Diet culture is in the fabric of our lives. The New Year has been a time of year that we use to reflect on our past and choose to move forward in our futures. With our culture of being thin, the New Year lends itself to weight loss pledges.
With the culture of weight loss, this urges itself to short-term, fast weight loss, instead of the balanced lifestyle that includes the nutritional, active balance. A lot of these diets encourage severe calorie restriction, and others eliminate entire food groups.
For every diet trend success story, behind it is a soul that failed to lose weight forced them to want to participate in this fad diet.
Research shows that 65 percent of dieters gain the weight back within three years. Dieting is a short-term solution that poses major health risks. Labeling foods as "good" or "bad" stigmatizes food and creates shame around eating. These can lead to eating disorder behaviors and can ultimately spiral into an eating disorder.
Our culture also tells us that exercise is a good thing. Although, our culture promotes compulsory exercise. Exercise compulsion is also a causation of eating disorders and body-image disorders. Celebrities promote constant exercise and objects like the waist trainers that convince us that we need to be smaller.
Associating weight loss with "good" and "bad" foods, waist slimmers and compulsive exercising is our culture's way of saying "we only love you if you're small." It promotes unhealthy lifestyles and promotes eating disorder habits. It's no surprise that Americans are unhappy with their bodies because these diet programs promote body dissatisfaction. Our culture's depiction of the "perfect body" is unrealistic and physically unattainable for many people based on genetic factors.
Instead of promising yourself to lose weight and keep it off, committing to a healthy lifestyle; body, mind, and spirit, is the healthiest option. Instead of focusing on what aspects of our life we should restrict and overwork, connecting nutrition, moving our bodies the way we enjoy, and how we feel about ourselves as a whole are important to living happily.
Set goals to nurture your mind, instead of setting goals to specific body alterations. Meditate, enforce your values. Journal regularly. Reconnect with your spiritual beliefs and traditions. Improve relationships and create new ones. When we focus on our faults related to our weight and appearance, our minds and souls can easily be forgotten about.
The New Year is a time to reflect on your past and set goals for your future. This year, consider alternatives to enhance overall health. And if you want to lose weight this year, it's okay! Be sure to commit to a resolution that promotes balance and health instead of restricted weight loss.
