IWD - Diet culture can do one (and here's how you help make that happen)

Diet culture can do one (and here's how you help make that happen)

This week's episode of Chatting with Cara is a special one, it's International Women's Day, and if you know me, you know I’m a massive feminist. If I’d been born in the Suffragettes era, I’d have been right there on the front lines. No question.

Last year on International Women's Day I talked about diet culture. This year? I think it's gotten worse. And she's got some thoughts on why (spoiler - Donald Trump gets the blame).

But rather than just ranting about it (though there is some very satisfying ranting), this episode is all about what you can do, at your level, right now to help shift things. Just like recycling and bags for life felt ridiculous at first and are now just... normal life, the same paradigm shift can happen with diet culture. But only if we all start making small changes.

In this episode, we cover four tips for telling diet culture to sod off -

• Change your language around food. No more "good," "bad," "naughty," "treat," or "clean." Foods aren't moral. Some are more nutritionally dense than others, but no food deserves to be put on a pedestal or demonised. When we use that language, we're feeding into a system that keeps us preoccupied with making ourselves smaller. That's by design.
  

• Stop commenting on other people's bodies. And your own. Don't compliment weight loss. Don't narrate what you're eating on a night out. Don't watch the Kelly Osborne reels or the Wicked cast reels. Scroll past. Don't feed the algorithm, don't give it the views, just keep moving.
  

• Curate your social media and your real-life circle. Unfollow anyone pushing diet culture. Mute them, grow apart from them, whatever works. Follow people for their ideas, their businesses, their parenting content, not for what their body looks like. And if you've got people in your real life who are very appearance-focused or make you feel a bit rubbish? Have a little think about that. Once you know better, you can do better.
  

• Move your body in a way that feels good. Not to sculpt, re-sculpt, tone, or earn your dinner. Legs, bums and tums classes and Pilates sculpt sessions are diet culture in a leotard. Exercise because it feels good mentally and physically, because your body houses your soul, not because you want to change what it looks like.
  

Diet culture is a feminist issue. And every single time you implement one of these four things, you're part of the shift. Tell a friend. Share this episode. The ripple effect is real and the next generation is watching.

Happy International Women's Day. Now let's get to work.

Connect with Cara -

Thanks for joining me today on Chatting with Cara. I hope today's conversation gave you some food for thought!

If you're looking to transform this area of your life I'd love to support you, please get in touch with me using the below links.

Email - cara@coachingwithcara.co.uk

Website - www.coachingwithcara.co.uk

Facebook - Coaching with Cara

Instagram - @coachingwcara

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