“This May 6, put away your scale and form a new relationship with the person in the mirror for International No Diet Day. For so many people, and especially women, unattainable body standards and pressure have prompted eating disorders, low self-esteem, bullying, and unhealthily restrictive diets.”
The previous quote from National Today isn’t about eating Cheetos on May 6th until your fingers are an inch deep with cheese dust. It’s about taking a moment to evaluate whether your idea of health and beauty is sound and healthy. Or is your idea of health and beauty based on images and ideas that are not only subjective– they’re dangerous to pursue.
Beauty Through the Ages: Subjectivity at Its Finest
The word diet originally meant “habitually taken food and drink.” Now, the word diet triggers thoughts of temporary food and drink restriction. The evolution of the word diet parallels the evolution of the world’s beauty standards in that the evolution is not an improvement. Consider how far the beauty standards of women traveled over the years:
Ancient Greece (c. 500-300 B.C.)
Ideal woman: “plump, full-bodied, light skin”
Italian Renaissance (c. 1400-1700)
Ideal woman: “ample bosom, rounded stomach, full hips, fair skin”
Victorian England (c. 1837-1901)
Ideal woman: “desirably plump, full-figured, cinched-waist”
Heroin Chic (c. 1990s)
Ideal woman: “waifish, extremely thin, translucent skin, androgynous”
Postmodern Beauty (c. 2000s- Today)
Ideal woman: “flat stomach, ‘healthy’ skin, large breasts & butt, thigh gap”
How did the world go from using words like ‘plump’ to describe an ideal woman to the currently accepted standard of beauty that says, “women are expected to be skinny, but not too skinny, with large breasts and a big butt, all while maintaining a flat stomach?” Experts even say that “women increasingly are seeking plastic surgery ‘fixes’ to achieve this [postmodern beauty] look.” Top all that with the fact that “filters, Facetune, and other augmented-reality tools allow us to shape-shift our faces more than ever,” and it’s easy to see why the world needs an International No Diet Day.
Nutrients Improve Your Health, Not Social Media & Filters
Take a moment to think about how the filter-fied social media, magazines, movies, and the world affect your confidence, body image, and the way you eat. As associate psychology professor at Hope International University in California, Dr. Peace Amadi, points out, “there’s a well-established link between social-media usage and psychological concerns. Instagram has been tied to anxiety and depressive symptoms, but also to concerns such as anxiety related to physical appearance, increased body dissatisfaction, and lower self-esteem.”
Beauty is subjective but what your body needs is not. Spend less time chasing an idea of beauty that continues to change and more time embracing you and your health. Treat your body to quality supplements, like EMPowerplus Advanced, that give it the fuel it needs to perform at its best, instead of treating your body to a daily dose of negative self-judgment. EMPowerplus Advanced starts your day on a healthy footing; negative self-judgment does not.
International No Diet Day is about dedicating an entire day toward avoiding the places, people, and situations that make you feel self-conscious. Reflect on how you feel after a day of self-love. That’s right; no comparing yourself to others and stressing about the very things that make you uniquely beautiful. Couple that effort with fueling your body with the nutrients it needs, and the results are undeniably addictive.
Beauty & Health Are Inside Jobs
Loving yourself and putting your mental and physical health first catapults you toward happiness and the life you deserve. There’s a famous phrase that goes as follows: Beauty is an inside job. And the same concept works for health. You can not have radiant skin, incredible energy, and a healthy mind and body without a healthy inside.
It’s time to take back the original definition of diet. Your diet is your lifestyle, not a short moment of time that you restrict something. Enough with pursuing healthy efforts with an expiration date of those efforts in mind– this only leads to limited results that often are reversed with time. Set your sights on pursuing a healthy lifestyle, and this includes healthy choices in the food and beverages you consume and healthy choices in how you perceive and present yourself.
Don’t shortchange yourself by operating below your best and comparing yourself to others. Stand tall and live your life with pride.
Author: Evelyn Lindell
Certified Health & Wellness Coach