Being silly and embracing your true self is an act against diet culture.

Diet culture tells you to strive for perfection–doing, moving, goal-setting, discipline, control. Less being and more doing, doing, doing. Until you feel so detached from yourself that you might not even like yourself anymore.

Diet culture encourages a scarcity mindset. Less food, fewer choices, less silliness, fewer meals out, fewer milky coffees at your favourite coffee shop. It makes your world smaller. What happens when we start to reject diet culture’s bullshit? We start to care a little less…and that doesn’t mean letting our health go by the wayside. I mean caring less about the shit that doesn’t matter, like how flat your stomach is, how flawless your skin is, or the size of your arms, and caring more about the stuff that does.

Being the version of yourself that you have always been. Maybe that’s the little girl who loves to dance around the house, the one who loved to dress up in colourful, fun clothes, the one who climbed tall trees, or found crabs in rock pools at the beach. When we choose to live abundant, full lives over restricted, close-minded ones, we can regain our sense of self that has always been there. We can feel more carefree and find joy in the little, beautiful moments in our day– like saying good morning to your neighbour, hearing different bird songs, noticing the way the sun shines through the trees in the afternoon, or how delicious a pastry tastes on a relaxing Sunday morning.

Diet culture is also tightly tied to consumerism. When we start to move away from perfectionism and embrace simply being, we may focus our energy outwards and start to realise there are a lot of useless things we were buying, like fancy “health” foods, expensive skincare, or new clothes when we already have a wardrobe full of clothes that fit us. It constantly tells you you’re not good enough and that you need to try harder. It encourages you to compare yourself to your friends, strangers on the street, influencers online, anyone in sight.

But what happens when the bar keeps getting higher and higher while your self-esteem gets lower and lower? What if diet culture is taking up so much brain space that there’s no room left for the things that make you you?

Consider the aspects of yourself that your friends and family love most– your playfulness, spontaneity, humour, creativity. Diet culture sees these traits as weird, weak, or lazy because they aren’t aligned with constantly bettering yourself. When in reality, diet culture is the weird control freak who can’t slow down. You’re allowed to say no, and walk away towards the version of yourself you want to be.