Warning: This is a rant

There was a time in my life that i would laugh at the cartoon above, but the truth is, now it makes me sad. Why? because it is true - how many of you have had a moment of self hatred when you stepped on the scale? i know i have in the past - and even sometimes struggle with it these days. I’ve even seen people in a doctor’s office step on backwards or close their eyes so they don’t have to know! Now think about it for a minute - why does it upset people so much? is there any number that would make you happy? truthfully? not just that number you say you will be happy with, but once reach want to go even lower, but a number you would honestly be happy staying at forever. I bet there isn’t.

    One thing that many people do not know about me - i use to be overweight - not just a little overweight - but over 200lbs, size 18 overweight - and, i was constantly dieting going through the lose some gain some lose some more gain even more ritual that many people go through. I felt like a failure - and, i always felt hungry. It was horrible, truly horrible. i am not some “always been skinny” girl that goes on rants and doesn’t know your pain. I was there - i get it.         

    But there are some things you have to think about when you diet - the main one being, “how come the diet industry makes billions of dollars a year?” If you think about it - if there was a diet out there that actually worked, then why would they continue to make that much money every year? Even if someone ended up gaining weight back because they “fell off the wagon” so to speak since they already went through the diet once they should know what to do right? shouldn’t have to go back to the meetings or buy new books - they “learned” how to lose the weight, right? It’s not the case - people go back to try the same thing - or they move on and try the “latest” thing and frankly, it’s sad. People have learned how to successful fail at diets but still have no clue how to eat to be healthy.

    Things changed for me back in 2007 - i was dieting at the time and got sick, really sick. Probably wasn’t related to the dieting at the time, but it lead me to open my eyes. During a major medical work up (no one had any clue what was wrong with me so i had a “team” try to figure it out), i met with a dietician and she said something that both really pissed me off and made me think - it was the start of something that would eventually lead me to change the way that i see food - see eating - and see myself.

    The main difference between what i ended up working on with her and what i did when i was dieting? I learned - i learned what makes you feel more full when you eat - what gives you the most energy for the longest - what makes your blood sugar spike so that you are going to want to eat really quickly - and most importantly - i learned that really nothing was off limits - if i really wanted to eat it - that was ok. Confused yet? here’s the thing - i haven’t binged since i learned that i could eat what i wanted to - i don’t feel guilty if i want that piece of cake - or candy at the movies - i eat it, i move on and it’s ok. Here’s the thing - i’m not overweight anymore - my weight doesn’t fluctuate more than 4-5lbs anymore - and most importantly i rarely rarely feel hungry (and if i do it is because of something like being stuck in a meeting that is running late and therefore impeding my snack time!)

    This rant is because i am starting to get sick of people commenting on what i ate - i actually had someone this week tell me that if i didn’t lay off the cheese cake i was going to get fat! this particular person is currently dieting (and my currently i mean she recently changed a diet plan) and has been on some sort of a diet ever since i knew her. And the truth is - i feel for her - i know her pain - but what hurts the most - she has never learned to eat and refuses to do so. It is always “i will do something once i lose the weight” and never “i will do something to be healthy”. What does it say about the world we live in when people think they are dieting “properly” if they don’t have ketones in their urine????

    I get that it is hard to change your mindset - i get that you may not think that you can cook for yourself (use my website, it’s not as hard as you think) but do something for yourself - get help learning how to eat instead of succeeding at failing at dieting- it isn’t worth the pain of fearing that scale.

Dieticians don’t make billions per year (probably because they work so you can stop seeing them after a while!)