Understand that food does not have moral value, meaning all foods are morally equivalent. This approach, supported by science, reduces obsession and fixation on ‘forbidden’ foods, and helps reconnect with natural hunger and fullness cues.
Shift your thinking from ‘I feel bad about my body’ to ‘I’m in a culture that has taught me to feel bad about my body.’ This helps by putting the blame on industries and cultural norms, rather than on yourself.
Start to notice when you make assumptions about people based on their body size (e.g., less informed, less qualified, less active). Ask yourself if you would make similar assumptions if the person was marginalized in a different way to challenge your bias.
Employ mindfulness skills to notice uninvited thoughts and judgments about others’ bodies. Allow these thoughts to come and go without acting on them or criticizing yourself too much, which can help turn the dial towards sanity.
Consciously stop and notice the origin and underlying reasons for negative thoughts about your own body before verbalizing them. This practice can help change the internal voice and improve your relationship with yourself.
Make a conscious decision to stop dieting and critically examine what you consider ’not a diet.’ Be aware that focusing on ‘whole foods’ or counting steps can still be subtle ways of engaging with diet culture, triggering a toxic relationship with your body.
Evaluate exercise based on how it makes you feel in your body, rather than external goals like body shape or weight loss. If a workout feels impossibly hard, causes guilt for skipping, or requires dramatic dietary changes, its mental cost may outweigh physical benefits.
Before exercising, set an intention focused on internal benefits like strength, happiness, or calmness, rather than body size or weight loss. This helps shift motivation towards sanity and allows for a more comprehensive view of your relationship with your body.
Grant yourself full permission to eat all foods without restriction. This radical shift can initially lead to eating previously forbidden foods, but over time, it allows you to tune into true likes and dislikes and trust your body’s wisdom.
Recognize that your body is inherently smart and possesses instincts for hunger and fullness. Work to uncover and trust these buried instincts, even if diet culture has suppressed them.
Recognize that the vast majority of binge eating is caused by restriction, whether conscious dieting or subtle under-fueling due to busyness. Addressing restriction is key to resolving binge-eating patterns.
As a parent, actively work to understand and unlearn your own anti-fat bias. This prevents you from inadvertently passing on harmful messages to your children that their body is the problem or that fatness is something to be prevented or corrected.
When feeding children, avoid pressure and restriction around food, as research shows this breeds fixation and disordered eating. Instead, give kids space to explore different foods on their own terms.
Use the Division of Responsibility model (e.g., Ellen Satter’s approach) to provide structure around mealtimes. Parents decide what foods are offered and when, while children decide what and how much to eat from the options, fostering trust in their bodies.
At mealtimes, serve a range of foods, including some you know your kids enjoy and some they are still learning about. Avoid making kids finish specific foods (like Brussels sprouts) to get dessert, as this teaches dislike rather than love for the food.
Trust that children, given the right structure and freedom, are capable of cueing into their own hunger and fullness. This approach fosters confidence and safety in their bodies, rather than programming them to rely on external diet rules.
If struggling with a clinical eating disorder, seek full support from a medical team, therapist, or dietician, as this is a true mental health struggle that cannot be overcome by positive thinking alone.
Actively curate your social media feeds to reduce exposure to messages that promote diet culture or body ideals. This makes it easier to recognize and dismiss messages that are not aligned with your values.
When choosing fitness activities, seek out creators and environments that approach exercise from a weight-inclusive perspective. This helps avoid instructor chatter or messaging that triggers negative body image or diet culture motivations.
When experiencing anxiety about clothing fit or style, reframe it as a systemic issue with the fashion industry rather than a personal failing of your body. This helps shift blame from yourself to the external system.
When discussing weight loss approaches like Ozempic, listen to diverse perspectives from fat people, especially those with different lived experiences (e.g., diabetes). Avoid making broad claims that ignore individual health decisions or inadvertently reinforce bias.