Make 2020 the Year You Resolve NOT to Diet!
I was sitting on the couch at midnight with friends, and almost immediately after the ball dropped a WW ad appeared on TV encouraging us to make this year the year we lose weight and keep it off! Well actually, they didn’t explicitly say “lose weight” because they are now “WW” and no longer “Weight Watchers”, (which is laughable, because WW is still very much centered around weight loss).
And that’s a problem.
Our culture still believes that weight loss equals health, and that “wellness” accompanies thinness. But it doesn’t.
Though it’s really hard to believe that it doesn’t because the medical community tells us that it does. And other health professionals tell us that it does. And almost every new diet plan and company out there tells us that it does. So why on earth should we believe that it doesn’t?
Well, to begin with, many studies tell us that it doesn’t - which you can read about in Christy Harrison’s new book Anti-Diet . Or even more so, how about reflecting on your own history with weight loss? If you’ve experienced anything similar to mine, then you’ll know that managing our weight isn’t the solution we’re being sold.
How many times have you started a new diet or “lifestyle change”? How many times have you lost weight only for it to come back on? How many times have you sung variations of the same old song hoping this time it would sound different?
You know the definition of insanity credited to Albert Einstein right? “Doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
So why start 2020 - a fresh new year and a fresh new decade, doing something that’s gone stale?
Here is what I propose: DON’T
Don’t diet. Don’t try and lose weight.
Instead - figure out for what might be the first time in your life what it means to just be in your body without feeling like you have to change it. To be open to accepting your body (and yourself) it as it is right now. Learn what it’s like to eat and move and live your life without the constant, just always out of reach goal of weight loss running in the foreground (or background) of your life.
Does that feel terrifying? Likely.
Do you have no idea how to do it or maintain it? Possibly.
But that’s a good thing. Because it means being at the start of something new. It can be scary and unnerving embarking on a journey completely different than what we are used to. But this is where instead of running around in circles for our entire lives, we can walk a path that will move us towards the health and wellness we have been told weight loss will give us.
I’m here to say (via the hard work and solid research of many others), that intentional weight loss is not what makes us healthier. That living our lives in constant dissatisfaction or hatred of our bodies does not make us well. And I understand this is easier said than done living in a society that runs like a broken record telling us the opposite. But it can be done - we can end the madness of trying to shrink our bodies to fit in. We can end the cruelty of negative self-talk and body hatred.
It’s a new year and a new decade, how about actually trying something new?
If you are ready to escape the diet cycle and would like support, visit my 8-Week Body Acceptance Coaching program for more information.
Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash