Nowadays it is very common to have people in our close environment who tell us that they have started to diet, or maybe it has even been you yourself who at some point has decided to change the way you eat in order to lose some kilos or also to maintain your weight. Maybe you have never been on a diet, but you have been very aware of your diet?
In principle, this should not be a problem, but… What happens when this issue becomes your focus? What happens when you focus on analyzing everything you eat and often your mood depends on whether or not you have managed to overcome a “temptation” to eat something you think you should not?
More and more we meet people who come to us with this complaint and who find that mealtimes have become a day-to-day torture. That is why in this article I will discuss what we call having a Diet Mentality.
What is diet mentality and how to recognize it?
It is a series of recurring beliefs and thoughts that are related to the diet culture and that condition the way in which the person relates to his body and food, which, consequently, alters and limits his life in several aspects.
In addition, these beliefs and thoughts cause the person to carry out certain types of behaviors that in turn have a negative effect on his or her mood.
They are characteristic of a diet mentality:
- Dichotomous thoughts: i.e., categorizing foods as good / bad, allowed / forbidden, healthy / unhealthy….
- Constant calorie counting: with the aim of not exceeding certain daily amounts.
- Careful control of food and avoidance of any social interaction that involves being “around the table” as these are moments that generate anxiety.
- Having disconnection from the sensation of hunger/satiety: and then eating according to a strict rule in terms of quantity and time of day, without taking into account the physiological need of the body.
- Having a fear of uncontrolled and improvised meals.
- Performing compensatory behaviors: it can be by going into “restriction mode”, excessive physical exercise….
- Weight loss and/or weight control associated with achieving happiness and social success.
In addition to this, people with a diet mentality have a “moral dilemma”: once they have followed a strict diet (which they consider to have behaved well), they give themselves permission to eat some of the foods considered forbidden, as a reward for the effort, but this ends in self-deception, with a balance of guilt and the feeling of having “behaved badly” by skipping the rule that they should comply with.
Also these food prohibitions usually generate a state of anxiety that makes the person enter into a continuous vicious circle of: deprivation -> anxiety -> lack of control/attraction -> compensation/deprivation without ever feeling that they have fulfilled their objective, which perpetuates the loop.
People who suffer from this type of problem define themselves as: unwilling, unregulated and frustrated with failed attempts to follow strict diets without any kind of deviation. They relate dieting with a sense of responsibility and order, so anything that interferes with it generates discomfort and impotence and affects self-esteem and self-concept.
Taking into consideration that eating is a basic physiological need we have on a daily basis, it is easy to understand that people who live with this mentality can present an intense and continuous discomfort, difficult to manage since they live an internal struggle between what they want and what they allow themselves.
Recommendations to put into practice
- Transform the concept of “dieting” into the adoption of healthy habits decentralized from eating: that is, do not bet all your chips on weight loss, but to implement a series of measures related to general self-care from a more permissive and compassionate position.
- Avoid isolating yourself as a way of controlling yourself from putting yourself at risk for temptations you feel you don’t deserve. Allow yourself to enjoy social encounters with your people again.
- Leave aside strict objectives that imply sacrifice and extreme restriction: set small goals and if you do not know how, there are professionals who can help you and guide you to do it in a more bearable and healthy way.
- Take care of your language towards food by getting rid of categorizations or moral associations.
- Perform small daily actions that challenge those beliefs and behaviors that are part of the diet mentality.
- Practice mindful eating: that allows for “reconciliation” with food by re-experiencing the enjoyment and pleasure of eating what you like.
- Ask for professional help if you think that this affects your self-esteem and your life, without thinking that it is something you should solve alone or that it is not important. Everything that limits you and makes you suffer is worth working on and giving it a place.
Conclusion: Are you going to eat to live or live to eat?
At a time like the present, when social networks and culture in general point more and more to image as what makes happiness and social success possible, it is of utmost importance to be able to give a space to reflect on how limiting and sacrificial “living to eat” can be.
