top of page
Taryn Mattern
2 min read

Giving Yourself a Little Grace: 3 Tips for Navigating Diet Culture & A Healthy Lifestyle

Dieting is so entrenched in our culture. It stems from unrealistic beauty standards and leaves many women (and men) struggling with disordered eating and having less regard for promoting genuine health than fitting a body image ideal. Given this societal context known as “diet culture”, it can be difficult to overcome yo-yo dieting and food restriction, both of which can disrupt your metabolism and create gut & hormone imbalances in your body, leaving us feeling mentally and physically sick and exhausted.


Giving yourself grace is about forgiveness, knowing that it’s okay to be imperfect, and that perfect is impossible for anyone to achieve. Self-criticism and shame, both around food and in other areas of your life, can be detrimental to your mental and physical health; whereas being kind and gentle with yourself can actually be extremely helpful in getting back to your natural cycles of eating and restoring your overall health! While it can be difficult to let go of an all-or-nothing mindset, especially for us perfectionists out there, it feels freeing to be rid of the stress and anxiety around food.


Ways to Practice Giving Grace:

1. Set small goals to start, and build from there

  • It can be daunting to overhaul your diet (and lifestyle) overnight, so setting small, manageable goals can be a good way to make sustainable progress. When picking your first few goals, try to define them within a time frame and keep them manageable for best chances of sticking to it!

2. Be real with yourself, no one is perfect and making a large shift in your life can and probably will be difficult

  • Letting yourself accept where you are will lead to less stress and ultimately help you to your goals in a more sustainable way.

3. Know that it’s okay to eat the things you enjoy!

  • Diet culture is a belief system that many of us have succumbed to, although to no fault of ours. It’s the ideals that we as a society place on body size and shape, prioritizing thinness over genuine health. Try not to let [this] diet culture influence you and make your diet overly restrictive, instead focus on filling your plate with nutrients to make you feel satisfied. Remember that nutrients can come from lots of different foods, including the slice of cake at your friend’s birthday party!

Are you wishing you could have a healthy, sustainable lifestyle but don't know where to start? Or are you feeling confused about nutrition & looking for exactly what to do to best fuel & nourish your body so you can feel your best? We can help!


Metabolism Reset is a women’s health group coaching program that helps you boost your metabolism & optimize your health & find food freedom with a healthy, sustainable lifestyle (without dieting!).


Doors close on October 2, 2022, so apply today & learn more here!






Comments

A tablet showing the cover to 5 Strategies to Boost Your Energy Today guide from Taryn Mattern, functional nutritionist, in a cozy scene with a plant and cup of coffee

5 Simple Strategies to Boost Your Energy

Try these simple and proven quick-win tactics to end your fatigue and start feeling like yourself again. 

 

To better serve you, I’ll add you to my mailing list, where you’ll receive monthly emails with more gut and hormone tips, stories, and solutions to help you return to your most confident self. You can always unsubscribe.

bottom of page