Dieting is like a little prison built out of numbers. For people like me, counting, tracking, and measuring are not harmless ways to track your “progress.” They are sneaky little judgment weapons. Applying numerical ideals to your hunger or the size of your body is an invitation for obsession. You might as well walk outside and shout at…
Tag: dieting
I don’t slip up
I eat beyond fullness sometimes, sure. But “slipping up”? Nah. That’s the guilt-trip language of diet culture, trying to pull me back into its orbit. Slipping up goes hand in hand with getting back on track, and I already know how this story goes for me — restrict, binge, restrict, binge, forever and forever amen. A slip-up…
What is diet culture?
When you’re surrounded by diet culture, it can be hard to see what’s right in front of you. In light of NEDA’s Eating Disorder Awareness Week, I want to talk a bit about the words and actions that perpetuate diet culture every day. It’s not enough to discuss eating disorder symptoms and prevalence and call it…
Binge eating is a symptom
Binge eating is not a choice, or a reflection of willpower. But it’s not the real problem, either; it’s merely a symptom. In order to stop binge eating, you must dig deeper and address the underlying root of the issue: hunger. I know it’s hard to believe that hunger could have anything to do with…
It is not your job to fit the jeans
The jeans are supposed to fit you. They have one job. You pay them for it. And if they don’t do the job, FIRE THEM. Get new ones. Don’t read into it. Don’t stress about it. It isn’t worth another moment of your precious life. When a pair of jeans doesn’t fit you, it is…
Hunger is not all in your head
Is breathing all in your head? C’mon. Don’t let diet culture gaslight your body’s most basic needs. And don’t do it to yourself. Can you imagine if we treated other primal functions the way we treat hunger? “I’m out of breath again????? I JUST breathed.” Like breathing and blinking and sneezing and peeing, your body’s…
six months to sanity 