How the Diet Industry Disempowers Women

I am constantly amazed at the power of the diet industry. Before I begin, let me clarify what I mean when I say the diet industry. I am referring to the quick-fix diets, the extreme fad diets, the diet pills, the calorie-free shakes, the weight loss injections and the power that all of these options hold.

I work with women on a daily basis who have tried, if not one, but all of these options and they arrive in my office feeling defeated, angry at their powerlessness and lack of self-control. They almost have an apprehension as to what I am going to throw at them. They secretly come in feeling like this is their last chance, “I HAVE to do this. I have to do whatever she tells me to do.” It takes me a few minutes to explain to them that they don’t need to fear what is about to come out of my mouth. 

Now I am sure there will be at least one comment under this blog, telling me that these fad diets can give us a ‘kick-start’. I fully disagree. I feel like 2 things can happen when a woman embarks on an extreme fad:

1. She manages to survive the 3 weeks of juicing or the heart palpitations from the diet tablet, or they manage to stay away from the late night carb craving. But then, the day the ‘diet’ ends there is some type of reward. It could be food – it generally is, but it could also be YAY I did it! In the back of her mind, however, she knows it wasn’t really her – it was the extremity on some level. This extreme fad does make her lose weight, and she feels it, but she also knows she can’t live like this forever and no long-term habits have been changed. A few months later, she looks for the next fad.

2. She doesn’t make the 3 weeks of juicing for whatever reason. It could be something big or it may just seem to her like she doesn’t have will power. She feels crap. She feels like she can NEVER lose her necessary weight, and again she ends up either binging or going back to her old bad habits. Until she musters up the courage to try the next fad.

And so, the terrible cycle continues. The new diet on the block lures you in and spits you out a few days later, feeling discouraged and disempowered.

This needs to stop. And this is my mission on earth.

I want women to feel powerful in their food spaces again. There is no reason why you can't lose weight, but there are ways of doing it that don’t make you feel weak in the process. I always tell my clients, that my job is not really to teach people what foods are healthy and what foods are not, most women living in 2017 are VERY clear on what healthy food is.

My job is to teach women what makes them not eat healthy foods or what makes them want unhealthy foods.

What makes them exercise and what makes them lazy.

What makes their self-talk positive and what makes them mean and ugly to themselves.

Our job as dieticians is to help women understand themselves. Help them feel powerful around food and inside their bodies again.

A woman who feels powerful around food – meaning, she decides if she eats a particular food, she decides what foods feel good in her body and a women who focuses on nourishment and not deprivation - is a powerful women. This woman doesn’t need a “deprived” life sentence to feel happy in her skin.

I promise you.

Diets don’t work. They make you feel powerless. They make you ‘hate’ yourself. They make you believe that it is all about willpower, and it is not. Try looking at the WHY you choose to eat what you eat, rather than why you SHOULD or SHOULDN’T eat what you eat.

You will be blown away by what is revealed!

Power to all you women out there.