Ditch the Diet Mentality to Lose the Weight
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?
The buzz around GLP-1s can be very confusing, and I never thought they were for me until my MD told me she thought I am a good candidate and wrote me a script. That was 4 months ago, and the difference in how I feel is huge! Properly administered, these peptides turn down the food noise, stop the cravings, (I dont even like the taste of wine anymore!), and even eliminated IBS symptoms I was struggling with through slowed gastric motility. Truth is some of us were born with Obesity markers on our DNA, our appetite turn off valves, Grehlin and Leptin do not function normally, and we yo yo diet our way through life, essentially ruining our metabolism. Now postmenopausal, I have recently discovered I have osteopenia and low bone density, and am working very hard to gain it back along with muscle mass-the key to longevity by strength training, using natural supplements, and eating a high protein diet. No, GLP-1s are not a magic pill, but rather an effective tool that aid in my journey toward optimal health in my 3rd act. Now, my focus is no longer about weight loss, bu instead about building muscle mass and strong bones.
Biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life was joining a slimming club in my late 20s. I was talked into it by my older sister who wanted someone to keep her company. She’s been obsessed with being skinny since her teens because the model look back then was Twiggy.
At the time I was a UK size 10 and weighed 8st 10. The class leader told me I needed to lose 10lbs + (last time I weighed under 8st was when I was 17). The diet was 1200 cals a day and very restrictive.
That was it, after I lost 7lbs my weight started to yo-yo. By my early 40s I was a perimenopausal size 14, then cancer came along at 45 and I gained from steroids I was given with treatment. Downside to this was I was left post menopausal and the steroids had wrecked my metabolism.
I’ve been a UK 14 / 16 ever since but I don’t best myself up over it and dress for my shape, wear nice jewellery and accessories and have my hair done every 5 weeks. At 63 my life is too short to worry, I have good health and that’s the main thing.
Thank you for the article. I plan to watch the class. I’ve been overweight all of my life but it never bothered me because I was always active. I did go over the 200 pound mark in later life and that did bother me for health reasons. I did get back to the low 170s (I’m 5′ 3″) and was comfortable again. I’ve never had an image problem. My issue, that is seldom addressed, is that food holds no fascination for me and I have to remind myself to eat. I know I do well when I feed myself on a regular basis — 3 meals and a couple of snacks. I gain weight if I start missing meals or the schedule gets interrupted for some reason such as a social event. I track what I eat but it is not strict tracking. It is just to remind me that I ate. Yes, I do have days where binging occurs or maybe I haven’t eaten the right thing because I feel I want to eat event though I may not actually be hungry. Look forward to your free class as I’ve recently picked up a couple of pounds I do not want. I call it my winter weight.
Good morning, I have had a real problem with dieting. I am on the go with working so many hours that it is hard to eat properly. I am too tired to exercise so I get depressed.