Today, I'd like to talk about something that is near to my soul. Diets.
Here is the short version: diets don't work and never have and never will. This is not (just) my opinion; it is a proven fact that diets very rarely work. There is so much overwhelming research on this that I do not have time to delve into it all here! A quick google search will pull up more scholarly articles than you would even believe on the subject!
However, most of us have lived many decades pursuing weight loss through one diet or another. The average person tries 50-130 diets over her lifetime (which is, of course, proof they don't work long term!). Many, or most, of these diets are restrictive in nature, demonizing certain food groups, creating powerful feelings of hunger and deprivation, and inevitably creating an extremely unbalanced and a difficult-to-untangle relationship between us and the foods we love, the foods we "should" eat, the foods that are "bad", and so forth. I'm here to advocate for a much more balanced, more peaceful approach to nutrition.
Picture this scenario: an individual adopts a rigid new diet, forsaking beloved indulgences and/or drastically curbing calorie consumption, white-knuckling through urges and will-powering through meals. While initial progress may be apparent and create the belief that "This is working!", the body's response is far from sustainable. Severely restricting nutrient intake can seriously disrupt metabolic processes, deplete energy reserves (which feels awful!), and compromise overall physiological well-being. The longer the diet goes on, the worse these effects become, and some of them create real problems!!
However, the detriments of dietary restriction extend way beyond the physical realm, profoundly impacting mental health and creating a lot of psychological confusion and pain around eating and food. Many individuals find themselves ensnared in a cycle of guilt and self-condemnation following dietary "transgressions". This often stems from categorizing foods into "good" and "bad" foods, creating a perpetual battle between cravings and willpower. The inevitable consequence is an often unrecognized habit of binge-eating episodes, accompanied by feelings of defeat and disillusionment, then a doubling down on the restrictive eating, because we think "it was working!" and if we weren't so bad at this we could get it right. Consequently, a detrimental cycle ensues: restriction, binge, remorse, shame, repeat.
We don't have to be diagnosed with a formal eating disorder to feel uncomfortably familiar with this scenario, but many of us do have painful diet trauma in our past and need healing and health, and for peace to return to our eating lifestyle. A sustainable, lifelong healthy diet necessitates a huge shift away from stringent rules and rule-oriented thinking, and toward a holistic, balanced, kind and self-and-body-loving approach to nutrition. Rather than fixating on deprivation, emphasis can shift to building habits conducive to overall well-being-- habits that feel good in the body and in the mind. To reach our health goals and sustain the result over a lifetime, we have to begin cultivating mindfulness around food choices, prioritizing nourishing, wholesome options that promote both physical wellness and emotional satiety, and learning to become consistent with good habits based on what does objectively work. We also need to do the work of removing the drama around food, the shaming, the guilt, the moralizing, and the self punishment.
In essence, to create real change, change we will feel good about, and sustain it for a lifetime, we have to change our lifestyle around nourishment, not just police our own food intake. To liberate ourselves from the jail cell of dietary restriction and the inevitable binge cycles that get us nowhere, we need to begin embracing a new food philosophy grounded in balance, sustainability, and enjoyment. Learning to listen to our body's cues, nourishing it with wholesome but delicious foods, and take the time and effort to heal from the past diet trauma and begin replacing old thoughts with new, elevated, more empowering thinking is a journey, but it is one worth taking if we want to meet our goals, sustain them, and feel really really good inside of our own lifestyle.
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