The diet industry in America rakes in about $55 billion a year on weight loss products.
Fifty-five fucking billion dollars, y’all.
Let’s take a trip to Fantasyland. Imagine for a moment there were no diet products. No billboards telling you how to finance your liposuction. No diet pills, no diet shakes, and no companies making money off you counting points every time you swallow your food.
No magazines, commercials, or any other ad making you think being thin is the answer to all of your problems. Nothing that makes fat = bad and unhappy, and thin = good and happy.
Just pretend it doesn’t exist.
It’s like Xanadu, right? An alternate Universe … with unicorns farting rainbows.
Here’s the hard truth: No matter how much someone or a company promises you’ll lose weight, no matter how desperate you are to feel better or different about yourself, no matter how much you hate your body right now:
Diets are bullshit and they don’t work.
Diets are about making you “good” or “bad.” They make a profit if and only if you “fail” and have to start again.
There’s a secret tool out there that the diet industries don’t tell you about. Because if you put it into use for yourself, they would lose that $55 billion.
It’s called: Listening to yourself and your own body and loving it along the way.
Imagine that. Say hello to your alternate Universe.
Stop looking for an outside solution here. Stop looking for the magic pill. Stop throwing money at the “problem.” The only problem is that as a culture we’ve turned against the one tool we’ve had all along. Your body knows the answer and can tell you if you just stop for one minute and shut the hell up about how hard it is.
Work on believing you are not broken or need fixing. If you believe you are broken, then the ad companies have gotten a hold of you and done their job. You are perfect as you are, no matter what you weigh at this moment.
When you diet and lose weight, you’re skipping the most important part: figuring out the reasons why you overeat and turned to food in the first place. Instead of beating yourself up and looking for action steps to “fix” and change your body, simply be kind and compassionate to yourself and get curious about what’s happening when you’re taking the action that is making you gain weight.
I know “being kind and compassionate” with yourself may sound somewhat contradictory to “living a kick-ass life,” but here’s a secret: It’s foundational. No woman lives a kick-ass life by being a bitch to herself, by thinking she’s broken and needs fixing, or by punishing herself. It doesn’t work that way.
So if you’re on yet another diet, I have to ask: Why?
If you answer with “Because I’m overweight” or “Because I’ve gained weight,” again, I want to know why. What’s happening in your life that has absolutely nothing to do with food or exercise? What is that thing you don’t want to tell anyone because you’re afraid? What is the conversation that is happening in your head that makes you eat food you really aren’t hungry for?
Because it’s not about the diet, it’s about you.
And while we’re talking about dieting, let’s talk about your bathroom scale. Generally speaking, there is an incredible amount of power given to numbers. People like to measure things. They like logistical, practical, black-and-white, tangible numbers. And certain numbers are emotionally charged.
You might be attached to the numbers you see on the scale if you’ve ever experienced one or more of the following things:
By now, you probably understand that your thoughts are creating your feelings. It’s your thoughts about what you see on the scale that are determining you feeling like shit or feeling great.
And there is absolutely, positively no reason your feelings about yourself should be measured by simply the mass of your physical body. It is your birthright to feel nothing but love for yourself in every way. The number on your scale is just that: a number.
Think about this: Have you ever taken your temperature and seen it higher than normal? Or perhaps your blood pressure at the doctor’s office? If these numbers are higher, how do you feel about yourself? Do you fall into self-loathing? Get really angry at yourself? Probably not. So, what if your weight was the same way?
I invite you to throw away your scale. Or donate it. Or take a sledgehammer to it. What if it wasn’t in your home anymore, what would that free up for you? Why do you think you need it? And if you really feel you’re so attached to it, you can’t get rid of it, you should take a good, hard look at why. Is it a healthy reason?
I’ve heard the argument, “But I like to measure where my weight is to track my fitness progress.”
I call BS.
There are other ways to measure your fitness. The easiest being how your clothes fit. Or better yet, how you feel.
Imagine that?
If you are taking the time and energy to move your body and honor your body by being active, your body will honor you back by telling you how it feels. You just need to stop and listen. Have you ever done this?
Right now, take inventory of how your body feels. Are your neck and shoulders tight? Is your jaw clenched? How is your skin? Are you sleeping well? How are your bowel movements? Yep, I just asked you how your poops are.
All of those things are signals of your body’s health. The number on the scale can’t tell you how well your body is functioning overall. Your body is communicating with you all day, every day — listen to it. Your body will tell you when it’s tired, hungry, full, stressed, or restless. Responding to these requests will help you maintain a healthy weight much better than any fad diet ever will.
So do me a favor. Get rid of your scale today. And while you’re at it, ditch the dieting drama that goes along with it.