95. Choosing Health Not Diet Culture

Feb 9

When you decide to choose your health over diet culture, I guarantee your life will change. You’ll have greater trust in yourself, an understanding of what works for you, and, most importantly, will know your why.

Break Free of Diet Mentality:

There is no right weight or size, only the one that’s right for you
There are no good or bad foods, on the ones that are right for you

Listen to Episode 95 Here

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Ditch Diet Culture for Good

Diet culture is overwhelming; the mentality drilled into us from such a young age. I share my own story of diet shame starting when I was in the third grade because, yes, that is how young children learn about diet culture!

Let’s talk about how we can start trusting ourselves and our own bodies more so we can finally ditch the pressures and expectations of diet culture. First, you need to understand your own body’s weight set point. This is the point where your body weight naturally holds when you’re eating intuitively.

I also think it’s really interesting to get a DNA test done, something like 23 and Me, or look at your family’s genetics. You might be genetically designed to weigh more than the national average; I know I am, and can see that in my daughter, as well.

Listen to Your Body and Find Your Why

One of the biggest revelations you can have is learning to listen to your body about what it actually wants to eat. Because, and I really want to stress this, there are no good or bad foods. There are just the foods that are right for you and your body.

When you have a better understanding of what your body wants to eat, you can start to categorize into Always, Sometimes, and Rarely foods. This gives you so much food freedom, allowing you to eat what you want when you want, and stay within your body’s weight set point.

Finally, I talk about the importance of exercise, why it’s good for you, and what happens when you follow a regular movement routine. I think understanding why your body deserves fitness will help you figure out your why. Finding your why will help you so much when it comes to your health and fitness goals.

How does exercise feel in your body? Why are you exercising? What is your why? Let me know in the comments below!

In This Episode

How trusting yourself can rid you of the temptation of diet culture and mentality [6:15]
How much weight we can expect to lose and maintain from our set-point [8:30]
How knowing your genetics can help you understand your weight set-point [11:00]
What happens when you listen to your body about what it wants to eat [14:30]
How to decide your Always, Sometimes, and Rarely foods [15:30]
How exercise decreases your risk of many chronic illnesses [18:30]
What happens when you find your ‘why’ [24:00]

Quotes

“When our leptin levels are high, typically our body can release weight. But when our leptin levels are low, our body wants to hold onto all the weight. What happens is, and this happens with obesity, that we can develop something called leptin resistance. Leptin resistance can happen for a number of reasons, but chronic dieting is one reason why leptin resistance really can happen.” [9:20]

“When we’re thinking about our body size and weight, I believe we can find optimal health at any weight.” [11:50]

“There are no good or bad foods. The minute we start labeling foods, we’re adopting diet culture and we’re also telling ourselves that we can’t have the bad foods.” [14:48]

“You can trust yourself. I think this journey that we go on is all about self-trust. It’s really starting to understand who we are, what we need, and to trust that. When we start to do that, nothing challenges us anymore, but not in a bad way. Nothing challenges if we’re the right size, what we should be eating, or what we should be doing. It even challenges the idea that we don’t have power. We will stop comparing and we can just trust.” [27:07]