Ditch the Diet This Sunday!

Have you fallen prey to any of the many fad diets that are out there? Has that same diet caused you to restrict your favorite food or force yourself to eat foods you don’t like because you should?

If so, I want you to know you are not alone. Unfortunately, fad dieting is very common in our culture, but dieting is not what will help you reach your health and fitness goals.

I’m here to help change your mindset around dieting by starting with celebrating International No Diet Day, Sunday May 6th!This day is a worldwide celebration of body acceptance and a day to declare a life free from dieting.

Mary Evans Young started this movement in 1992 after battling anorexia and body image issues. She wanted to help herself and her friends to fully embrace their bodies for a day!

I hope by discussing diet culture and ways to “ditch the diet”, it will give you a jump-start to living a life free from chronic dieting.

Drowning in Diet Culture

In this age of social media, it’s almost impossible to go a day without hearing about a celebrity’s new diet miracle, or seeing pictures of famous new moms strolling out of the hospital in skinny jeans and stilettos just days after giving birth. Everywhere you turn, there are people who are trying to lose weight either by dieting, over-exercising, or both. There is an entire diet culture focused on highlighting the lives of fabulous people in order to feed your insecurities.

This is all a marketing ploy! The Diet Culture is a multi-billiondollar industry designed to make you feel bad about yourself. The companies that participate in the thousands of weight-loss gimmicks out there aren’t interested in your well-being; they’re interested in how they can get you to dislike yourself so you’re willing to pay them to make everything better. I have news for you – it’s a scam. You don’t need them – you’re fabulous just as you are!

Debunking the Diet Myth

I know for a fact that diets don’t work. They’re set up to make it seem as if it’s yourfault they don’t work, but the truth is, it’s them. Dieting is a cycle of weight loss followed by weight gain, which leads to a negative self-image and the resolution to try harder next time. So you try again. And the same thing happens. So you try again. And so on, with some people dieting for decades without “success.”

As you know, I have dedicated the last 8 years of my career to teaching people how to love their bodies without continuing the chronic dieting lifestyle. The key is learning to love the body you already have. There is more to your life than how many pounds you lose or whether you fit into jeans you have from 1985. Hating yourself into positive change is impossible, so love yourself healthy instead. Making changes that lead to a healthy and balanced lifestyle are long-term solutions that will heal you from the inside, undoing the damage to your self-esteem from years of dieting.

No Diet Day Goals

Today, I ask that you take part in this effort to change the mentality you have about dieting.

Challenge the idea that there is a “perfect” body for everyone. Appreciate the beauty in everyone, including yourself.
Look past the smoke and mirrors of the diet industry. Question the validity of their claims and scrutinize who benefits the most from chronic dieting.
Advocate for Health at Every Size and encourage awareness of weight discrimination and size bias.

Pay tribute to this important holiday by declaring it a day free from dieting. I hope it will be the first of many!

Your turn to take action:How will you celebrate No Diet Day? Let me know in the comments below!