Many people, especially women, must have chosen to go on a diet at least once.
However, the damage it causes to your mental health is something that Rocio Rodriguez – a psychologist, author and specialist in body image and psychonutrition – has witnessed daily in her career.
The mental health expert explained how you can spot the holes in diet culture, adopt more intuitive eating habits and overcome your fear of gaining weight.
Speaking about how people are starting to believe that their bodies are the problem, she said: “The belief that our bodies are a problem stems primarily from the beauty ideals that dominate our society. It is an ideal rooted in thinness – a model that is far too small for the vast majority of women.”
“When we fail to conform to that pattern, we come to believe that there is something inherently wrong with us; that our body is the problem and that we must do everything in our power to change it – often to the detriment of our health, our finances and our general well-being,” the mental health expert added.
Rocio also talked about how difficult it is for many people to realize that their body weight or shape is not the problem.
“It’s a huge challenge because we are constantly bombarded with messages designed to convince us otherwise. Every time we leave the house or scroll through social media, we are confronted with advertisements or influencers promoting ‘before and after’ transformations, weight loss injections or fad diets,” she said.
“Sometimes quitting dieting is the greatest act of self-love,” Rocio advised.
She further explained: “We live in a culture where the desire to lose weight is not only normalized, but socially celebrated, with little regard for the potential consequences. When you live in such an environment, it is incredibly difficult to see that the urge to change your body could be a symptom of a deeper struggle, or that many of the behaviors currently being celebrated could in fact be warning signs of an eating disorder.”
Rocio offered words of motivation to anyone who is dieting because they feel bad about their body weight:
“I would tell them to stop believing that they have no willpower; the fault is not theirs, but the diets themselves. Diets are not the solution they promise: if they really worked, we wouldn’t feel the need to start a new one every year. Constantly dieting is like being trapped in an invisible prison that robs you of energy, joy and freedom.”
