January kicks off with a slew of promises being made to “lose weight”, “get in shape” or “eat healthy”. With all the food and fitness tracking gadgets and diet books being sold, it’s easy to see how people get sucked into a pattern of obsessively plugging meals and exercise into their watches and phones. ‘Diet talk’ is a risk factor for eating disorders and doesn’t seem to motivate anyone to make positive lifestyle changes. I cannot think of one good thing that comes from ‘diet talk’ and have only heard clients say how harmful it has been in their lives.   

Here are ways you can stop the ‘diet talk’

 1. Increase your awareness of how much you participate in conversations regarding diet, body image and exercise. When you catch yourself participating in a conversation centered about ‘diet talk’ consider how it makes you feel about your own lifestyle choices and whether or not it increases your anxiety and stress levels. Do you feel it is helping you make positive choices? Do you feel it contributes to a healthy body image, or instead, make you feel less secure?

2. Quit saying “Do I look fat in this?” Instead, try refocusing on something you like about your body.

3. When people point out what’s “wrong” with something you are eating, politely tell them that you would like to enjoy the meal you chose and quickly change the subject. 

4. Sometimes people say, “My thighs are so huge” to elicit the response “No, they are not, look at mine.” When you find yourself in this situation, go ahead and comment on something else, besides a body part, that you value or like about them. 

5. Stop the pattern of talking about diet and body size in front of your children. It reinforces current cultural messages. Instead, teach them what matters the most is who a person is, not what they look like.  

Since ‘diet talk’ leads to body dissatisfaction and in fact doesn’t help people make positive changes, then it’s a no brainer to focus on feeling good and nourishing the body you have been given. You may end up feeling a lot better about yourself.