Settle in friends, this is a long one..
I noted in my June “off the shelf” that The F*ck It Diet triggered all my triggers: my history with diet culture, body image, fatphobia, doctor avoidance, and more…
Here, I break it down, share what I learned, my current struggles, and the very real realization that I still see the fat girl I was when I shop for jeans.
Also mentioned: how the Whole30 screwed with my head, and how having hypothyroidism affects my perception of wellness vs. dieting.
MENTIONED
- Buy the Book on Amazon
- Find it at your local library via WorldCat
- Watch – June 2019 – off the shelf reviews
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marginalia and such 
Thanks for posting this! I’ve struggled so much with diet culture and body image and the conflict between wanting to lose weight vs wanting to treat my body well, and wondering why those two can’t go together or DON’T go together so often. This sounds like a great book to read and I’ve put myself on my library’s hold list. I hadn’t heard of orthorexia before and I find it very interesting. I recently read a book (The Eating Instinct) that talked about a lot of the same things, including a heavy critique of the clean-eating movement and the class privilege and eating disorders wrapped up in it. Makes me wonder if the author mentioned orthorexia and I just didn’t catch it, because she certainly talked a lot about conditions that would qualify under that umbrella. Anyway, I appreciate your ramblings on the subject because a lot of them are so relatable. Whole30 in particular ended up doing a lot of damage both to my body and my mental health despite the good things I learned from it. And it’s certainly interesting to have spent the 20 years of my adult life at weights that vary from just-slightly-underweight to morbidly-obese-size-24, to discover at exactly what weight line people start treating me differently, etc. It’s definitely a great conversation and I wish we could engage in person!
I’ll have to add The Eating Instinct to my list! It’s a hugely complex conversation once you start looking at it from all its varying sides — sociocultural, mental health, physical health, body image… it just goes on! W30 was so crucial in helping me discover my issues with corn, but the side effects really messed with my mind and body. 2 years later, I’m still battling obsessive thoughts. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go fully paleo and try to come out of it. The struggle of a few months still lingers and that line between wanting to lose weight and accepting myself is VERY slippery.
I know what you mean about people treating you differently. I’ve experienced it for myself and seen it in response to others. Also, the glorification of disordered eating. I constantly have to remove myself from conversations at work when it starts to dip into “all the ways in which I restrict” territory.
If I’m ever in Texas, you’ll be the first to know 🙂