just wanna give you one, I guess s um, action item this week. Notice, pay attention to one sneaky diet culture thought this week.
And then replace it with one question, [00:26:00] what does my body need right now? So if something's coming in and saying I should do this, right? Any of those six um, ways that you might identify that diet culture is creeping in, identify it, right? Be aware of it, and then say, okay, what does my body need right now in order to heal and to be helped and to be supported?
That's your call to action, I guess this week. I want to encourage you to journal about this or reflect on it for a little bit. And we have a journal prompt, um, coming in the email so hopefully it can kind of help you identify what's holding you back. Thank you for joining me today. Um, I really, I really do hope that this episode.
Helped you maybe identify where you are stuck and where you can get unstuck. [00:27:00] So thank you again and I'll be back next week with another episode.
