Watch out, watch out, there’s a fad diet about…
Many of us have been on some kind of ‘diet’ for as long as we can remember and chances are that ‘diet culture’ has, to a greater or lesser extent at different times in our lives, shaped our daily thoughts, feelings and behaviours towards the food we eat, our body image and perhaps even our self-worth too.
Have you ever judged yourself, or rated the kind of day (good or bad) you’re having, by whether you’ve stuck to some ‘food rules’ or based on what the scales say? If so, that’s ‘diet culture’ in action but what exactly is it and how can we escape it?
Fad diets promoting ‘diet culture’ often display these characteristics so watch out for these and clean up your news and social media feeds. You can reject, unfollow and unsubscribe from this because there is a much kinder and more effective way to manage your weight.
Restrictive rules about behaviour and food, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods and very specific ‘rules’ that must not be broken. They promote ‘black and white’ thinking causing you to feel stressed and like you’ve failed if you don’t follow the ‘rules’ or ‘plan’, when in reality, the diet or plan failed you!
Counting calories, macros or points or weighing food every day. Often part of the ‘rules’ above. Although this can be helpful for some people in the very short term, this is not sustainable in the long run because it’s no fun, time consuming and causes you to focus on the wrong things which can become all-consuming and lead to disordered eating. Unless you have a clinically diagnosed health condition requiring the help and support of a registered dietician, there are much easier and simpler ways to measure food portions and get macros right by creating healthy balanced plates, see below.
The diet or plan is extreme and excludes whole food groups promoting unbalanced macronutrient consumption long-term, such as no/very low carb Keto (more on details on this in a later post, but with very low/no carb, you’ll struggle to get enough fibre and nutrients in the long-term, potentially compromising your gut health and immunity). They might also talk about ‘cheat meals’ and suggest we need to ‘earn our food’.
Before and after photos focussing solely on aesthetics which say that smaller and thinner is better than larger bodies, versus an emphasis on holistically improving the physiological health and mental health of clients and emphasising improvements in overall quality of life.
This is by no means an exhaustive list but some of the most common, potentially damaging traits of fad diets which can result in being trapped in a yo-yo weight cycle and developing disordered eating or a more serious, clinically diagnosed eating disorder.
After 30+ years of fad diets, a completely different approach is long-overdue so how do you get out of the ‘diet culture’ weight cycling rut and start being kinder to your body and mind?
Learn how to really listen to your body, treat yourself with more self-compassion and embrace body positivity with a head-first and health-first approach to weight loss and weight management.
How does it work?
Step 1. You complete a comprehensive online health and lifestyle questionnaire so I fully understand the journey you’ve been on, how you got to where you are and the challenges you’re facing and why.
Step 2. You’ll receive:
Flexible Healthy Living Guidelines to help you find balance for body and mind. No rules, just guidelines for adopting healthy behaviours which are flexible enough for you to maintain for life.
My 80/20 weight management guidelines and 90/10 weight loss guidelines (if you want to lose a healthy 1-2 lbs/week. Again you’ll have flexibility here so can make them work for you)
A Nutrient Density Scale so you can see at a glance what 80% foods will nourish your body, mind and gut the most.
Handy portion guidelines and balanced plates, measure food portions with your hands and create healthy balanced plates showing approximate healthy macro splits, based on how active you are. No calorie, points or macro counting or weighing here.
Positive thinking strategies - ways to reframe negative, limiting thinking and change the language you use, like the example below of the words we want to remove and add to our plate.
Quick, delicious and gut healthy seasonal recipes. Again flexible with swaps to make them vegetarian or vegan, whatever your preference.
Support to help you find body positive, restorative and protective movement and mindfulness activities that celebrate your body and all the wonderful things it can do.
Step 3. With my guidance and support either on a 1-2-1 personalised basis, or on an 8-Week Online Seasonal Reset, you’ll always be in control of the changes you make, setting yourself weekly goals so that they are always realistic for you.
Why not try it?
Shut out the damaging messages from fad diets and start really listening to your body and mind.
Start challenging things that aren't working for you any more, whether that's fad diets, negative self-talk, daily habits, your body image or your relationships with food, alcohol or technology, or a combination of these factors.
You can reject diet culture and embrace more self-compassion and body-positivity.
You can take back control and I can help you do that - join me!
Start with kindness and compassion to yourself always, because if you don’t, who will?
Vicky x