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‘New year, new me’ is yet another reminder that diet culture is BS

You don’t have to start a new weight loss regime in 2019


We're a week into January and already I’m bored of Instagram’s obsession with "New year new me".

It's impossible to avoid the posts that tell us about "meal plans" and "Cheap gym membership now!" to cloak the guilt that we all SHOULD be feeling after spending Christmas enjoying all the pigs in blankets.

It’s important to recognise that not only is enjoying food over Christmas totally okay but it’s actually biologically engineered inside us. We all get a bit chubs this time of year in order to keep us warm in our caves during the cold winter months, and just because someone ate more on one day doesn’t mean that they have to compensate for it the next. Bodies need food in order to function so starting the New Year with the intent of starving, is probably just as unhealthy.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsJennbnKV4

Why can't we avoid posts like this?

Diet culture is holding women back

Women spend so much time worrying about their body – it’s something that we have been raised with. We see the perfect lives of the girls on Instagram who have perfectly flat tummies and curves without any lumps or bumps.

The whole doctrine of "new year, new me" is that life will start when we look a certain way. This is a common thought of plus-size women: "I’ll wear swimwear when I’m skinny", "I’ll put myself out there when I lose a bit of weight". But everyone is worthy of having the fullest life regardless of what their body shape is and if we constantly put our life on hold, then we are wasting years that we could be living.

The truth is that most of the people who start dieting this January will probably fail. The human body was not designed to exist on green tea alone. But it’s also not in the interests of diet companies for you to succeed and never have to purchase another dieting product again – they need you to keep needing them. Have you ever questioned that if there was a diet that actually worked, none of the others would exist?

Diet culture is pitting women against each other

If you are ever sat in a group of girls, take note of how often the conversation drifts to talk of grooming regimes and guilt over the last meal they ate, how naughty they feel for eating something or how much weight so-and-so has put on.

Everyone walks away from those conversations having lost a little piece of their self esteem, having to compete with each other. If they weren’t worried about something before, they are now.

This is how women tear each other down and this is what stops us from achieving the best that we can.

Escaping diet culture BS is as simple as following the right people

Megan Crabbe (@BodyPosiPanda) has amazing purple hair, one million followers and has made it her mission to spread the word of body positivity around the world. Her posts are full of inspiring messages and her signature "jiggling" dancing videos which show her followers that body fat is nothing to be afraid of.

Body positivity is not about making "plus-size" the new ideal body, it's about making sure there is no "ideal body" and showing that everyone is beautiful and worthy of self-love. It’s also not just for women; we are the generation where no gender is immune from the indoctrination of advertising such as those promising "rock hard abs in 12 weeks".

In her book "Body Positive Power" Megan explains that the journey to body positivity is first about "Body Acceptance" – recognising that your body is the way it is and that it’s as unique as you are. It allows you to do things like walking your dog, going out with your friends, making dinner for your family and that makes it worthy of appreciation.

To those who are still channelling "new year, new me", be mindful of how the language you use effects those who struggle with their relationship with their body. If you want to eat a healthy meal, be aware that your housemates may not so don’t make them feel guilty for enjoying their dinner.

A "new me" that focuses on self-love and spending less time feeling guilty is what I'll be striving for. Calling out people and friends who talk negatively about their own or others bodes, reminds them that everybody is equally as worthy of love and despite what society has told us, we are allowed to talk positively about ourselves.