5 Ways to Ditch Diet Culture During the Holidays
Photo: Spencer Davis
The emails started a week ago: Get 25% percent off our organic food delivery service (that costs $500 a week…I’m not kidding) to help your body bounce back after Thanksgiving. Skip breakfast and drink our protein shake instead to get your body looking good just in time to rock that NYE outfit. Join this dieting program NOW to get a head start on your New Year’s Resolution to weigh as much as you did in high school. Starve yourself today so you can feast tomorrow, guilt-free.
The holiday season can dig up a lot of big feelings around food and body image that we might have thought we buried long ago. And, for those who struggle with an eating disorder or body image issues, it can feel all-consuming. Many of my clients who struggle with food or diet culture in some way (read: most of my clients) can’t remember the last time they truly enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal. It feels like a minefield trying to move through the holidays while avoiding the pitfalls of diet culture.
Body Image
Body image is complicated, especially for women but increasingly so for men. There are so many motivating factors behind wanting to change your body, and those reasons aren’t inherently “bad”. But that’s a blog post for another time. What I can say with certainty is that many of the reasons behind wanting to change our bodies are impacted by diet culture, which seems to show up nearly everywhere I look. And anything that is trying to sell us something by preying on our insecurities is something that we should look at with a (very) critical eye.
Food
Food is complicated. It’s fuel, but it’s also a connection to our culture, roots, families, and friends. Food can remind us of good times (mom’s chocolate pecan sheet pan cake that she bakes for every birthday), or it can remind us of bad times (think Alison Roman’s “goodbye meatballs”). Food is so much more than just food.
What Is Diet Culture?
Diet culture, at its core, values thinness over overall health. It sets one societal standard for how to look and tells us to go to any and all lengths to achieve it. Diet culture is racist, misogynist, fatphobic, and dangerous. And just as we might think we’re becoming wiser to its antics, we find ourselves falling for “wellness culture” which is diet culture’s clever rebrand.
Tools to Get Through The Holidays
“Okay. I get it. Can you please get off your soapbox and give me some tools for how I can survive the next month?!”
Yep! Here are five ideas to try:
Don’t compare your plate to anyone else’s: It’s so easy, especially when sitting at a table surrounded by friends and family, to compare what you’re eating to what someone else is eating, and to judge yourself accordingly: “Sarah didn’t take two rolls? Well dang, I should probably put one back”. But Sarah has different needs than you! Sarah has a different body than you! Sarah expended a different amount of energy than you! Eat like you, not like anyone else.
Unsubscribe, unfollow, and block liberally: An email comes in promoting a diet? Report as spam and unsubscribe. Your favorite influencer starts promoting her new workout plan to burn holiday weight? Don’t give her your time or energy. Just as we want you to choose what you put in your body, remember that you also have a say over the information you consume. Do so carefully.
Along those lines - please, I beg you, consider your sources: A random Instagram influencer is not a doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist. She is a regular gal. Or, maybe she just happens to be one of those things, in which case, consider: has she fallen prey to diet culture, too?
Don’t alter your food intake before or after your holiday meal: Did you overeat at Thanksgiving (not just what you perceive to be overeating, but like, your stomach actually hurts)? No sweat. Do not choose to skip a meal to “make it up”. Do the next right thing and eat a well balanced meal the next time you’re hungry. Remember: one meal literally cannot change our bodies long term.
Exercise in fun ways and because you want to, not because you need to burn those extra calories: Exercise as punishment is so yesterday. There are so many enjoyable ways to exercise, if you want to. Explore ways that feel good to you.
Therapy Can Help Combat Diet Culture
Unfortunately, diet culture still exists outside of the holidays. If you find yourself needing extra support with disordered eating, body image, or combating diet culture, please reach out. We have several therapists who are equipped to walk with you on that journey.