‘Raw this’ and ‘raw that’. ‘Paleo’. ‘It’s not a diet, but a lifestyle’. Blah blah blah. ‘Low carb, fat-free’ 100% chance of unhappiness.
When you disparage your body out loud, you contribute to the culture that it’s normal to hate your body. Bonding over self-hatred of our bodies is not okay and what you say rubs off on other people. Please do not impose your own insecurities on other people. Body size is not a measure of worth and weight does not equate to health.
Diet talk can be damaging to people who are attempting to heal their relationship with food. As someone in recovery from an eating disorder, being around people obsessing about their food makes things infinitely more difficult. It can trigger feelings of guilt and shame to resurface and even point me towards the direction of a relapse.
Food is a lot of things. It’s energy, nutrition, comfort, community. But it’s not good or bad and you do not need to justify what you eat. Food is not the enemy. Yes, it can be an addiction, but unlike drugs or alcohol, you cannot ‘quit’ food. So please stop trying to. Instead of becoming restrictive and denying all pleasure associated with food, the aim should be to eat intuitively.
By all means, go on a diet if you wish, I can’t stop you. It’s your body and you can make your own choices, just don’t expect a ‘well done’ from me when you declare that you’ve lost a dress size. I don’t care about your diet. I. don’t. care.
The question I want to pose is this; Why, as a society, are we so focused on shrinking? Instead of trying to take up less space we should be asking ourselves how we can become bolder, more confident, more intelligent, more.
Please stop talking about your diet. I don’t care. I. don’t. care. There are far more interesting topics. Talk about something else, anything just please spare me another conversation about your own self-sanctioned torture.
You've got potential 
I get what you mean. But food/diet/lifestyle is part of everyday life and when it comes to my friends, whatever concerns/bothers them, I want them to be able to talk about. I feel the same way as you. It’s a major trigger for me. The way I see it is not that I don’t care. I do care. I just can’t handle the discussion/topic at this point in my process. But the topic is no less important or mundane than any other one of one’s daily frivolities.
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That’s the thing, dieting shouldn’t be part of everyday life and talking about it just encourages other people to follow. It’s a huge problem. I understand what you mean when you say that you care about them because I do too but I just don’t think diet talk is helpful.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and I hope you’re well.
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I would not say “dieting” per se but making dietary lifestyle changes is always a hot topic in the new year. That and exercise. Both of which are triggers for me, but perfectly normal topics for other people. I do realize it is MY problem. But when it comes to online reading and blog or instagram posts, to a certain point I agree that some posts are unhealthy. We are also free to navigate/follow or not. And sometimes blogging about our issues is the only outlet we have and a far better alternative than self-destructive behavior. Social media and freedom to express is not going away anytime soon, so we need to find ways to avoid or deal… That being said, I am just as triggered and affected as you are. I deal with a host of issues daily, hourly. Widowhood. Depression. Suicidal thoughts. Disordered eating, to name a few. We can’t tell people what to write but we can find ways to avoid the triggers or deal with them.
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That’s not to say that we shouldn’t raise awareness of these issues that can turn into problems. But there’s a way to do that too!
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well said! ❤
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Totally agree!
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