Why we need to Break Free from Diet Culture and Reclaim our Confidence as Women
The worst diet I ever tried was the military diet. For lunch, I got a piece of toast and a CAN of tuna. There were also many hard-boiled eggs involved, which typically I like but I came to loathe by the end of it. I’ve tried plenty of others, from Keto to Paleo and even the smoothie diet (another one I grew to hate even though I had loved it in the beginning).
If you’re a woman in the U.S. chances are you’ve been on a diet at some point in your life, too.
“Apparently, around 75% of us have tried to use some crazy food restriction plan all in the hopes of shedding some pounds so that we can try to fit into this culture’s ideal body standard. ”
But here’s the thing- 95% of those diets don’t work! And even if they work for a short time, they don’t work in the long term. If you counted yourself among the women who’ve tried to lose weight with a diet before, I’m sure this isn’t news to you lol. But somehow, dieting has become the gold standard for weight loss and I’m here to say, right here on my pretty little corner of the internet that THERE’S A BETTER WAY, and I’m going to share it with you 🙂
Before we get into that though, I want to thoroughly denounce the whole idea of dieting so that we’re all on the same page.
First off, about 70% of women in this country are overweight or obese. I counted myself among that group for most of my adult life.
So the need for losing weight and making healthier choices is something most women can completely empathize with, as well as the difficulties associated with going down that path.
We’ve somehow been conditioned to believe that dieting is the only way to work on this issue, though. And who knows, maybe it has something to do with the 90 BILLION dollars that weight loss companies make each year (insert eye roll here) trying to convince us that their diet plan or supplement is the solution to our problems.
But as we discussed earlier, almost none of these actually do anything for us in the long run. In fact, restricting yourself the way most diets require means that we’re constantly in a state of fatigue from calorie reduction or nutritional deficiencies (like from cutting out complete food groups). It also means that, let’s face it, food becomes this shameful, stressful, and depressing thing when in reality, food should be about connection, joy, abundance, nourishment, and love. We deserve better, ladies.
So how do we break free from this counterproductive and manipulative culture? I’m so glad you asked 🙂
First, we’ve got to recognize that the whole idea of shaming and restricting yourself into losing weight is a completely backward way to help yourself because it just reinforces that there’s something wrong with who you are and that you need to be fixed so you can look good and therefore be worthy of self-love. Well let me tell you something, you are worthy of love and respect and health and happiness right now! Your worth is not tied to your weight and you deserve to eat food that makes you feel good.
When you start changing your eating habits because you love yourself enough to want to nourish your body and mind with good food, everything changes!
It opens up a whole new world where you can use the momentum to pull yourself forward to something you enjoy and that makes you feel good, instead of stretching away from something that you’re trying to get away from like a rubber band stretching until it snaps.
The empowerment and confidence that come from this one simple shift will completely change how you act toward food for the better!
When you start making this change for yourself and rethinking how you feel about diet culture, you’ll start hearing diet talk for what it is- harmful, unhelpful, and just straight wrong.
While it might be hard to do at first, I promise you, the work is so worth it. Ditching diet culture will free you from the pressure to conform your body to someone else’s potentially unrealistic standards, it will allow you to work from a place of self-love which will give you the energy and motivation you need to actually build the healthier habits that will take you where you want to go, and it will change the conversation little by little about how women think and feel about their bodies and therefore how we move through the world. Because when you take care of your body because you love it, it impacts every other aspect of your life, too, and you absolutely deserve that!
To learn more about what it takes to heal your relationship with food and become the happiest, healthiest, most confident version of yourself, check out my Masterclass (only $21) and see what you’ve been missing out on. Trust me, you deserve this life, and I want to help you get it! :)
Are you tired of restrictive diets and guilt-driven eating? The Food Freedom Masterclass is a transformative program designed to help you cultivate a sustainable, joyful relationship with food. Through 8 actionable mindsets, you'll learn how to nourish your body with love, manage cravings, and break free from food judgments—empowering you to live a life full of confidence and well-being.
XO Sarah Elizabeth
