How to Leave Diet Culture in 2020

I was laying on the cold tiles of my sophomore year dorm, my head throbbing from the hour long workout I forced myself to do while I was sick, when I made the best decision of my life. I stumbled upon a Youtube video from Bodyposipanda, an activist at the forefront of the body positivity movement. “Why is everyone obsessed with being thin?” read the title on the side of my screen. I had to know.

I clicked on the video and watched dozens more in a daze as I continued doing sit-ups. Body positive creators and activists explained the terms “diet culture”, “fatphobia”, “health at every size” and “intuitive eating”. My brain felt like it was under attack: everything that I believed about bodies, about my body, about what it meant to be healthy and what it meant to care about myself was suddenly breaking down. At some point I stopped doing sit ups and let my sweat drip onto the keyboard as my face leaned closer to the screen, eyes squinted, careful not to let a single word slip by. In that moment, whether consciously or not, I made the decision to leave diet culture behind for good.

Three years later, my relationship to my body, and bodies in general, is radically different. I now educate others about the perils of dieting, restricting, obsessive exercise and disordered eating that are logical results of diet culture and it’s close cousin: wellness culture.

January is the month in which diet and wellness culture thrive: they lure people in with claims that things will be different — this time the diet will work, this new exercise plan will change everything. But “If diets resulted in long-term weight loss, the diet industry would be out of business. It’s a 70+ billion dollar industry because they don’t work. If the goal is weight loss- it’s a diet. The diet industry doesn’t need your money and you don’t deserve to be signed up for a lifetime membership of harm,” writes Dr. Rachel Millner, a fat positive therapist, and Body Trust Provider. What if this was the year where you begin your journey of establishing a mentally healthy relationship with your body, where you leave diet culture in the dust? It can be hard to know where to begin, so I’ve come up with a few concrete actions that will help you start your journey to body acceptance.

1. Read the essential books. Body acceptance is predicated on a few iconic books that lay out some of the most foundational concepts. Start with Health at Every Size by Lindo Bacon, and then read Intuitive Eating by Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole. These research-based books will uproot the way you’ve been taught to think about food, health, size, weight, and more. They certainly changed my life. Body Positive Power, by Megan Crabbe is a great overview that outlines research studies as well as giving tips for self love and confidence.
2. Cleanse and rebuild your social media feeds. We spend so much time online, and what we see genuinely affects our perception of the world and ourselves. I created a new account where I only followed people who promoted body acceptance. I followed people of all sizes and abilities and races and genders, allowing my feed to reflect the diversity of people in the world instead of just models and influencers, which social media sites default to if we’re not intentional about who we follow. Seeing people with all different bodies helped me to realize that the insecurities I had were not so rare, and that it was possible to embrace or at least accept them. Some of the first people I followed were: @bodyposipanda, @scarrednotscared, @saucyewest, @kristinabrucecoach, @virgietovar.
3. Throw out your scale. I’m not kidding. It is difficult to underestimate the impact that this will have on your mental health. It wasn’t until about a year into not weighing myself that I realized: nothing good has ever come from knowing my weight. You know what it feels like to live in your body, you know what you look like, you do not need an arbitrary number to make you feel terrible about yourself or provide fleeting gratification that you are smaller than you thought you were.
4. In fact, ditch the numbers in general. Before that fateful night in my dorm sophomore year, I was obsessed with numbers. Every day I tracked miles, reps, minutes, calories, resistance, pounds. And today it is easier than ever to obsessively keep track of our food and exercise, and have it seem totally normal. What has become normalized in our society because of technology, in fact serves to distance us from our bodies’ natural signals and needs. Now, I don’t look at the calories of foods that I’m eating, and I trust my body to tell me when to move and when to rest (more of this in the Intuitive Eating book). This year, try to steer clear of apps, watches, or devices that focus on tracking and numbers.
5. Learn about fatphobia. I realized that my insecurities about my body resulted from a society that says fatness is not okay, and tacks a whole host of nasty stereotypes onto bigger bodies. While my insecurities were valid, as someone who was “straight-sized”, I was never treated differently because of my size, whereas the same cannot be said for people in bigger bodies. Fatphobia and weight stigma are systemic issues that are still not taken seriously in social justice circles. Listen to the voices of fat positive activists who are speaking out on this issue, and do some research on weight stigma (especially in employment and medical settings. Sonya Renee Taylor’s website and movement, The Body is Not an Apology, is a great place to start.
6. Embrace intuitive movement. Exercise, for me, used to be an obligation, not a question. I lifted weights and did cardio every day, regardless of how busy I was, how I felt, or what I wanted to do. Now, I follow the practice of intuitive movement, where I rely on internal cues to determine how I move my body and when. I took a long break from going to the gym, and in its place I danced around my room, did yoga, jumped rope, stretched, or went for walks in the park with friends. I got rid of the idea that certain things are “real exercise” and other things are not, and instead I view any form of movement as a way to connect with my body and mind joyfully.

May this be the year that you leave diet culture behind for good. May you come to see your body as an instrument instead of an ornament. And may you come to realize that you are so, so much more than a body. I am so grateful that three years ago, a certain Youtube video popped up as I was hunched over my computer dripping sweat. Looking back now, I take it as a sign that I needed to make a massive change. If you’re reading this now, this is your sign. These tips are simply small starting points, and hopefully they will take you on your own complicated, challenging, but ultimately beautiful journey to body acceptance.