I just don’t get ‘diet culture’
Sometimes I feel like the only “dieter” in the universe who hasn’t got some kind of eating disorder (been reading the wrong blogs again… bleh). People on fat acceptance blogs seem to take for granted that “dieting” is completely synonymous with “anorexia and exercise bulimia”. They talk about how it’s completely normal for parents to put their pre-pubescent and not all that fat kids on crash diets, thus fucking up their metabolism for life and permanently souring their relationship with food. They talk about years spent eating nothing but “lettuce and air” and exercising three hours a day. Are we living on the same planet? Am I the only person in the whole world with sane, non-abusive parents? I don’t understand why people go on crash diets or fad diets at all. Why would you do that to yourself? Are these people’s heads screwed on loose? What makes anyone think they can live on, say, celery and flaxseed for long enough to even lose the weight, much less figure out how to maintain after that?
I would call what I’m on a “diet”, for lack of a better term, but that does not at all mean that I’m starving all day (again — what’s the point if it’s not maintainable? Why would I do that to myself?) or that I’ve forbidden myself any food that I actually like or have “good food” and “bad food” lists. Why would anyone voluntarily go on a diet exclusively composed of foods they hate? What kind of thoughts go through a fad dieter’s mind when they decide to try the “cabbage diet” even though they can’t stand cabbage? Or even if they like cabbage?
So, I eat when I’m hungry, I eat foods I like, I exercise for 45 minutes a day and enjoy it… but because my diet is calculated to make me run a calorie deficit, what I’m doing is automatically harmful and abusive to my body? If I said that I like my body more, not less, since I’ve been doing this, even though I’m still fat, would it blow their minds? Can they conceive of an existence where I look in the mirror and am curious and excited about things getting smaller and stronger, instead of tearing myself down the way “all” dieters “MUST” do? Where is this memo that says I have to hate my body in order to change it or make it healthier? I must have missed it.
Has the whole world gone insane? Do I have three heads and come from Mars and I just never realized it? I don’t even understand which side I’m on, since everyone tells me I’m flat-out wrong.
Posted Friday, July 27th, 2007
Tags: Health
