By: Molly Caradonna, PsyD, LP & Lindsey Tucker, RD, LD
Starting January 1st, I will cut out sugar and go to the gym five times per week.”
“Starting January 1st, I will rejoin Weight Watchers and THIS time I’ll lose 30 lbs.”
“Starting January 1st, I will finally have control over food, my body, and my life!”
Does this sound familiar?
As we enter the new year, your resolutions may include resolve to gain control of your body and the way you eat. For some, improved health is the ultimate goal. For others, the focus is on weight and finally feeling comfortable with and in control of their body. New Year’s resolutions can quickly become rigid dieting rules and guidelines.
This time of year is riddled with ads for weight loss challenges or the latest diet. You can find them on every other commercial, your friends’ Facebook walls, and maybe even in your workplace break room. Every January 1st we are encouraged to embrace a “fresh start” with our health, weight, and eating habits. Have you ever wondered, why do so many of us feel the need to “start over” the first of every year? Maybe it’s NOT about your will-power, lack of control, or failure. Maybe this system is rigged for you to fail. Let’s face it, would the American diet industry earn billions (yes, BILLIONS) each year if people were successful in reaching their goals?
Our relationship with food and how to feed our body is much more complicated than you may realize. This relationship is influenced by so many things: our doctors, family and friends, lunch conversations with co-workers, conflicting messages about what is healthy, the “war on obesity,” diet culture, and sizeism–just to name a few. In addition to external influences, there are a myriad of internal factors that influence what we do, what we feel like we should do, what we feel guilty for doing, and what we wish we did with food.
Our relationship with our body is equally as complicated. It is socially permissible to comment on other’s bodies and appearance, often with the implicit message that “thinner is better,” leaving those outside of the unrealistic beauty standard feeling frustrated, self-conscious, and hopeless.
It makes sense that having a “fresh start” sounds appealing to so many of us. Food and our bodies have become the enemy. Eating has become something to be ashamed of. Exercise or weight loss are ways to “fix” ourselves. And so we begin each year with newfound determination to win the battle…and every year we lose without knowing what went wrong.
Rather than joining the latest dieting craze, we invite you to examine your beliefs about food, health, and your body. We invite you to consider how you might work on nurturing your body, rather than restricting it. We invite you to explore yourself and your thoughts with curiosity and compassion, rather than judgment. We invite you to let go of the food rules and exercise guidelines in favor of mindful eating and intuitive movement. We invite you to use this year not to find a new you, but for you to find a new way.
Want more? Consider joining our experiential group “Exploring Food, Body, & Beliefs,” coming February 15, 2017. This immersive experience is offered in two 8-week phases and consists of a weekly therapeutic snack, educational session, and discussion – all aimed to heal your relationship with food & your body.
Contact Cashman Center for more information!
