How do you feel about New Year’s Resolutions? Every year, January 1st comes around and I feel like I’m bombarded with social media messages urging me to make a New Year’s Resolution and if I don’t, undoubtedly I will feel guilty about it. So, like many others I usually attempt to make some mediocre ‘diet’ or ‘weight-loss’ related resolutions. Ultimately, I then fail to adhere to these resolution about 3-4 weeks out (if I get that far), culminating with feeling terrible about falling off the wagon, and then typically drowning my failure in food which results in me gaining much more weight than I initially lost that first 2 weeks of January ‘when I was good’.
Sound familiar?
How Often do you Look at Yourself in the Mirror?
Sometimes, it’s hard to look at yourself in the mirror. Does this make me a failure? No (despite years of believing that ‘falling off the wagon’ means I have failed). One thing I have learned in 2020 is that THERE IS NO WAGON. There is no START and FINISH. There is only one JOURNEY and that’s my journey. There are good days and bad and there will be many, many more good days and bad. This is my life, whether I start tomorrow, next Monday or on January 1st. I’ve spent 41 years living in the white or black. All or Nothing. Eating healthy or binge eating. Running 12km or not working out for 3 weeks. Why is living in the grey such a challenge?
A Life Intention – Not a Resolution
So am I setting a New Year’s Resolution? NO – I’m setting a LIFE INTENTION. One that I will struggle with daily, but ultimately one that will guide me in the direction I want to be going. I choose to change my relationship with food. I choose to think about food in a different way. I choose to think about exercise in a different way – one that ultimately feeds my soul, rather than something that either makes me gain or lose weight.
What if you stopped trying to subtract from your life (and erase your so-called “faults”), and started adding to it? What if your priority wasn’t on shrinking portions, cutting carbs, or burning calories, but giving yourself MORE of everything you need to thrive?
The answer: You would learn to live more fully, love your body, and take up the space you deserve… mentally, emotionally, and physically. You’d create healthy habits that would fill you up rather than drain you. You would lose weight and keep it off—by defying diet culture.
Give Yourself MORE by George Fear & K. Aleisha Fetters
Unlearning Diet Culture
There is no doubt that the unlearning of diet culture, and not second guessing every single thing I put in my mouth will be a challenge, but I know that I cannot sustain the next 40 years yo-yo dieting the way I have been for most of my life. I love food, but I want to enjoy food for it’s ‘satisfaction’, not for making me feel bad about myself. I love working out – but imagine I go for a run to just ‘go for a run’, not to hit some pre-determined distance that will burn X amount of calories so that I’m in a caloric deficit? No, me neither, but I’m going to try….not sure if this will work, but I sure know that my weight loss New Year’s Resolutions have never lasted…
