Hey Reader,
Welcome to our community! Whether you’re new or a longtime reader, I’m so glad you’re here. Together, we’re redefining what it means to live fully in midlife and beyond—embracing embodiment, empowerment, and body liberation, free from the constraints of diet culture and ageism. All bodies are celebrated here as we build our truly unique community for those in midlife and beyond. Thank you for being part of this journey!
It's just true; when your body changes in midlife+, you start to think about tightening up and controlling your eating and increasing your exercise. PLUS, this time of the year, you are inundated with conversations, ads, and pitches to "try one more time because this program is your answer to control your body's size and shape." It is so much a part of the water you are swimming in that you don't recognize that the water of diet culture surrounds you.
Diet culture, disordered eating, and over-exercising are normalized, sometimes even praised, in our culture.
Due to this normalization, one of the biggest challenges is recognizing diet culture and disordered eating in and around you-- and seeing it for what it is.
Here’s a refresher:
Diet culture is a system of beliefs inherited from your family and culture that prioritizes your body's weight, shape, and size over your well-being. It equates thinness and specific body types with health, morality, and success while promoting restrictive eating, "never enough" exercise, and the pursuit of an “ideal” body. Diet culture is perpetuated through media, marketing, medical advice, and cultural norms, often disguising itself as “health” or “wellness.”
Women in perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause are a prime target for these messages (more on that next week).
Key Features of Diet Culture:
1. Thin Idealization:
Establishes thinness as the benchmark for beauty and health, suggesting that staying thin helps us stay relevant as we age.
2. Food Morality:
Categorizes foods as “good” or “bad,” leading to feelings of guilt and shame associated with eating.
3. Disconnecting from and Distrusting Your Body:
Guidelines for eating and exercise are derived from external sources or so-called “experts,” who ignore our internal signals and intuition.
4. Contributes to Fatphobia and Anti-Fat Bias
Weight stigma marginalizes those with larger bodies and perpetuates the belief that health is solely determined by weight.
5. Overemphasis on Control: This approach encourages the idea that controlling one’s weight or size is a personal responsibility and moral imperative.
Just to be clear, here are the primary reasons Diet/Wellness Culture is harmful because it:
1. Promotes Disordered Eating:
Following someone else’s rules about nourishing your body encourages you to override and ignore your body’s cues and instincts, which is the root of disordered eating. Diet culture may lead to a range of unhealthy behaviors, such as food restriction, binge eating, or compulsive exercise. Chronic dieting leads to weight cycling, which is well documented as negatively impacting physical and mental health.
2. Damages Body Image:
Diet culture creates unrealistic standards of beauty and health, fostering comparison and feelings of inadequacy, shame, and self-hatred. What happens when your body resembles the “before” picture of the “before and after” testimonials of diet culture? Diet culture promotes the idea that your self-worth is tied to your body size, shape, and appearance.
3. Neglects Your True Health:
One of the most confusing aspects of diet culture is that it centers your weight rather than your true well-being, ignoring significant aspects of health, such as mental health and social connections. The shadow side of wellness culture is that it can mask eating disorders or other health problems under the guise of “clean eating” or “fitness.”
4. Perpetuates Weight Stigma:
Discrimination against people in larger bodies leads to social, medical, and professional bias. Research shows that experiencing weight stigma impacts your physical and mental health and contributes to shame and isolation. Isolation and loneliness contribute to poor physical and mental health, especially as you age.
As I've written here many times, I encourage you to challenge the body hierarchy and diet culture narrative you’ve inherited and still surrounds you about your body and how you “should” nourish and move it.
In next week's newsletter, I'm getting more specific about the advice from Menopause "Experts" and Influencers. I would love to hear how you feel about diet culture pressures in the New Year in general and, more specifically, your experiences with the Menosphere. Just reply to this email to share your experiences. I am so glad you are here.
Love and Respect,
Deb
P.S. If you are interested in coaching and community to support you this year, I have a few options to offer:
Small Group Coaching Program
If you've been thinking about joining my small group coaching program, Aging with Vitality and Body Liberation , I have exciting news! If there is enough interest, I am offering another winter cohort.
Visit this page to learn more about our work and hear what past participants say about their experiences. You can also add your name to the waiting list to be first in line.
Membership
Is this you? You've already done some work to free yourself of diet culture. You are looking for a community of women your age who share a commitment to feeling less fear and dread about aging and more at peace with the body changes that come along with it.
I have an invitation-only membership that meets twice monthly for 75 minutes and provides access to a private community (not on social media). We meet via Zoom on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month at 9 a.m. PT and 12 p.m. ET. Please get in touch with me if you are interested.
1:1 Coaching
I am opening up a limited number of spots for 1:1 coaching in 2025. Please reach out if you are interested in getting on the list. If you've been a client in the past, you will be given priority.
I am so glad you are here.
Love and Wishes for Blooming in the year ahead,
Deb
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