Who or what taught you to eat less?
Chapter 2 Find Your Food Voice book discussion.
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Hey there Voice Finder,
Chapter 2 brewed the internal perfectionism while writing Find Your Food Voice. This chapter was the toughest for me to write. I remember feeling puzzled until I realized: perfectionism is rooted in racism so of course if I am detailing how the diet industry is just cover for white supremacy—well, feeling afraid makes sense.
For our discussion today, consider this passage (page 50):
Remember when I cried in my boss’s office? In that moment I could no longer unsee these systems of oppression, especially in my nutrition recommendations. I was building I-Should-Eat scripts—lying that I had the keys to freedom when in reality I was just another diet industry line leader.
I had started to unpack dieting’s connection to racism and my role in uplifting it. I unpacked so much that it no longer could fit inside the toxic positivity I relied on.
It just took a moment for me to hold on to this new-to-me truth to turn my head gently to consider another way to relate to food, body, and movement.
I wonder if you can turn your head slightly now, too? Consider for a moment that you have never failed dieting. You are not doing it wrong. Rather, you are following the rules exactly as they have been written and drank the dripped-out sugar-free Kool-Aid convincing you that you need more diet rules. These rules were downloaded without your consent, promising freedom yet just keeping more tightly chained to feelings of shame and blame. They have kept you stuck in the Diet Trap.
Even while you are still shackled with unworthiness, let’s call out the real villain. It’s not you; it’s all of your I-Should-Eat scripts. It’s the oppressive systems created out of racism. You are not alone in connecting with all of this. I am with you in solidarity, radically rejecting diets and mending your own innate wisdom for health.
It is time for you to take off that shame cloak. It is not for you. It never was. Taking the cloak off, though, may be like bumping a scab off a painful injury. Instead of just applying another Band-Aid that keeps you holding on to the shame, I invite you to keep going.
🔥 Let’s unpack this. Share in the comment box below or in the Voice Finder Chat (you can see it on the Substack app).
Have you started to see another option outside of dieting or disordered eating to promote health? If you’ve been doing non-diet work for a long time, share the moment you knew you would never diet again.
I encourage you in the passage to take off your “shame cloak” because you have not done anything wrong with eating. If you have started to move away from shame with eating, how is life different, if at all? If you still carry shame, what would life be like if food was no longer a burden?
Thank you for thinking through these tough questions. You are doing great work!
Chapter 2 introduces you to the Diet Trap (a different version of graphic above is found on page 27).
📣 Let’s get back to some questions. Share in the comment box below or in the chat as a way to grab your figurative megaphone so the diet industry hears:
How would you describe your personal Diet Trap? Which oppressive systems pushed you in? How did they manipulate you? What did they promise you diets would fix?
What do you wish someone told you before you were seduced into your first diet? What do you wish someone said, if anything, to prevent the oppressive system from impacting like you did?
That’s all for now!
Next week (Friday May 30) I will drop Chapter 3’s discussion questions. If you got something out of this discussion so far, liking and especially re-stacking (a Substack thing in case you are reading this email) helps more people find my work—so TIA!!
Warmly,
Julie
Even at a very young age, I was shaped differently than most of my friends (apple shape). I wanted to fit iin. My parents were always on one diet or another and so it seemed like that was totally normal to try to diet my way to a different shape. I wish someone had told me that people come in all shapes and sizes AND that trying to micromanage my food was not only not going to change my shape but it would backfire in the long run---disconnect me from my body and cause me ANGST. I weight cycled for over 50 years.