Being a Diet Culture Rebel

Diet culture. Once you open your eyes to it, you see it everywhere.

I never thought there was anything wrong with how I was eating and exercising. In Hindsight, there was a lot wrong. But on the outside, I ate like how I thought everyone ate. I thought how I exercised was how everyone exercised.

My relationship with food and exercise looked like how magazines and health blogs made "healthy" look. I wasn't dieting. I was just trying to be healthy.

I didn't realize that diet culture was still negatively influencing the way I was eating and exercising. I was afraid of gaining weight, felt guilty for eating anything unhealthy, felt lazy if I missed a workout day. Diet culture had instilled in me the belief that health was 1) all or nothing and 2) only about how I ate and exercised.

Diet culture has gotten really sneaky these days. And, I'll give it to them, really smart. Years ago it was "cool" to diet and you saw a lot more outright diets like the Atkins diet or the Grapefruit diet. Today, though, enough people know that dieting doesn't work that the industry has molded itself to look like and sound like just a "lifestyle". But just like more outright diets, "lifestyle" diets can be just as harmful to our health and relationship with food.

There are a lot of reasons why intuitive eating has become such a movement these days. First off, enough people have experienced the fact that diets don't really work. They may work for the short term giving you a quick "win" of losing a few pounds or exercising consistently for a couple of months. But people have a hard time being consistent.

Second, intuitive eating is a framework that teaches you how to eat based on your body's inner physical cues and sensations instead of external cues. Our bodies are so unique and don't work with a "one-size-fits-all" approach like diets give. It teaches body appreciation instead of encouraging body dissatisfaction like diets do.

Something that made all the difference for me, personally, with finding a balanced approach to health and wellness was realizing that health is made up of so much more than just food and exercise. I sought to find joy in all areas of my life instead of the fleeting happiness that came from a compliment for how I looked or ate or the high from exercising every day I'd planned.

I loved this conversation Katherine and I had with Bonnie Roney on the podcast this week (and yes! We got to record this episode before Katherine stepped away from the podcast so you get a treat to hear from Katherine too!) Bonnie shares her story of becoming, what she calls, a "diet culture rebel" and letting go of the "fit girl" identity to heal her own relationship with food.

Here's a little more about Bonnie and how to connect with her!

Bonnie is a registered dietitian nutritionist passionate about helping women kick diet culture to the curb and find food freedom. She believes that you, too, can be a diet culture rebel and live your best life without food holding you back.

Connect with Bonnie on her website, podcast, and over on Instagram.