Eat Well: Why you don’t need to diet

My first diet memory is from when I was 10 years old. I was in year 6 and being teased for being skinny and boobless (oh the cruelty of primary school!). I remember looking at some of the other girls, whose bodies were developing and whose lunches consisted of fast foods from the canteen, something I thought was a special treat on Fridays.

At the same time, I was really getting into classical ballet, so the messages I was receiving there about my body were consistent: don’t eat, don’t get fat. The girls at ballet who weren’t rail thin or underdeveloped just didn’t get the attention or the parts, and I wanted both of those things.

So I started watching what I ate, but at the same time I LOVED good food and so began the diet dance between good and bad, deprivation and indulgence.

These are the diets I remember over the next 10 years:

• Cut out all carbs
• Just drink diet coke
• Skip breakfast
• Leave half of every meal on your plate
• Eat whatever you want, but then purge
• Just eat salad and drink water
• Coffee can be a meal (decaf, skim milk)
• Count calories, aim for less than 500 per day
• Keep a food diary (extra points for blank pages)

In my 20s and 30s I caught on to trends dressed up as nutritional, scientific based diets:

• The cabbage soup diet (designed for quick weight loss for obese heart surgery patients)
• The ballerina tea diet (to move everything you eat through you before it had a chance to drop nutrients in the body)
• The Atkins diet (carb free again)
• Weight watchers (points counting again)
• Gluten free
• And… whatever else was touted in a magazine (this was pre social media!) or friendship groups as guaranteed to deliver a bikini body in weeks, if only you’ll eliminate all these things from your meals.

In my 40s I was tired of the good cop/bad cop chatter in my head, but still ached to be a size 6 without trying too hard. Crazy!

So I started reading more about diet as a lifestyle. This is the domain of the Mediterranean diet, plant based eating, clean eating and various iterations of each. Whilst it was still tempting to look for a quick fix, thanks to decades of brain programming, I started to get the sense that if I just ate foods that felt good for my body, then maybe I would achieve a consistent, healthy weight without all the effort, stress and negative self talk that had plagued me all my adult life.

I read this article recently and was intrigued. What would happen if most the time I just ate foods that were good for my body?

I’m tired of body shaming, calorie counting and jumping on board the latest diet program.

This comes at a time when I’m just about to finish the CSIRO 12 week Total Wellbeing Program. I stuck to this program about 80-90% of the time between Monday and Thursday and about 20% of the time on weekends or when my social life got busy. You were allowed “7 indulgences” each week and most weeks I averaged 21. I’m not doing a review of the program, because the program’s success for me (or lack thereof) isn’t the problem. I am the problem.

So I’m putting it out there that I am NEVER going to diet again. Eating for my body and overall health is going to BE my diet.

Diet: the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.

The dictionary

Who’s with me?! This is no easy feat, it’s a total rewrite of my diet mindset and I know what the triggers will be:

• Next time I’m in a change room (unless they have skinny mirrors!)
• When a pair of pants suddenly doesn’t fit so well
• The Christmas social season
• Next time I travel
• Using Instagram and Facebook

So how do I create a lifestyle diet?

Here’s the simple formula the diet industry doesn’t want you to remember:

More calories out than in = sustained weight or weight loss

And here’s how you do that:

• Make daily exercise a part of your lifestyle. Morning walks, gym visits, dance class, team sports, yoga, running, surfing – whatever you enjoy and can fit into your schedule
• Plan your meals – this helps you balance your nutrients so, for instance, you’re not having toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and pasta for dinner (which results in a high carbohydrate and calorie intake). You can use an app, an eating program, or whatever best works for you. Just be conscious of what you’re digesting
• Reduce your “indulgences” – aim for 1 per day on average. This includes a glass of wine, a biscuit, chocolate, cheese, whatever makes you go mmmmm. So you’re never denying yourself, but you are pacing yourself
• Eat foods you like – mostly plants and not too much. There’s no one diet that suits everyone, so whether you choose vegetarian, mediterranean, paleo, clean, make sure it’s foods you enjoy and they’re in moderation. Too much meat, dairy, gluten or processed foods will impact your health negatively.
• Eat when you’re hungry. We often eat and drink emotionally – bored, sad, guilty, angry, to fit in, to go numb, to wake up – and before we put something in our mouth we don’t stop to ask “do I really want this?”. This mindset often helps me when I’m tempted to finish food off my kids plates (taught as a kid not to waste food and to eat everything so I could get dessert), have an extra glass of wine or open the fridge and pick at stuff before dinner.

This is my blueprint, this is my committment and act of self love to myself. I hope it helps others to start breaking down the negative diet mindset based on body shame and deprivation.

I’m sure many of you can relate, and if you’d like to share your diet war stories, or where you’re heading now, please let us know!