Why you shouldn’t diet this summer.
Summer is indulgent. After the cold and dark of winter, we want to be around community, friends, get together with people that we haven’t seen in a while.
Summer is for fair food, everything dipped in batter and fried, cold ice cream dripping down your sticky hands faster than you can lick it up.
Meanwhile, media and corporations are waiting for their opportunity to give their two cents and peddle their product helping us to “feel your best” this summer. They used to say “look your best” but they are keeping up with the current culture and continue to manipulate you with their messaging.
It’s not surprising to me that we’re still looking for and touting about miracle weight loss drugs meanwhile, not helping people understand why they can’t lose the weight to begin with.
They have taken what little bit of power you might think you had, and made you believe that you didn’t know better.
I am here to give you some clarity and information.
Why you’re not losing weight.
A stressed out body cannot lose weight. A stressed out body will retain weight, gain it, or rapidly lose it.
In order to digest your food and take in nutrients, you need to be relaxed. If you’re constantly eating on the go, undereating, or not eating at all, you’re triggering your stress response. Which stops your digestion and makes us feel less hungry. Tricking us into thinking we need to eat less, not more.
When food becomes so stressful for your body, it becomes a fixation, your body isn’t able to lose weight because it thinks you’re in a famine. You’re working with ancient technology and up until very recently, dying from hunger was a real threat that you faced as a human being.
Which is why diets only work short term. Diets are not sustainable for long term healthy metabolic weight. Diets stress out your brain and body and it gets more focused on food. Due to the brain’s fixation on the apparent lack of food, many people can actually cause weight retention or weight gain when theyre dieting.
Triggering a cascade of worry, fear, and anxiety about why your body isn’t losing weight. Because of the embarrassing nature of your weight, this stress is internalized and further compounds your negative beliefs that something must be fundamentally wrong with you.
Things to try this summer instead of dieting.
If you’re ready to lose weight this summer. Make peace with yourself first. Accepting reality and coming to terms with not being happy with where things are is the first step to fixing any problem.
Focus on how you want to feel…
When you take your dog for a walk
When you take your pants off at the end of the day
When you’re at the beach in a bathing suit that you like
Getting up from a chair to standing
Sitting on the sofa at home
You can endlessly improve yourself and your physical appearance. Elite athletes don’t ever stop working out. You need to teach your brain where to focus, so we can find a solution, not just stress about the problem.
Be cautious of extremism, find a middle ground.
Aim for something between being glued to the couch for days at a time to implementing 75 Hard challenge to give up after a few days. Starting a cycle of embarrassment, shame, fear, and panic, all feedback loops that don’t help your body to lose weight.
Add to your life, more than you take away.
Think about how you can add walks, new exercise classes, home cooked meals with friends and family.
We all have things we need to do less of. When we focus on those, we invite negativity and anxiety which can overwhelm and shut us down. Taking us even farther from where we want to be.
Make peace with your choices.
Be okay with the food you’re eating, whatever it is. Help your body see your food as fuel even when the fuel isn’t as high quality as you “think” it should be.
Remember, focusing on losing weight, is a distraction from the actual problem. Figuring out why you’re not losing weight or what behaviors are keeping you from your weight loss is the key to being healthy.
Accept your season of life.
Maybe you gave birth to your first baby last year.
Or you stopped taking birth control and your menstrual cycle is all over the place.
Our bodies naturally cycle with life’s seasons.
Even though it’s summer outside right now. You might be in your winter season. Acknowledge that, accept that you’re internal season doesn’t match up with what’s happening around you.
Give yourself permission to be comfortable.
If you’re not going to enjoy yourself at the beach in a two piece swimsuit find yourself a cute one piece.
If all your shorts are too tight from last year, get yourself some clothes that fit.
Dress yourself in a way that allows you to be present when you go to pool parties and bbqs with your friends and family.
Release trauma from your body.
Trauma gets stored in the body. If you have been working hard at weight loss with little results or you’re feeling like a yo-yo. It might be time for a therapy consult to see if you have trapped trauma in your body that is impeding your weightloss efforts.
With trauma therapy, you can safely release the stored trauma that is preventing you from losing weight or keeping the weight off.
My name is Nikole Layton and I'm a licensed therapist who specializes in working with women with anxiety, depression, PTSD, complex trauma, and dissociation.
I wrote this blog post to bring some more awareness and understanding to women about why diets and weight loss solutions aren’t working for them. In my work as a therapist, I have found that information is always a catalyst for healing.
