Ditching the Diet Mentality
I bet that if you’re reading this, you’ve been on some form of a self-prescribed “diet” at one point or another, as I have. In fact, going on a “diet” was part of my routine for a number of years. I’d usually restrict my eating in some form for a few weeks or months, sometimes in preparation for a special event or “bikini season,” and once I’d reached my goal weight I’d resume normal eating (or even go a little overboard due to the restriction) and gain the weight back – and then do it all again a few months later. I’m sure that many of you guys can relate, and, sadly, it’s not even remotely surprising. We’ve literally been conditioned as a society to accept dieting and diet culture as normalcy, a part of everyday life. But what does the word “diet” even mean, at its very core definition? To find out, I turned to good ol’ Merriam-Webster: a: food and drink regularly provided or consumed b : habitual nourishment c : the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person or animal for