Chapter 1:
Diet Mentality: The Mind-Body Connection That Keeps You Fat
The state of your mind is more important to reaching a state of health than
diet or exercise. It is
your subconscious and conscious mind working in unison
that will either support you or sabotage you on your journey.
Over the last century the popular definition of the word deit has changed dramatically. In the past the word meant
simply "...what a living being eats for sustenance," as in "A bird's diet consists mainly of seeds and berries."
In today's world the word diet has the power to evoke shivers, cringes, and severe mental anguish. Today diet
most often refers to any one of 1,000 plans or programs that require restriction and monitoring of food intake
for the purpose of losing weight-as in "I can't eat that; I'm on a diet." Being on a diet or dieting fosters an altered
state of mind usually becomes an integral part of the person's everyday thinking. Diet mentality is a state of mind
that affects not only the way you perceive your body and the food you nourish it with but also the way you perceive
your whole self: body, mind, and spirit.
Americans spend over $32 billion a year on diets and diet-related products. Money well spent if it led to creating
permanent, healthy changes in our lives. But it hasn't. America remains the fattest nation on earth, with an eith-pound
gain in the weight of the average American over the last 10 years. The key word here is permanent. The
multibillion-dollar diet industry is built on repeat customers. If diet programs resulted in permanent weight loss for
their clients, the programs would put themselves out of business. In any given year, approximately 75 percent of those
joining commercial weight loss programs are repeat customers! Why do we continue to do the same thing over and over again,
expecting different results? It is now very widely published that anywhere from 95 to 98 percent of people who lose
weight on a diet gain all that weight back within five years. It is very likely that 98 percent of peoplepicking up this
book have lived those statistics more than once! Almost all of us have dieted, and almost all of us have lost; lost time,
lost money, lost health, lost energy, lost our ability to metabolize normally, lost muscle mass, lost selfesteem, and
lost hope that we may ever feel or look good again.
Does any diet work? Yes, almost all of them do-temporarily. Diets are very successful at producing temporary
weight loss and all the temporary good feelings that go along with it. However, psyciologically and psychologically almost
every diet is doomed to fail. Physiologically, severe restrictions in food intake trigger in our bodies is called a
famine mode. To guarantee our survival, when the body senses a famine it (1)slows down its metabolism; (2)
conserves energy and readily stores fat; and (3)burns muscle as well as fat when it runs out of available calories.
This combination causes us to lose calorie-burning power with every bit of muscle that is lost and to burn fewer calories
and store fat more easily when we go off the diet. Each subsequent diet compounds these effects. This is why a person can
start dieting at 150 pounds and then 10 diets and 10 years later wiegh 200 pounds. This is in spite of the fact that the diets
were temporarily "successful" and that the dieter is eating less food at 200 pounds than she or he did at 150 pounds!
The effects are also devastating psychologically. When the fleeting success of a diet wanes and the pounds start
creeping back on no matter how "good" you are, panic sets in. Panic is followed by guilt. Guilt is followed by
body hate and sometimes starving and bingeing. Anger and self-recrimination may turn into an "I can do this"
burst of strength. But alas, this burst of strength is used to go on yet another new and improved diet, and
the cycle starts all over again. Thsi deit ->weight loss->weigh-gain->diet cycle, sometimes called yo-yo dieting,
is not at all benign. In the representation in Figure 1 you can see that this is not just a cycle; it is an insidious
downward spiral. A cycle is rather like a merry-go-round. You can choose to ride it once or you can choose to ride it
50 times, but either way, when you choose to get off you will be exactly where you started. In the case of dieting,
going around even once can leave your selfesteem, your muscle mass, and your metabolism at a lower point than
where you started. Each time you go around again you start at a lower point and end up even lower.
A Conversation with Diet Mentality
I am Diet Mentality, an insidious mind-set belonging to those of you who are constantly at war with your body.
I start out as a gentle ripple in your thoughts, a glance in the mirror, a look of disapproval, and the first diet is
case. With each and every diet, the thoughts rapidly grow in force and speed, a vortex circling downward. A black
hole that sucks the spirit out of those of you who diet and hate and diet and hate. I feed on your self-doubt; I feed
on your fears and insecurities. Possessed by the idea that you need to change your body to be OK, you reach out
to one more diet and are sucked into my thoughts ever more deeply.
I urge you to constantly look outside yourself for answers. I convince you that you are weak and cannot find the
answers in yourself. Not knowing what else to do, you reach out to dieting, starving, exercising over and over again.
Thoughts of your imperfect body cloud every moment of the day, crowding out any thoughts of happiness and joy.
You see a thin reflection in my pond and, grasping for the image, tumble head over heels into my putrid waters.
There is a stench about me, a stench of death, of spirits lost; anorexics, bulimics, the morbidly obese, the starved,
the stapled, the liposuctioned...Globs of hated fat are strewn throughout my waters.
To you who think my thoughts, a thin body is a god and a diet an offereing to that god: "Oh dear god of the
eternally thin body, If I starve myself, if I exercise relentlessly, if I'm good and follow to the letter
this 30-day plan, wilt thou look favorably upon me and bless me with a thin body forever?" "Of course I will,"
he laughs, "but only if you are willing to give me your spirt. Only if you vow to live a life totally
dedicated to physical perfection."
"I agree," says the dieter. "I agree to give up my spirit, my free will, my every waking thought, my happiness
and peace of mind. I agree to follow all of the tenets of diet mentality in exchange for the eternally thin body."
The Tenets of Diet Mentality
My worth as a human being is determined solely by the shape of my body.
I must at all times know what I weigh, and the quality of each day is determined by the number on my
bathroom scale.
I am unable to decide on my own when, where, what, and how much to eat. That must be determined for me by a diet.
Having an appetite is bad. I must supress my appetite at all costs, and when willpower is not enough I will use
drugs, fiber, methylcellulose-whatever works.
I should never feel hungry because if I do I might eat uncontrollably.
There ar GOOD foods and BAD foods. I should never eat bad foods.
If I do eat a bad food, I should feel guilty and ashamed.
A rewards means cheating on my diet.
If I go off my diet, I am a weak-willed cheater.
If I don't lose weight on my diet, there is something wrong with me, not the diet.
If I gain weight, I am bad.
If I do not lose weight, I should punish myself.
I need a diet program director to tell me when I've been bad and to pat me on the back when I am good.
I am loved only for the shape and size of my body.
I must live in constant fear that my body will blow up like a big, fat balloon.
My life must revolve around the shape and size of my body, food, diets, and exercise.
I must at all times hate my body and all of its imperfections.
HATE. That is what Diet Mentality feeds on:
Body hate
Insecurity
Fear
Mistrust
Ignorance
Low self-esteem
I am Diet Mentality. I clutter your mind so that you lose touch with who you truly are.
If you are in touch with your spirit, you cannot think my thoughts.
Dieting is a false prophet and thinness a false god. They offer nothing of lasting value.
You have everything you need to know within you. Everything, that is, except knowing that you know.
How do we get out of this spiral? How do we get out of this way of thinking? If we think differently, can we still
become slim, or do we have to settle for fat and happy? Can we recover the health and self-love that we have lost?
The answers are in this book. The most important step you can take now is to step out of the spiral. No matter how large
you are or how low your spirit is, decide to step out of the process of dieting and into the process of health.
Dieting has given you nothing. be willing to do something different. That something is to become naturally slim.
The key to getting out of the diet mentality is to develop a whole new mentality to replace it-the mentality of a
naturally slim person. Look to the people who are masters at being slim. The ones who have never dieted and who have
been slim all their lives. Don't just be envious. Watch them. They think and act in ways that keep them
healthy and slim, ways that you have long forgotten. They are masters of the art of slimness. They do not look
to books and magazines to tell them what to eat. Their choices of food and exercise come naturally. Their moves are part of
a mind-body-spirit connection that allows them to participate in their own health every moment of every day
without a second thought.
How and when did you get sucked into the diet mentality? The time and place were different for each of us. For some
of us it started when we were young children; for some of us it was in adolescence or at college. Others did not
start dieting until they had children or reached middle age. However, one thing I know for sure. None of you
were born thinking and eating the way you do now. Going back and understanding the way you thought and acted as
a child can give you some very good lessons in what we call natural, instinctive eating-that is, choosing and
eating foods instinctively, without guidelines or restrictions.
Opportunities for Growth
Awareness
When did you go on your first diet? Why? What were you thinking about yourself when you went on it?
When did you go on your last diet? Why? What were you thinking about yourself when you went on it?
Plot a general graph of your weight since you started dieting. Do you weigh more now than when you first started
dieting?
Do you know people who have never dieted or who have tried dieting once but couldn't stick to it?
Have they been at a healthy body weight most of their lives? Ask if you can talk to them
about how they think and how they choose foods and amounts.
Introspection
What do you need to do to convince yourself that another diet won't work and you are ready for something different?
Old Beliefs to Let Go
Every one of the "Tenets of Diet Mentality" is a belief to be let go. Read the tenets over. How many of them
do you own? Can you think of any more beliefs you've acquired through chronic dieting? Write them down.
New Beliefs to Embrace
I am ready, willing, and able to welcome change and growth into my life now.
I willingly release my preoccupation with food, weight, and body size.
I am now in the process of health.
Vividly Imagine
Imagine how you might feel mentally, physically, and emotionally if you were not barraged with diet mentality thoughts
all day long.
Patterns for Action
Take mostly mental action right now. Begin to appreciate the value of awareness and intospection. Be willing
to make them part of your everday thinking.
If you feel like doing something physical, take any or all of the tenets of diet mentality and rewrite them
as positive, present-tense statements that support your desire to think in a different way. These positive statements
will become New Beliefs to Embrace.
Additional Reading
Munter, Carol, and Jane Hirschman. Overcoming Overeating.
Schwarts, Bob. Diets Don't work.
Stacy, Michelle. Consumed-Why Americans Love, Hate and Fear Food.
Triboli, Evelyn, M.S., R.D., and Elyse Resch, M.S., R.D. Intuitive Eating.
