Diet Culture: An extremely important conversation topic, so let’s dive in.

Like most, if not all, girls and guys, I’ve experienced a normal struggle with loving my body. I’m ashamed of the precious time and brain power that I’ve devoted to criticizing my shape and size, but still, with a million more pressing matters to be concerned about, body insecurity somehow makes it to the top of so many of our concern lists.

I want to first clarify that I don't mean prioritizing your health through fitness or caring for your body or mind by eating clean and whole foods. In fact, the essentiality of properly nourishing out bodies, or the lack thereof, is at the core of this Diet Culture problem. A problem arises when one prioritizes unrealistic body shape & size goals over proper nourishment.

As a dancer, I always felt the pressure to look perfect on stage, and, during lessons, I was always called to “compete” a given routine or skill against my teammates, as a form of “positive motivation”. Competition, however, did not solely mean competition of skill and performance, but it also meant competition of body size and appearance. It was obviously never explicitly a competition of body size, but given all of the relentless, unfiltered gossip of body shapes and weight that was constantly a topic of conversation, this horribly toxic body competition was practically an unspoken understanding among every dancer at my studio.

So what came of this extreme body competition? An even more extreme diet culture within the dance studio. When I finally decided not to return to that studio, I never gained the body positivity that I expected leaving would grant me. I never completely prioritized my mental health or achieved an intuitive, positive relationship with food that I have today (I am certainly nowhere near perfect, I am human!).

Even in the real world, outside of dance, we all still part-take in this diet competition every. single. day.

The psychology behind all of this is extensive, but it seems that there is some sort of distorted concept that weight-loss will bring satisfaction and success. Sounds pathetic, I know. If you don’t agree, your confidence in extraordinary. It’s time we realize realize is that society’s image of a successful and desirable women is meant for the past and, simply, NOT TRUE!

Let’s toughen up and rise above this toxic normalized diet competition, as subtle or apparent it may be in your life. Let’s focus on the things that will truly bring us genuine happiness and success worth working for, like building our careers and making lifelong memories with the people we love most. And if, for you, this includes leading a healthy lifestyle and reaching your fitness goals, as it does for me, then that’s incredible.

Let's focus our limited time and intelligent minds on what truly matters most to us, thereby freeing ourselves from the tiring confines of a diet culture that hinders far too many of us from reaching our full potentials.

 
 

Helpful Articles:

 

Sarah’s Day — Why NOT to Count Calories