Between Instagram, New Years resolutions and Veganuary, January is an intense time for weight loss related content. If can feel like if you aren’t as skinny or able to do as many burpees as other people then you’re failing. But the truth is, we’ve all had an incredibly tough year and just the fact that we’re still up and about after the pandemic should be seem as a win.
Censor your social media
Making sure you’re not spending all day scrolling through an unrealistic Instagram feed is the first step to making sure you don’t going crazy. Between Z list celebrities pushing the latest teas or ketones, that do absolutely nothing good for you, and fitness influencer jumping around in their private gyms like they had speed for breakfast, social media can be a very negative place.
Making sure you unfollow anyone who makes you feel bad about yourself is also crucial. If an Instagram page leaves you feel deflated or like you’re not enough then click the unfollow button. They won’t notice and they won’t care, taking care of yourself isn’t selfish.
How to recognise diet culture
Diet culture is toxic, you cannot judge someone’s health purely by looking at their size. Weight stigma is so ingrained into our culture that larger people are faced with fatphobia when trying to do every day things like visiting the doctor who sometimes suggest diets rather than valid medical advice.
Diet culture can also suggest that people’s worth is based solely on their size, with the government funded “war on obesity” which is based on telling everyone that fat people should be stereotyped , shamed and harassed until the meet a more “worthy” size.
Diet culture can also suggest that movement and exercise is a punishment for being fat, rather than a privilege or just for fun! Exercising and moving your body is one of the best things you can do for yourself and should be seen as that. It shouldn’t be something you’re doing to yourself as revenge for eating a doughnut, or maybe having too much potato at lunch.
Of course, if weight loss and fitness is something that you’re interested in knowing more about then there are lots of different options available to you and plenty of resources to help you make your decision.