To start being healthy and happy we need to ditch the diet culture and embrace the nourish culture for ourselves. Have you ever noticed that most friends (or maybe even you) start a diet with the goal of changing your eating habits and creating a new lifestyle, only to ditch the diet in 2-3 months? Why don’t people stay on diets that are helping them be healthier? Why is “wanting to be healthy” not motivating enough to stay on a diet?
In my 5 year health journey, and through becoming a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and Pilates Instructor, I figured out there is a pattern for failure in diet culture, and I see it with clients constantly when they come to Feliz 3 Health for their customized health plans. I call it the Diet Treadmill, and because of the diet culture in America, it can be extremely difficult to hop off the Diet Treadmill.
The Diet Treadmill:
It starts simply enough. Someone decides they want to be healthy, they’ve been gaining weight and don’t feel good and want to have their skinnier body back. They go to the internet where hundreds of thousands of health instructors and sites are saying diet and exercise are all it takes to be healthy, it’s easy. They all claim to have the best solution for this situation with a ton of success stories in a short amount of time. So, after some intense research, someone picks the diet they think will be best for them to get on track health wise, and they are pretty pumped about it.
Usually they pick a start date to begin their whole new lifestyle. And let’s be honest, it’s an overhaul of lifestyle. Meal prepping is going to happen, eating out less must happen to stay on track, most restaurants use foods not allowed on diets, the snacks around the office that are processed or carb heavy have to go, water intake must increase, and because all of these big changes are happening the body is going to have withdrawal and someone just won’t feel good the first week or two, accept it.
Day one comes, shopping for the week and meal prep happens, the new lifestyle is beginning. Week 1 usually goes well, most people have the discipline and burning desire to get through week one. Week 2 comes along, the person doesn’t feel great, but is proud of themselves for staying committed. They shop and meal prep again. Week 3-4 comes along. The results aren’t showing, this lifestyle doesn’t feel as rewarding as they thought, and they are missing out on so many things they used to enjoy – is the tradeoff worth it?
Some people fail right here, they decide the tradeoff isn’t worth it. Others are in it for the long haul, they will love it once it becomes a habit and natural to them, they keep going.
An agitator occurs – work event, family event, social event, vacation, illness, absolutely horrible horrendous day comes along – and having that glass of wine, that bagel in the office, that latte with all the added flavors is just what this person needs. It will only be once and they will get right back on track. Just a little “cheat” moment. That cheat moment opens the floodgates. Why must this person be so restrictive with food, have food be such a chore, take the joy out of food to be healthy? Is the trade off really worth it?
A lot of people drop out of the diet when they get to these agitators and what they are missing out on from their old lifestyle. They aren’t seeing enough weight come off, they aren’t feeling amazing enough for it to be worth it. There hasn’t been enough gain to lifestyle loss.
Some people keep going after a cheat meal. From week 5 and on, a big agitator comes along, that cheat meal becomes a cheat day, the cheat day becomes cheat weeks (especially at vacations and holidays), and now, this person is no longer on the diet.
This is what happens to 80% of the people in America who go on a diet in diet culture.They last anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months before it just isn’t worth it anymore.
Then, they start the process all over again. They know they need to lose weight, since the last diet didn’t work, it wasn’t the right diet for them, so they research and find a new diet to try. They hop back on the diet treadmill to go through the same process all over again. It happens so often we collectively call it yo-yo dieting.
How do we get off the food treadmill taking us absolutely nowhere?
Stop Dieting, Start Nourishing:
Dieting causes multiple issues for someone on a psychological level when they are trying to make a big change in their life.
- Most diets label food as good or bad, so the person on the diet starts looking at all food as good or bad. This creates a negative relationship with food, especially if some of your favorite foods and meals you had growing up or are a staple in your family are labeled as “bad”.
- Food and eating becomes a chore, not a pleasure. We eat 2+ times a day on average in America, and on top of that, we are usually drinking other things besides water, which we also have to label as good or bad. This creates a negative relationship with food and the action of eating, as well as the actions that go into preparing these foods. Cooking, shopping for food, meal prepping for the week – it all becomes a chore, another reason being an adult is not fun and so hard
- The goal of the diet is to lose weight. This goal is not very motivating, especially if someone goes 4 weeks overhauling their routine and life and doesn’t lose weight. Sometimes people even gain weight when they make these types of dramatic food changes, how disheartening!
The diet culture promises quick results in a short amount of time, quick results you can see. So many “before and after” photos are used to hook us into trying that guru’s food strategy that worked for them. What none of these diets are doing is looking at the whole person, the whole picture, other lifestyle choices that may have gotten them to an unsatisfactory place health wise. Food could be the completely wrong place to start for someone to transform their lifestyle. Diet culture doesn’t allow us to see that though, we are in the trees and can’t see the forest.
That’s why we need to start focusing on nourish culture, and say goodbye to diet culture. Nourish culture is the holistic approach of evaluating all areas of your life, how they affect your health, and identifying which ones to start shifting first to start feeling GOOD in your body again. It has nothing to do with a number on the scale, it has everything to do with being connected to your body, understanding what makes it feel good, what makes it feel bad, what makes it feel neutral. When we know what makes our bodies feel good, energized and happy, we tend to do it. When we know what makes it feel crummy, we start to avoid it. Most people have no idea how disconnected they are from their body and what it’s trying to tell them and the signals it’s sending.
Nourish Culture Means THROWING OUT YOUR SCALE:
This isn’t to say never step on a scale again. BUT, that scale is not helping you when you begin your journey to have a healthy life. Being overweight doesn’t feel good, but chasing a number on a scale and not achieving it, feels worse, and causes the yo-yo dieting. If you throw out the scale, and start listening to your body, how it reacts to different foods, sleep patterns, stress, workouts, etc. you’ll start knowing what helps your body and what harms it. You’ll make changes based on that. Once you build your mind body awareness and connection, you’ll start seeing what you look like in the mirror and how your clothes are fitting. If you’re listening to your body, you are going to like what you see. These lifestyle changes don’t happen overnight, but the Cinderella story we all fall in love with in “before and after” photos of successful lifestyle transformations typically start here. The 20% who make it through the diet and turn it into a lifestyle are usually doing the mindset work and mind body connection without realizing it.
So, throw out the scale (or hide it and let it get very dusty), use your mind-body connection as your guide, and your mirror as your reflection of success. You’ll get to that magic number on the scale (as long as it’s within reason for your age and body type) much faster and cultivate the healthy lifestyle you’ve been hoping for with ease and joy. We can thrive, not just survive.
At Feliz 3 Health, we start with you and your health goals. We help you identify the areas of your life that are holding you back from feeling great in your body everyday. We build a custom health journey for you to accomplish your Cinderella health story, and we are with you every step of the way. We get you off the food treadmill and help you have an amazing relationship with food and your body. Start nourishing your life, and say goodbye to diet culture and the scale!
