Transform Your Life
Imagine waking up and not having food rule your thoughts. Imagine not feeling guilty or filled with regret about your food choices. Imagine not white-knuckling your way through a day because today is the day you will start being “good.” Imagine not fearing real food; wondering if a banana has too much sugar or if carbs are making you fat. Imagine trusting that you can eat more than just chicken and salad. Imagine living a life free from dieting.
Is it possible to break-free from diet culture thinking? Yes. Will it be easy? No.
Diet culture thinking is built on a foundation of fear. Diets begin by pointing the finger at us and blaming our weight on how much or what we eat. In earlier diets, we were taught to fear calories. Overtime we stopped thinking about the nutrient value of our food choices and focused solely on the caloric cost. Not surprisingly, despite counting every calorie and battling hunger until we became HANGRY, we still gained weight. Did we begin to question diets? Nah. We blamed ourselves: our lack of willpower. Most of us became cyclical dieters: restricting to reach a goal weight. Only to regain it back and start the process all over again. Others checked out in frustration: the calorie game just doesn’t work. And so diets evolved to recapture the lost market. Next they blamed fat: it’s not calories, fat makes us gain fat. In our newfound fear of fat, we began scouring the grocery store for low-fat, reduced fat and zero fat foods. Yet we STILL gained weight. Not to worry. Diet culture can transform quicker than your waistline. In my lifetime alone the culprits blamed for our growing weight epidemic: calories, fat, sugar, carbohydrates, grains, meat, gluten, lectins, and even breakfast. When we realized diets just don’t work. The word diet was eliminated. Now no one diets! They follow a lifestyle. Of course, depending on your adopted lifestyle of late, if you really look closely you’ve just eliminated or restricted “a something” (which ultimately is caloric control cleverly disguised).
We want fast, cataclysmic, over-the-top. We want hyperbole. The ordinary, the sensible is of no interest. We don’t want God at the dinner table, we want the burning bush.
Diet culture’s fear-mongering has enslaved us to a life consumed by what we eat and what we weigh. Its constant reinvention has created such confusion about what is “good” or “bad” to eat that we are disconnected from our God designed hunger cues and no longer trust His provision. Worse, diet culture and its offshoot of wellness have become false idols. We look to the world and diet gurus first. We rely on our own strength (willpower) and cling to our physical well-being above it being well with our soul. Ensnared and enslaved by diet culture’s fear-mongering and false promises, we experience anything but the fruit of the Spirit in our relationship with food and our bodies.
Then God said, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
Genesis 1:29
Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
Genesis 9:3
Have we wandered so far that we no longer know what to eat?
I believe we no longer have any idea what we should and should not eat. And, the moment we think we know, another expert tells us that it is bad for us too. We gave up carbs, gluten, meat, dairy, sugar, fat, and have even demonized certain fruit and vegetables. Eventually, we have to address the elephant in the room: what is left to eat?
Or perhaps, we need to look to our Creator. In Genesis He tells us that nourishment comes from every seed-bearing plant, fruit tree, and everything that lives and moves about. He warns us not to overindulge (Proverbs, 1 Corinthians 6 for example). And, our good, good Heavenly Father armed us against the false idol of diet culture in Matthew. He doesn’t want us to focus on what we eat nor allow it to cause us anxiety.
Can our relationship with food be simple? Just common sense? Just a return to the TRUTH laid out for us in the first book of the Bible?
Yes. Unfortunately, what was once something we just knew how to do has to be re-taught. Make no mistake about it, diet culture has done its job well. We are at a loss and utterly confused about what to eat. Our hunger and fullness cues have been sacrificed at the altars of forced restriction and consumption. So, we have to reconnect to God’s good design and provision. And, we have to put on His full armor to battle a culture that bombards us with fear, false guilt, shame, and constant misinformation.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I am absolutely certain that fear profits no man and it certainly cannot be the foundation of a healthy, abundant life.
How do we begin to transform our relationship with food back to God’s truth?
Slowly. We build common sense habits over time to re-connect us to our hunger and fullness cues and dismantle food fears, false guilt, and shame.
Honestly. We accept the truth that anything of value was never attained effortlessly. Health cannot be founded on fear. Nor can it be sustained on a foundation of ease and convenience. We must do the work. Sow the seeds to reap the harvest.
Rationally. We must learn how our bodies use the food we eat; for example, what is the function of carbohydrates? Educating ourselves is the best defense against fear-mongering experts and the lure of trending diets.
Mindfully. Throughout the process understand that you are unique and wonderfully made. Learn the foods that fuel your best life. Learn the balance that you can sustain the whole of your life that no longer consumes your heart and mind. A balance that is rooted in Biblical self-control and looks to Spirit empowerment rather than willfulness.
Abundantly. Free of fear and false food guilt. Full of joy and grace. Surrounded by community. A life where food connects us to each other, to gathering around a table, and to our Father.
What is the first step to break free of diet culture strongholds? Seek the Kingdom first so that your mind is renewed and your heart transformed (see Romans 12:2). This journey is not about weight-loss; it is about living a . life where food is no longer a worry, but rather a source of nourishment and joy; a life where you are fully present because you are vibrant, healthy, and at peace with the scale and the mirror; a life anchored in the Truth: you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
That life can be yours.
Break Through: 6 Weeks to Demolish Diet Culture Strongholds will be available on Amazon, April 2021 (paperback and Kindle).
Each week will introduce a Fuel Your Body and Feed Your Soul habit. And, it includes a 6 week Bible Study: At the King’s Table.