Hello, Satisfied Soul!

Are you looking for the door—the way out of the endless cycles in diet culture? Or maybe you didn’t know there was a diet culture or an exit door. If you have found yourself in a trap of endless dieting cycles, and you know the Lord, He has promised a way out. Dieting to lose the weight works but dieting to keep it off is not the answer—it’s just going deeper into diet culture and repeating the cycle by dieting again and again. Once I saw the trap and learned there was a way out, I sprinted to the exit door and bid farewell to Diet Culture. I’m enjoying a Lifestyle of Freedom maintaining the weight I lost. I’m free and want the same for you.

It’s been a long road to freedom—desperately searching for clues and answers along the way. Many have promised relief but there was no relief to be found. Thankfully, the answers I found are simple, and being in relationship with God seals the deal. He is the One that shows us the door and helps keep it shut. I can’t wait to tell you how He showed me the ways I was not connected to Him and was in fellowship with food instead.

My journey into diet culture started early as a pre-teen. Growing up and into my adult years, dieting was the only way I knew to move the scale—move the scale I did! Up and down, over and over again. If I’d have known of another way, I would probably have rejected it because I was completely convinced that dieting was the only way to reach my goal weight.

I couldn’t help thinking this way because I grew up in the 70s and 80s when new diets were all the rage. Do any of these sound familiar? The Grapefruit Diet, The Rice Diet, 1,200 Calorie Diet, Low Carbohydrate Diet, Mayo Clinic Diet, The Scarsdale Diet, Dexatrim Diet Pills, and the Ayds Reducing Plan. I’m sure you’ve heard of or even tried some of these since they cycle around ever so often.

Although not fat, I compared my adolescent body to the lean adult models in magazines and catalogs hoping to obtain their stylish physique. Unsatisfied with my body and with so many diets promising success, I happily plunged into diet after diet. This began the journey that lead me to years of success and failure causing me to develop many bad habits, insecurities, and wrong beliefs about myself that I carried into adulthood.

It’s been a long journey deep into the diet culture. As soon as I realized at age 52 that I was still battling the very same problem I started out with in the 70s, I looked for the way out of this endless, dead end  cycle of bondage.

To begin with, it had not occurred to me that I was in bondage. I thought I lacked willpower and that I was a failure. My prayers had been for strength and asking God to help me in my efforts. Truthfully, I thought God was not interested in my weight issues because it seemed vain. That sounds funny to me now!

With God as my guide, I began to see the detailed way He designed me to be at my most beautiful body size. I’m not talking about trying to make peace with myself without losing the necessary pounds to reach a healthy weight. He showed me that our bodies, souls, and spirits each have a special role to play when we are ready to leave the shackles of bondage and embrace freedom. Typically, we focus on our body alone to give us results and answers for weight loss, but this is a team effort and your mind and spirit have major contributions to make as well.

Satisfied. That’s me now because I’m succeeding without endless diet cycles, and I want you to be satisfied too. It’s time to exit Diet Culture. Let me show you how!