Understanding the Dieting Mentality

Something that's pretty clear for most of us suffering with food and body concerns is that the dieting mentality is something (a force really!) that permeates throughout our lives.

The dieting mentality is a mindset that is planted and driven by our dieting-obsessed culture. Diet-culture operates in black and white, good or bad, focused on numbers, measurements, rules, judgement, guilt and shame.

The dieting mentality is how we’ve internalized those messages and how they influence our relationship with food, our food and movement choices, and our bodies. 

The dieting mentality erodes trust in our bodies and replaces it with rules and shoulds that we feel like we have to follow.

When starting the journey to find peace with food and body, seeing and beginning to understand the harm that dieting culture, and in turn, the dieting mentality has caused you is an important step to begin to reject it.

-Think about the promise of diets soon followed by the backlash of starting them.

-The harsh self-talk and feelings of shame when weight comes back on.

-The hyperfocus on your body as currency- for love, respect, worthiness.

-The time and money you’ve poured into seeing your body as a project, or a problem to be solved.

-The events you’ve been absent from (mind or body) because of preoccupation with food or fear of judgement.

-The feelings of being completely out of control around food.

-The stigma attached to bodies outside of the thin-ideal.

Suffering.

If dieting worked, the mentality that comes with it, wouldn’t lead us to such suffering.

Remember, you didn't ask for this suffering. You didn’t ask for this mindset. It was planted without your permission by a culture obsessed with thinness. 

And for most of us, it has grown into a little monster that has stolen our peace. And the monster is fed each and every time we internalize and practice more of diet culture’s rules and shoulds.

Remember, diet culture is invested in keeping us stuck in grinding away, investing our time, energy, emotions and money into the seemingly never-ending body project.
The longer you operate in black and white, driven by numbers, shoulds, guilt, judgement and shame (the dieting mentality), the longer you’ll remain at war with food and your body.

The way out is to start to acknowledge and reject the dieting mentality when it comes up.

Notice when it comes up. Call it out for what it is. Mindfully notice how it makes you feel when it sets a new rule, judges you for not doing enough, or sends you headfirst into the next diet.

Offer yourself kindness and compassion in its place. Instead of getting angry at yourself, get angry at the culture that relentlessly reinforces the hurt you’ve felt over the years. Consider what dieting has cost you and how you want your relationship with food and your body to really feel.

And it feels really important to mention this… Buy. Clothes. That. Feel. Good.

Here are 5 mindset shifts that call out the dieting mentality and shift to a non-diet mentality:

Diet Mentality vs Non-Diet Mentality

I don’t deserve to eat that vs My body is always worthy of being fed.

I can’t eat that! There’s too many calories! vs Is this something that I’m craving or that I truly want?

I’m either on or off with my eating. vs I deserve to eat because. Full Stop. Without judging myself.

I need to burn “x” calories everyday. vs I move my body in ways that feel good and bring me joy.

I have to rely on willpower to get through the day. vs I am building trust in my mind and body to tell me what I’m craving, when I’m hungry and when I’m full.

Consider putting an end to dieting.

An end to viewing your body as currency for love, respect and worthiness.

Read about intuitive eating, health at every size and body trust.

Hold space for there being another option that can help you live peacefully around food and trusting in your body.

Hard work? Yes. Counter-cultural work? Oh, yes. A step toward finally finding freedom? Hell, yes.

🧡,

Sarah