I wanted to write this post to share with you some thoughts and realizations I had in the past few days. I don’t want to write this as someone who knows everything in the matter, but as someone who is also learning - but I feel compelled to share what I know so far. And what I know is this: diet is the issue!

What I want to discuss is how I came across the anti-diet movement and how it started to open my eyes to the detrimental impacts of the diet-culture in our lives and how oblivious to its influence I was. I hope this resonates with you as well, but if not, at the very least shows you a different perspective on this issue.

But first. What is the anti-diet movement?

The anti-diet movement is not an anti-fad diet. This would be too narrow of an explanation. It is against a culture that from century has told us we need to fit a certain body size and shape in order to be accepted. It will shame us for having extra fat in our bodies - and who is right to say how much fat is good to have or not anyways?

That same pervasive culture is the culprit of many cases of mental illness and eating disorders. The need to belong, to fit in. The constant body shame and battle to lose weight is sickening. However bad, diet-culture is present everywhere, even among well-intended doctors, nutritionists and dietitians. And that is what the anti-diet movement is up against, not only the diets, but the whole system that creates, promotes, and sustain the diet-culture.

The movement originated from the claim that a person’s weight is not a marker of health. Which is basically true. One can’t be stigmatized because of how much they weigh, and weight by itself does not tell if a person is healthy or not, nor it is the cause of any illness. Weight is a number on a scale, that is all. One can be thin and have a tremendous amount of health issues or fat and live a healthy life. Beliving otherwise is the diet-culture premise and is hurtful.

So, is it okay to be fat?

It is okay to be you! Thin or fat, it is okay to love the body you have. Because it is yours, and it is powerful. It nourishes you, takes you to places, and does all these amazing things behind the scenes to keep you alive. When we are born, we are all innocent and beautiful, but as we grow we turn to believe we are imperfect and unworthy. This is the diet-culture working on us. Crashing us from a very young age. I remember crying in my bedroom at the age of 12 for not looking good in the clothes I wanted to wear, for being fat. My face was always so rounded, like an oreo cookie. My tummy was never flat - and I was always petite! - I also remember going on crazy calorie-restrictive diets shown in teenage magazines and making myself starve. And that was when we did not have internet, I can just imagine what young girls and boys (yes, boys too) go through in this day and age.

Back to the question. Yes, it is okay to be fat. As a nutritionist, I always aim for people’s well-being and for what is best for their health. And although I like to teach how to cook and prepare foods in a more healthful way, my goal is not weight loss. Ultimately, my goal is to tackle whatever underlining problem there may be so that my clients feel better in their own bodies. Fat or thin, anyone can have issues, and I still believe that eating more fresh fruits and vegetables helps a lot to improve people’s lives.

What is the diet-culture

We are all sucked into the diet-culture. It is hard not to be, as it is everywhere. It is on the kids’ movies and tv shows that portraits thin characters - fat characters are usually the funny, supporting ones, never the main ones. And as we grow, we keep seeing these references everywhere, as if been fit or thin was the key to success. And in a certain way, it may as well be. As society is shaped, fat is seen as bad or lazy, which may result in fewer promotions, hiring, and smaller paycheques. So how we do we fit in? We diet!

When we go to the doctor, they will measure if you are overweight or underweight and usually ask to shed some pounds by restricting the foods you eat, many times without actually searching for the real health issues. But fat for itself is not the issue. It can be the result of some deeper underline problem that needs attention. So the aim should not be to lose weight, but to find whatever is making the person sick and treating it - he/she may lose weight or not as a result, and this is not so relevant as long as the person feels well.

It is getting harder to identify diet-culture, as it is making its way into the wellness trends as well. And that is why it is more important to me to understand it. As someone that aim to help people, my goal is to make you feel good with your body and mind. And I can’t make it if I am promoting a culture that makes us sick in the first place. It does not feel right.

All over social media, we see healthy-eating trends that highlight certain foods and eating habits. The knowledge of what is good or bad for you is out there for anyone to learn, and I feel like this is just another source of anxiety and frustration. There is so much out there, that it is nearly impossible to follow. We can’t all eat paleo, keto, low-carb, do fasting and detox. Do we eat or avoid oils? If you eat them, will you get fat? Did you fail then? No, they have failed you.

Because it is impossible to follow every trend, it is easier for any of us (myself included) to feel like failures and ashamed. Those feelings easily lead us to a path of dieting, and for many of us, eating disorders.

Why the anti-diet resonates with me?

Let’s be clear that one does not need to be fat to be affected by the diet-culture. I was never fat, and still, I was never happy with my body. As mentioned before, going into my teenage years I started to diet to fit even smaller clothes. I missed many gatherings because I was too fat to look good in any outfit I tried. And for many times my mom hugged me while I cried for not feeling good with my body. You may say all teens go through this and that is normal, but it is not. We should not dislike our bodies. Especially, young girls should not!

As I grew older, the shaming faded a bit on me. I got other stuff to worry about like university, finding a job, paying bills. However, the worry with the shape of my body was always there, in the back of my mind every time I tried out new clothes or shopped for a new bikini. New summer, new diet, same results.

When I found myself into nutrition, I discover the benefits of eating well, and how fresh foods instead of take-outs and fast-foods are better for us. I learned to cook using a variety of vegetables and all seemed good until I noticed a pattern. Because I had all of that information, I started to demonize and avoid certain foods that used to give me pleasure. And it felt like dieting all over again. I saw myself cutting on baked goods (that I love) because they are deemed unhealthy. And even eating smaller portions if I sat on my ass too much on a certain day. And that is how I got here. I am thinner now than I have ever been (thanks to breastfeeding my baby), and I am still counting what I eat, I am still dieting. It is hard to break free from the diet culture, even when you know you have felt for it. And that is why the anti-diet movement resonates with me. Because I want to break free, and I want to help you to break free too.

Food is for feed. It is made to nourish our bodies. My goal as a nutrition coach is to help you feel good with your body using food as a tool to help you achieve that. We need to learn to let our bodies tell us what it thinks is good. Maybe eating an almond croissant is what it needs now (at 5:34 am), maybe it needs a warm bowl of lentil soup, and that is okay. One day you will eat healthier, another day it will be junk, and it is all right. As long as we feel good about it. And feeling good involves been okay physically and mentally while and after each meal. Go have that extra cup of coffee or that glass of wine. It is all right. I am here for you, we are in this together :)

My goals moving forward

I want to commit to making peace with food, and mainly, with my body. It should not matter if gain a few pounds, as long as I feel good in my body, as long as I am healthy and active. I need energy to go through my day, to feed my child, and to face the challenges of a new career and my new role as a mom. I can’t do any of this if I have no energy. If my energy is depleted because I starved myself. And that is what I’ve done without paying too much attention to it. I still have energy, but I imagine until when. I keep dropping weight, although I am already underweight. My baby is healthy and anyone can see where my nutrients are going to. Breastfeeding is hard on women’s bodies. Literally, I feel like most of what I eat goes to my baby and if I am not eating enough, then I am losing more than I should. Reason tells me I should add even more calories to my daily intake, but the mind is something hard to comprehend, and I still watch what I eat. So here is my commitment with myself from now on:

• Be kinder to myself. This seems cliche and obvious, but I don’t think I am kind enough with my body. It is incredible what it went through less than a year ago and I am still recovering from childbirth - both mentally and physically.

• Remove judgment from food. Where there is judgment there is no room for fun. And I love cooking, mostly I love eating what I cook, but there is no fun in it if I judge myself for wanting to bake a batch of muffins.

• Remove the ‘bad’ label from foods I like. Some foods are simply delicious in their original, unhealthy state (like deep-fried falafels) and I should not feel bad for eating them.

• Eat intuitively. This means I need to pay closer attention to my bodies’ cues. If I am hungry, then I should eat - at any time of the day. If I crave carbs, then I shall eat carbs, or fats, or whatever my body is telling me it needs. It will help keep my body balanced, and believe it or not, it will help control my cravings, as craving is just a sign that I am not getting enough of something my body needs.

I hope while I learn to avoid the diet-culture thinking, I will also clean it from my practice once and for all, so you all can feel comfortable while chatting with me.