That’s it. I’ve had enough of intelligent, beautiful, masterful women and men getting duped by the diet industry.
People who would normally make very rational decisions, making the most outrageously illogical choices when it comes to their body and health, all in the name of weight loss. Sound familiar?
Well, it’s time to flip the bird to the diet industry. Here are 10 principles for you to lose the weight obsession and gain your life back:
1. Stop comparing
Stop it. Immediately. Stop comparing yourself to others (especially celebrities). Stop comparing your present self to your past self. Accept and embrace all of who you are in this moment.
2. Go on a media diet
The only diet that will ever bring you joy is a media diet. If you are constantly surrounded by unrealistic ideals of beauty that are enhanced by lighting, professional make-up, stacked genetics and then photoshopped to oblivion - of course you’re going to feel shit about yourself. Get rid of the magazines.
3. Ditch the diet industry
Every single product they have ever sold you (and ever will) is a sham! Keep your hard earned cash and spend it on something that will bring you actual happiness - a dance class, a meditation course, a holiday.
4. Get radicalised
Hell, get angry. Get outraged that these industries continually send you messages that you aren’t good enough in order to sell you false hope packaged as a solution. How dare they profit from your misery!
5. Ignore the siren call
How seductive is the promise of possibility? It’s estimated the diet industry is worth over $60 billion in the US alone. So they have a VERY keen interest in keeping you addicted to the idea that this next product or plan will be THE ONE. Despite the fact all the other products and plans have failed you. Yes, they failed you. Not the other way around. Remember that the next time you go to grab the next celebrity-endorsed-rapid-fat-loss-pill.
6. Accept the facts
The holy trinity of lasting weight loss are eating real food, exercising and rest. Of course, there are infinite individual approaches to that foundation - so find what works for you. Aside from specific illnesses that contribute to weight gain, these are the only 3 components to be concerned about. Everything else is white noise.
7. Throw away your scales
Scales can only give you information about your body’s mass (or your body in relation to gravity). It doesn’t tell you whether you can easily sprint for the bus, how long you can play with your children for, if your job gives you meaning and purpose, how kind and resilient you are, the number of loving relationships in your life, or how much fun you have laughing til your belly aches with your best friend. Measure those metrics instead.
8. Lose the “last 5 kilos”mentality
Have you ever noticed whenever you lose weight, it’s never enough? Plastered over nearly every health and fitness or women’s magazine are the words “Lose the last 5 kilos”. This mentality keeps you perpetually stuck in the diet cycle.
9. Be patient, consistent and kind
These three things will allow your body to settle into it’s natural weight and bring you untold happiness in the process. Every second you spend at war with your body is a second wasted. Choose fierce self love and extreme self care above all else.
10. Replace the obsession
Now that you’ve seamlessly integrated health and wellbeing into your life - what will you do with all that time, energy and cash you used to spend on obsessing over your weight? Find a cause worthy of your time and energy. This world desperately needs intelligent, caring, brilliant people like you to solve it’s multiple crises.
Do you know someone who could benefit from losing the weight loss obsession? Share these 10 rules with them. You could be doing them a huge favour.
