When I studying to get my degree in Nutrition and Dietetics, I was taught about diets, calorie counting, what you should eat more of, what you should eat less of. I was taught about BMI and the healthy weight range. Actually, it was like my job was all about getting people into the “healthy” weight range. However, I have found this emphasis on “healthy weight” and “goal weight” is ANYTHING BUT HEALTHY.
Why was there such a heavy emphasis on weight? Was weight really the way we were to determine success? Success of health? Success of a dietitian? Success of a person? Wait….something doesn’t seem right here.
The thing is, I didn’t always question whether focusing on weight was healthy or not. I just simply accepted it as truth. When I was a child I was always commented on my weight. I was told I was fat, I was told that I ate too much but at the same time encouraged to eat more. I was told not to eat something but then given that exact food I was told not to eat. The adults would laugh at me.
As a teen, I would purposely not take lunch to school because it meant I couldn’t eat lunch, I mean, I was going to eat regardless once I got home anyway right? So, that’s what I could do to eat less. Was that healthy? Never questioned it. People around me including aunties and uncles told me I had lost weight like it was a good thing. But even then, even being right in the healthy weight range, a girl straight up laughed in my face for being 52kg. You’d think if you lost more weight, you would be accepted…right? Thing is, those who judge you, don’t know or care about you. Those who think you should lose weight to become healthier, don’t understand your health.
But the health and weight relationship goes beyond just want other people say, it is also what you believe. If you believe that losing weight is the healthy thing to do, you will still try to do that. If you believe eating less and less means losing more weight and getting healthier. You will try to do that. Even at the cost of your health, you will do what they say will help you lose weight because you didn’t know it was costing your health.
Even after completing my Nutrition and Dietetics degree, although I did not believe trying to lose large amounts of weight and going on diets is realistic or enjoyable, I still unknowingly carried the belief that if I was at a lower weight, it was a good thing. My parents would even say to me, who would see a fat dietitian (I wasn’t fat, they didn’t say I was fat, but they basically put the pressure that I was to be thin). I would stand on the scale and feel bad that it didn’t go down. I’d stand on the scale and worry it had gone up (weight fluctuation is a VERY NORMAL thing, but when you are looking at the scale, this seems to escape your mind). Then I would just be like, stuff it I’ll eat whatever.
But then, I had a revelation. When I stopped thinking about my weight and wasn’t trying to get it down, it came down. When I was staring at the scales all the time, it didn’t do what I wanted it to do. When I wasn’t thinking about the weight and just ate what I felt I wanted and needed, I felt healthier in my body and happier. When I looked at the weight, even if my body was feeling healthier, I would just feel worse about myself after stepping on the scale.
I also noticed this in my clients. I would have someone make all these positive changes in their diet and lifestyle and be excited to tell me about it. They would feel like they have better energy, feel good about themselves, feel healthy in their body and even sleep better. I was so happy to see how much health they had gained in a short period of time.
They became so excited to hop onto the scale to see how well they had done. But, when they step onto the scale, their joy disappeared. All of a sudden, all the wonderful things they had experience in their health and life amounted to nothing. In a single moment, the scale robbed them of their health.
I don’t want anyone to have their health robbed by a number on scale ever again.
For too long, we have believed the lie that diets and weight loss will bring about health and acceptance. It is so embedded into our society and culture that we may not even be aware of it. I thought I never had the problem of dieting, but I too fell into the unhealthy diet trap set by our dieting and weight loss culture. I may not have been consciously jumping in and out of diets, but I did also experience the dieting mindset which told me I needed to eat less, to restrict myself, to lose weight. But now that I know the truth, the lies won’t get me anymore.
Now, I am able to freely enjoy whatever food I want, when I want. I know what is healthy for me and I know the truth about health. I am no longer unconsciously stuck in the unhealthy diet trap the diet and weight loss culture set up for us. I am free and you can be too!
I am not just a dietitian. I was just like you. I get it. I know what it’s like to be stuck believing that if only I could eat less, if only I could control my weight, then I would be healthier, then I would be accepted, then I would be successful. I also know how to get out of it…by knowing the truth. I also know as a dietitian looking into the research, that dieting can be harmful not just to our psychological health, but also our physical health.
Although research is valuable, it can also be misinterpreted and misused. Even if something worked for some people, it may not work for others – even research clearly shows that. The good thing is, you don’t need to know every research details to know what is best for your health.
You already have the key to finding what is best for your health – YOU and your body. No one else would be able to know what is best for you the way you do. You simply need to know how to reconnect and understand what your body is trying to tell you.
You don’t need to be trapped anymore. I’m here to help you out of the unhealthy diet trap and be free from dieting. You can be free to enjoy food and the life you were meant to enjoy. I can show you renew your mindset on view and reconnect with your body to discover your yummy balance. Help could just be one call away.
Send in your request for a FREE discovery call here and we can discuss how we can get you to the freedom you deserve.