One of the challenges with giving up dieting for good is you’re still living in diet culture! Even though you’re loving the freedom and autonomy of making your own decisions with mindful eating, diet culture tells you to restrict, obsess, and feel guilty. From the celebrity before-and-after photos in the check-out line, the latest news about GLP1s, to your friend on social media talking about how much weight they’ve lost, diet messages are everywhere.
Figuring out how to stay focused on mindful eating in our diet-obsessed culture isn’t easy!
It reminds me of an experience I had when I signed up for yoga classes on a cruise ship.
Staying focused when distractions are everywhere
I signed up for yoga classes during the four days we were at sea during our cruise. Who knew I would also gain insight into how to stay focused on mindful eating in diet culture!
During the first class, I discovered that the yoga room was inside the the ship’s gym, with an open doorway allowing the whir of treadmills and the clanging of weights in the background. After noting my distraction, I settled into my practice and took no further notice.
During the second class, I was in a downward facing dog looking at the ocean through the floor-to-ceiling windows when a guy in exercise attire strolled in, headphones on, and began a solo boxing workout at the back of the room, smack in the middle of my view. He watched our yoga class while hopping from one foot to the other, grunting and jabbing the air like Rocky. The teacher seemed puzzled too, but continued the class.
During his 30-minute (!) workout, I experienced thoughts and emotions ranging from curious and amused to incredulous and irritated.
Mindfulness has taught me to be just as curious about my own responses as I was about his apparent mindlessness. Eventually, I made this uninvited distraction part of my yoga practice and kept bringing my awareness back to my breath and postures when I noticed my attention had drifted.
Do you feel distracted by diet culture?
It occurred to me that mindful eating in diet culture is very much like practicing yoga while someone boxes in the back of the room!
Whether we are simply aware of the constant murmur of diet-talk all around us or frequently distracted by it, we have the choice to ignore it or get curious about it, then settle back into our mindful eating practice.
With diet-messages are everywhere, it can be challenging to cultivate your attention and maintain your intention to make healing your relationship with food the priority over temporarily losing a few pounds.
Whether it’s your doctor’s admonishment to lose weight, your girlfriend’s incessant chatter about her diet, or the way your ears perk up at the mention of GLP1s, the pull toward the familiar is alluring.
And now, it’s become even more challenging to recognize these diet messages! They are often disguised using words like “healthy,” “anti-inflammatory,” and “natural.”
And, GLP1s are often touted as the “solution millions everywhere have been waiting for,” despite the fact there’s no evidence that they will be safe or effective when used “for the rest of your life” as they are currently recommended. (I honor your freedom to make the choices that feel right to you. I simply wish there was a more nuanced and balanced discussion.)
7 tips to stay focused on mindful eating in diet culture
Let’s explore some ways to keep bringing your focus back to building a healthy relationship with food – even when restriction, “Ozempic face” and disordered eating have become so common they seem “normal.”
1) Take a few deep breaths.
The simple grounding strategy of taking a few conscious breaths will help calm your nervous system and bring you back to the present moment. When you are calm, you are more able to decide where to focus your attention.
2) Get curious.
How many times have you been down this road in the past? What do you hope might be different this time? Can you recall all the times your diet started out easy, but became harder to maintain over time?
3) Use self-compassion.
It is understandable you might initially feel drawn toward diet-culture since they make it sound easy, fast, new, ground-breaking, or miraculous. Remember, those are the words that advertisers (including pharmaceutical companies) use to attract your attention and your money!
4) Be compassionate toward others.
Your co-worker’s enthusiasm and your sister’s excitement reminds me of my own each time I experienced initial “success” (though it never lasted). While maybe that’s the answer for them, I know that focusing on my body size or weighing, measuring, counting, and logging are not the answer for me!
5) Do a reality check.
Here are two questions you can ask yourself:
1. Does this sound too good to be true? If so, then it probably is!* After all, we’ve been down this road so many times before.
2. Can I do this every day for the rest of my life? If not, then don’t bother doing it for a day! As soon as you stop, you’ll be right back where you started—or even worse off!
* At first, mindful eating might sound too good to be true too! Eat what you love? How can that possibly work? Admittedly, it sounds simple, but it isn’t always easy. Like most worthwhile changes, it’s a process! (Read How Long Does It Take to Learn to Eat Mindfully?)
6) Choose your focus.
Imagine what would happen if you took a fraction of the time, energy, attention, and money you’d spend on that new diet, program, or medication (whether they call themselves a diet or not!), and instead invested it in becoming the expert in yourself?
7) Take supportive action.
What is one small step you could take toward mindful self-care when you feel frustrated or tempted by all the diet-hype? Here are three simple ideas; you’ll find many more in Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat.
- Do a Body-Mind-Heart Scan.
- Use your Am I Hungry? Mindful Eating Virtual Coach App.
- Take a mindful bite.
Shift your focus from diet-culture to mindful eating.
Mindful eating, like yoga, continues to teach me to be present and nonjudgmental. I am repeatedly amazed at what shows up when I simply pause to notice.
Back on the cruise, thankfully, our final yoga class was held outside on the grassy upper deck of the ship. I was in a downward facing dog looking at the ocean through the railing as we pulled away from the French Riviera. That’s when I noticed a beautiful rainbow.
This mindful eating journey offers many often unexpected gifts when we are patient!
This article is updated from a previous version.
If you enjoyed this article, here are three more to help you:
How Long Does It Take to Learn to Eat Mindfully?
How to Turn Mindful Eating Into a Diet
A Non-Diet, Weight-Neutral, Mindfulness-Based Approach to Optimal Well-Being
