I use this term a lot.
And for good reason.
If you're not the expert of your own body, then who is? The reality is however, that virtually everything around us leads you to believe that you're not the expert and that you couldn't possibly know what you need.
Except that you do.
Anything else is a lie.
And likely right now, you're reading these words and feeling unsure. Right? Maybe you have an inner voice that says you're addicted to food and can't be trusted? Or one that says you always need a diet or idea to tell you how to eat and when? That weighing yourself is how you stay healthy? That controlling everything and "being good" is key to it all.
Know this, all of that right there is diet culture.
Diet culture has no care for your individual needs, desires and preferences. It rather cares for rules and restrictions (call that keto, low-sugar, 5:2 or even simply avoiding carbs) and weight loss as a primary goal.
And I talk about this term a lot with my co-host Monica on our podcast What The Hell Do I Eat?
Diet culture represents the idea that foods are good or bad and that the endless pursuit of thin is valued above all else.
Diet culture has no care for your individual needs, desires and preferences. Rather, it cares for rules and restrictions (call that keto, low-sugar, 5:2 or even simply avoiding carbs) and weight loss as a primary goal.
Diet culture is perpetuated everywhere in our society and it's worth a heck of a lot of money. Billions and billions of dollars.
And all of this takes away from what's innate to you. Your own connection to your body; the signals its sending you about hunger and fullness for example, and how different meals make you feel; be it energised and nourished, fatigued or somewhere in between.
This innate trust and body wisdom is what all of us had as children and for a variety of reasons, and over time, it's taken from us. Diet culture works to keep it that way too.
You can download a free audio guide from me right now to help you get back in touch with this. Get it here.
Through my work, I aim to connect women like you with their own bodies once more. To once more come the expert of your own body. This is the difference between following a calorie planned "diet" only to feel fatigued, wretched and obsessed, resulting in a binge session and responding to what your body is telling you. Whereby the latter always honours your hunger, your needs and respects your health.
My online program Live More, Obsess Less was created with exactly this in mind. To help you make peace with food, respect your body without diets and become the expert of your own body.
Learn about the program here.