Diet....Do You Try It?

Diet...Do You Try It?

by Vig


I was put on my first diet when I was twelve years old. At that time I remember being just fine with the way I was and when I see pictures now, I think I was kind of cute and looked fairly typical for that age. My mom, however, felt I needed to lose twenty pounds and said she would give me twenty dollars if I did. I was totally motivated by money; twenty dollars in 1971 was a lot of money. I lost the twenty pounds, won the twenty dollars and also won a body image that forever after felt imperfect.

I have spent a good deal of my adult life trying to change my body and to correct what I have had difficulty seeing as being fine just the way it is. Diet after diet has failed and has always led to gaining back the weight plus just a little more for good measure. After doing Weight Watchers, Diet Centre, Adkins. Scarsdale, the cabbage soup diet, Eat to Live, master cleanses, and listening to Richard Simmons, Susan Powter, Oprah, Suzanne Somers and all of their fitness gurus, I have come to the conclusion that I actually know what I need to do for myself, as most people do.

As a vegetarian, I have spent a lot of time researching what I should be eating to be healthy and I have a good idea of what my body needs. And I know for sure I have to do what Rosie has always said: move more, eat less. Just as importantly, I should be looking at the reasons that I eat and how that is informed by how I feel about my body and by what I have experienced. Examine what, when and why I eat what I eat. The triggers! And it has been interesting when I have done that and have examined the major events in my life and the loss that I have suffered (whether it be through death or failed relationships), there is always a considerable weight gain very soon after.

Consumption of comfort food allows for stuffing the feelings way, way down. And I think that women have been taught that this is an acceptable way to deal with things but then are chastised when their bodies change and they don’t fit the ideal of the perfect woman.

Male Owlettes, I think I am probably wrong in assuming that it might just be women who get caught in that trap. And all Owlettes (if it is not too personal) how do you deal with food? Is food just food for you or is it tied into other things or emotions? What is your experience with diets and the pressure that is put into dieting and looking a particular way?