The BS around diets. I think that there is something broken in North America when it comes to body image and dieting and exercising and even fashion. North America is such an all or nothing society that it sometimes feels like there’s no proper balance.

I spent 14 years living in downtown Vancouver, Canada which I once heard aptly called “land of the beautiful people.” Even though it’s a beautiful city, think about that for a second. No pressure, right?
True story. I was out with a group of friends and we decided to stop for a drink and some appetizers. Please keep in mind none of us were even remotely overweight, all of us were in a healthy weight range. The waiter stood listening to us argue over the choices. Suddenly he said, “Remember girls, nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. Are you kidding me? We promptly ordered 4 waters and he obviously did not get a tip. Let me be perfectly clear though, the guy wasn’t trying to be rude and he was immediately sorry for what he said, this was just his inner demon speaking out. I see him as another victim of the be thin at any cost mind set.

I’d love to say that this is an obscure mentality, but it isn’t.
Another example comes to mind. I was attending Toronto Dance Theatre’s summer program and a bunch of us were sitting around having lunch discussing weight (because of course we were) when I suddenly realized that we were all thinner than the average person walking down the street.

Fundamentally, the way we approach dieting in North America is very skewed. Deep down I knew something was wrong but I could never quite put my finger on it. Then I moved to Europe and I suddenly realized what that nagging feeling was. Simply put, we have a very messed up way of looking at food. In Europe I was shocked to see women walk down the street enjoying an ice cream, completely oblivious to my inner voice screaming, “how can you let people see you eat?!”

Upon my return to Canada I saw menus in restaurants indicating the calorie count for food. It didn’t stop me from ordering whatever I wanted, but it sure did make me feel guilty about it. My first thought was why don’t they just give us smaller portions instead of piling our plates with food and then making us feel bad? Just the other day my husband bought himself an ice cream at a street stand. He laughed that he almost ordered two scoops and then remembered where he was and had one. The single scoop was big enough that we were able to share it.

THE BS AROUND DIETS

CALORIES IN CALORIES OUT

You want to lose weight then you need to consume fewer calories than you burn. It helps if what you are eating is healthy, of course, but you can still gain weight if you eat too much of pretty much anything. The key is to stop explaining yourself and feeling guilty about everything because then all that happens is you embark on a detrimental rollercoaster of eating too much, beating yourself up and then either eating more or not eating at all which is just as bad.

Read, WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH ALL THESE DIETS, for my 3 simple rules to eating healthy.

Still not convinced? Still think that you need to eliminate food groups? Think again because unless there is a good medical reason, eliminating food groups is the best way to rob your body of necessary nutrients, minerals and vitamins that keep it functioning long term at its best. The only food to eliminate is over-processed junk that isn’t really food. Read, HOW TO FEEL CONFIDENT ABOUT YOUR DIET

Have you ever notice that as soon as you start changing your eating patterns everyone around you has an opinion and feels the need to discuss it? I think that is where many of us start to fail because it’s tough to focus on what we are doing. Here are some tips on how to get through those times: HOW TO STICK TO YOUR DIET WHEN NO ONE WANTS YOU TO

The other way we start to fall off the wagon is when we are surrounded by foods we love. We fall into an all or nothing pattern and either eat everything in site or deny ourselves until we can’t handle it anymore. Well I’m here to tell you that you can eat something sweet and lose weight. Read, CAN I LOSE WEIGHT AND STILL EAT SWEETS

START MOVING

Theoretically, diet is the main way to lose weight, but I firmly believe that if you start changing your habits by adding extra movement, the food changes will naturally follow. Also, there is so much more to being healthy that the number on the scale. We tend to get so obsessed with losing weight that we forget that athletic and muscular individuals often weigh more, but are in fact very healthy, or even that someone who appears to be skinny might have quite a bit of fat on their body. Read, WHY DO WE FOCUS ON WEIGHT

I’m also going to argue that never lifting weights or doing resistance training is a bad idea if you are looking to shed a few pounds or tone up. Women in particular, should not be afraid to pump some iron. Read, WHY SHOULD WOMEN LIFT WEIGHTS

There are hundreds of different workouts you can do. If you’ve lead a mostly sedentary lifestyle until now then please take a look at the following article because it doesn’t matter what you start doing as long as you start. Read, WHAT IS YOUR PERFECT WORKOUT

If you are sitting and shaking your head thinking that this is never going to happen because you hate exercise, then I’m here to tell you that everyone can learn to love it. It’s true, it might take some time and you might have better or worse days, but it is possible to actually enjoy moving and feeling those muscles working. Read, EVERYONE CAN LEARN TO LOVE EXERCISE

We spend so much time philosophizing about what we eat and how much we’ve exercised that it just becomes a vicious cycle of unhealthiness. What if, crazy thought here, we just approach all of this with the philosophy, without the discussions, but in a straightforward and no nonsense manner.

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