Dieting and Weight Loss Goals are Ubiquitous in Our Culture
Most people purse weight loss at some point in their lives, even if it is considered normal and healthy to make efforts to manipulate your body size and shape. Pervasive within our culture, there is an unspoken belief that when you become thinner or achieve that illustrious goal weight that you will magically solve all of life’s problems. Thinness is automatically associated with worth and value.
In the pursuit of weight loss it is important to consider these three points:
The pain of having a body that doesn’t fit the cultural ideal is very real. The belief that you can finally be happy/successful/accepted/loved if you achieve the cultural thin ideal is underneath the pain.
Setting a goal weight or striving to achieve weight loss leads to dieting leads to:
Long-term weight gain, diminishing self-esteem, increased feelings of guilt, shame, and feeling like a failure.
The Reality About Weight Loss
Dieting achieves the opposite of what you are trying to get, 95% of the time. The basic premise of restricting food to gain happiness is fundamentally flawed. By eating less and ignoring hunger, you are creating the perfect conditions for overeating or binge eating. You are also increasing the likelihood for worsening physical health and mental heath conditions, including fatigue and irritability due to hunger, social isolation due to strict food limitations, food obsession due to perceived deprivation, and feelings of guilt and failure when you resume eating.
Redefining Happiness
Happiness is a byproduct of being in your own truth, choosing your own path, and feeling in charge over your own life. You can speak your truth, stand up for yourself and proclaim to the world that you matter.
Honor all aspects of your being by harnessing power from within. You can ask your body what it needs and nourish yourself based on the idea that you can trust yourself.
Claim your right to create your own path. And in this way, you can choose to be beautiful in your body exactly the way it is, right now.
Will weight loss happen? I don’t know. Bodies are all different and have unique set points or the weight at which your body is balanced and can easily maintain. Can you alter this set point? Yes, but it comes at a high cost - a reduction in your overall quality of life. In the end it’s not about food or weight. It’s about how you feel about your life and yourself.
Please email or call 971-204-8965 to schedule a complementary consultation or schedule an appointment.
