“My mom took me to my first Weight Watchers meeting when I was 10.” This type of memory is common among the people I work with, especially women. They describe body concerns and awareness of calories beginning at a young age. Some talk about hearing their mothers and aunts talking about dieting and making negative comments about their own bodies.
How old were you when you started dieting?
I made this short video of brief clips of interviews with several women I’ve worked with who talked about how young they were when their bodies became “a problem” for them.
CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of restriction and disordered eating.
As a young dieter myself, I have tremendous concern that the increase in diet culture today will lead to even more children dieting. This is heartbreaking to me! Ans as a result, I predict there will be even more chronic yo-yo dieting and disordered eating in the future. If you have young people in your life, love them unconditionally and encourage these healthy habits to help them thrive in our food-abundant, diet-obsessed culture.
That is a very important topic for another time. For now, if you started dieting at a young age, let’s focus on what you can do now…
Sunk cost
Think about when you started dieting… how old are you now? If you’re still dieting, how many years have you been dieting off and on over your lifetime?
Now consider the amount of time, energy, and money you’ve already wasted.
This leads to a feeling of failure and futility if you blame yourself rather than the diets. But the evidence is clear… diets don’t work. It’s not you!
Still, it can be hard to give up dieting and the hope that it will eventually work because you’ve already invested so much in it. This is called the sunk cost fallacy: feeling you should continue pouring money, time, or effort into a situation since you’ve “sunk” so much into it already.
Let bygones be bygones!
But according to the bygones principle, past mistakes and “costs” are “water under the bridge” and are therefore irrelevant. The only things that matter are the consequences of your future decisions.
Give yourself credit for trying so hard all these years. Now, move on and learn how to eat mindfully and live vibrantly!
Was this article helpful? Here are three more to help you:
Top Ten Reasons to Stop Dieting
Cheap Sunglasses: Invest in yourself instead
Take your life back from food: 5 ways to reclaim your time and energy
