Turning Our Backs on the Diet Industry

Why have we, as a society, deemed that something must be wrong with someone who has gained weight? Why is it that we correlate weight gain to medical issues, laziness, lack of willpower, and gluttony? The easy answer…. because the diet industry earns $60 Billion a year telling us this is true.
We have been taught for decades by diet gurus, commercials, and now social media, that being overweight is one of the most shameful things you can experience.
Studies show there is a 95% failure rate within this $60B a year industry. Let me state that again- Ninety-Five percent failure!! Yet people continue to hope the latest and greatest fad diet will protect them from ever feeling the shame and embarrassment of being overweight.
The diet industry preys on us by telling us that anything more than “slender” is bad and must be changed. And wouldn’t you know it…they have just the product or program that is going to transform our body.
They NEED you to experience some success before failure. This creates intermittent reward…a similar experience to playing the slot machines at a casino. You pull the handle a few times and get a few small wins. The bells and whistles all around the casino convince you that people are winning and today is your lucky day. So you insert more money or continue to swipe your card, hoping for the grand jackpot win.
You may win some more small jackpots, but your chances are exceptionally small that you will walk away without winning the grand jackpot that day…or ever. You keep playing though, because those small wins convince you the big win is just around the corner. Just like the diet industry promises the next new fad diet is going to deliver your “perfect” body, and you are hooked.
Instead of trying to transform the diet industry, what if we simply walk away from the game? Imagine if we collectively stop dieting, buying weight loss programs or prepackaged diet foods. What if we turned our focus away from the number on the scale and instead began to focus on living our very best life… a life full of adventure, happiness, love, and perhaps even guiltless chocolate cake.
The diet industry would have to shift as well. They won’t want to lose profits, so they will begin telling us that we really CAN have our cake and eat it too. They will come up with truly healthy products to sell to us and their messaging will focus on being “healthy” instead of being “thin”.
Like millions of others, I have stopped playing the diet game. I have embraced intuitive eating and a positive body image. I won’t give the diet industry another cent of my money, time, or energy. I am not ashamed of the extra pounds on my body. My life is full to overflowing, and it’s okay with my if my waistband is too. I am perfect just as I am, and you are too!