NO DIET DAY

Centre practitioner Franziska Cecchetti-Pretsch guest blogs todays edition on another way to look at the concept of No Diet Day

On 6^th May 2021, it is No Diet Day. But what does that actually mean?

As I work with clients who have issues around their bodies and battle with diets, I wanted to know more about how this day came about.

I learned that this day was first started by Mary Evans in 1992. The purpose of the day was to help men and women around the world to appreciate their own bodies. She wanted to educate people about the dangers of diets, having had anorexia herself, and to celebrate the diversity of different shapes and sizes.

When people come to me regarding their issues with their bodies, often they struggle to accept themselves as they are. They feel never good enough, even if they lose weight, as the issue is much deeper than on a body level. So trying to embrace their unique shape and loving their bodies or focusing on health rather than weight doesn't always stick with them in my experience. The problem is that then the spiral of guilt goes on and on where you try to lose weight and stick to a diet, but you don't achieve it or you can't keep it off and so you fail and feel guilty and this starts the spiral of dieting and gaining and losing weight again and again.

But when we look deeper into where the body issues come from, it becomes clearer to you why you feel the way you feel about your body. My systemic approach shows you the underlying issues underneath your body issues. This could be for example having experienced issues around food and weight in your childhood and having observed adults in your life going through body issues themselves. Or trying to fit in and having only been accepted in the past when you looked a certain way.

Or maybe you also come with deeper traumas such as abuse or any other trauma where others have overstepped your boundaries and so you feel that having more weight would protect you and your body in some way. This often happens unconsciously and you might wonder why you can't lose weight, but your body holds on to it because it serves as a matter of protection for you.

Whatever it is that causes you to have body issues, it's never too late to look what is causing them and to heal what wants to be healed. A different relationship with your body is totally possible. But often just focusing on having a more positive approach and looking at the outside doesn't bring long lasting changes. However bringing also the inner perspective into it and looking at the underlying issues can deeply heal and offer transformation and change in the long term.

My own take on No Diet Day is that I wish for our next generation to not worry about the way they look. This is why I am so passionate for us adults to heal our own body issues so that we can support our children in a way that allows them to just be who they are, whatever shape or size, however they want to look like. As what we carry as parents and adults around children has an impact on our children's emotional health. So what we can all do to contribute to a different way forward is to do our own inner healing work so that we don't' pass it on to the next generations.

And of course we also need a shift in society. The focus is often too much on looks and weight and size and what is accepted by society and what isn't. The diet industry makes huge amount of money from our insecurities and learned negative self images. We can decide for ourselves to change this, but it will need all of us to make it happen. There are very simple ways to do this day by day.

For example we can compliment people more on their unique talents and achievements, not on their looks. We can stop associating success somehow with being thin and looking a certain way. We can decide to look after our health and eat to support us in the best way rather than eating diet products that only bring money to the diet industry, but don't have a positive impact on our health. There are many different small things we all can do to make the change happen.

So if this resonates with you, I would love to hear from you. And if you feel that you could do with some support around body issues, then reach out. I offer a free 30 minutes call to explore further what you might need and how I can support you. There are so many people who suffer with body issues. Don't think that you are alone with this. My wish is that this No Diet Day can open you to reaching out and finding the right support for yourself to overcome your own body issues.

Franziska Cecchetti-Pretsch