No diet New Year
New Years is fucking complicated at the best of times.
We set about unearthing our insecurities, and scrupulously analysing our flaws, that we pledge to leave behind us the moment the clock strikes 00:00. We are expected to feel a miraculous sense of determination to make big, bold changes to our lives. It’s a vulnerable place for us to be, we are easy targets; wide-eyed meerkats, desperately seeking out new ways to ‘better ourselves’. Our guards are down, and we are cut wide open from dissecting and analysing our worth, our beauty and our decisions.
Companies love New Year. The more depressed and dissatisfied we are with ourselves, the more money they can make. They have become increasingly canny at luring us in with enticing deals and attractive promises, making the most of their opportunity to rake in a profit.
Given everyone’s low-level anxiety due to the uncertainty around the pandemic, it is understandable that we feel an urge to take control and find structure in our lives. Diet companies know this, and with New Years resolutions having become increasingly synonymous with losing weight and ‘getting in shape’, they have seen the surge in profits every time January 1st comes around, as millions of unfortunate souls (predominantly women) fall into their dirty trap.
You may well be told to lose weight, to ‘shed those quarantine pounds’, to try spiralising courgette instead of just eating fucking spaghetti, to have a ‘lifestyle change’, try a new, harder workout regime, to eat less, to go vegan, to go gluten free, to detox, to exercise ‘X’ number of hours per week. It may be disguised as ‘health’, ‘wellness’, or something even more wanky like ‘mindful living’ - but it is all dog shit.
I would like you to know, that if you are feeling shitty about your body, your body is not the issue. It is the fucked up culture that profits off of you hating your body that is the issue. You do not need to lose weight, it won’t make you happier, nor will it make you any more beautiful, regardless of the smiles on people’s faces in their ‘transformation pictures’.
I want to remind you that it is a well-researched fact, that 95% of diets/intentional weight-loss attempts fail. 95% of people regain all the weight they lost, despite sticking to the diet’s regime.
I want to remind you that the weight-loss industry is worth £140 billion (based off 2018 statistics), for a reason. Their products don’t work. It’s a lie. They promise the world in a pretty package, send you on a road to nowhere and leave you feeling like a failure so that they can pick up the pieces like some sort of abusive partner and lure you back in all over again. It is merely a cunning business model, that has NOTHING to do with your body.
I also want to remind you that just because your friends are falling down the diet rabbit hole, does not mean that you need to. Just because your mum is cutting back on her portion sizes, or skipping meals, does not mean you should too. Just because your Instagram feed is flooded with weight-loss tips and tricks, does not mean that you should be using them. Don’t let diet culture trick you into shrinking yourself this year.
Happy New Year - here’s to a year of fucking growing xoxoxo
