The Weight of a “Diet”

On a very emotionally exhausting day like today where I’m 150% drained, I think I should probably post something to let you guys in on everything that’s been going on in my life and give you some kind of explanation in regards to my absence. I don’t yet have the words, and that’s ok, but I’m going to try and at least get back to posting a little more often after that 1-2 month respite and keep the ball rolling. Because as we know, it’s all about community and keeping the recovery message going. I don’t need to go into all of the nuances of my personal life all the time, and that’s ok.

So this is just a quick post to draw ourselves back to an idea that I am all about, and that is the role of language and how it shapes our cognitive processes and perceptions of the world around us. As someone with a degree in psychology (woo hoo! I can say that now!) this is one of my personal favorite things to think on and ponder when I’m nerding out about the wonder of the brain (which Dominic Savares and I did for 2+ hours last night. Love you man! If you haven’t checked him out on google+ you should!).

In this article: Clean Eating vs Dieting, the author goes into that a little bit, talking about how to frame the whole lingo. I think this is especially important in recovery as words such as “diet” can be so dreadfully weighted with connotation. That’s why it can be so damaging when people ask someone in recovery (from AN, BN, EDNOS, BED, whatever) if they are “on a diet”. I personally prefer “meal plan” because I think it carries the aspect of self care and professional assistance with it.

I’d even take a step further and say I don’t like the term “clean eating” as it implies that there are clean and, conversely, dirty foods. In our society and culture, we often take this even FURTHER (what competitive fucks we are!) to mean that there are clean and dirty people! Clean eating carries a holiness with it that is so damning to the 99.999% of the population who are human and just maybe want a piece of pizza every once in a while.

I had this experience just the other day when I was out with my boyfriend and some of his family. Some cousins I had never met before were there, and it had been a very emotionally taxing day for me. I ordered a meal of grilled chicken and was struggling to force myself through the meal, resorting back to an old coping mechanism of cutting the chicken into teeny tiny bites to make it look as if I was taking as many bites as everyone else. When the meal was over, his cousin looked over and exclaimed “Wow! You’ve only eaten like 2 bites of your chicken! Are you on a diet or something?” This was about the 5th time in the past 2 or 3 weeks that I’ve been eating out with a group and someone has called attention to my eating habits and I absolutely froze. They later carried on to talk about his brother’s fiance and she discussed her diet in length and how she’s working on losing weight. Needless to say I was so incredibly uncomfortable.

Can I just get an amen on the fact that the word diet needs to be removed from our vocabulary? Going back to my meal plan today, something planned and formulated for my health and well being. Something that will fuel and nourish and help my body from day to day. Lets all just keep our eyes on our own plates. Someone else’s “diet” is none of your business.