Episode 011: 5 Ways to Battle Toxic Diet Culture!

It’s that time of the year, where unfortunately we’re inundated with unhealthy messages about transformations. While I believe in working on yourself and self-love, I’m not a fan of the toxic diet culture that seems to live everywhere this time of the year.

Join me in this episode as I share 5 ways to battle toxic diet culture not only this month, but all year round!

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Battling Toxic Diet Culture

1. Check who you follow on social media. (1:27)
2. Update Facebook ad preferences to not show you ads that are diet & weightless ads. (3:17)
3. Take time to journal or write. (5:50)
4. Unsubscribe from emails that are sending you transformation messages for the new year. (7:37)
5. Take a look at your friendships and what they’re saying about bodies; then step up and say something. (8:30)

Review the Transcript

Welcome to some place for everybody where we talk about belonging and being a human in our bodies and living in and learning to love our bodies. I’m your host, Carly someplace. This podcast is brought to you by someplace Images, Boudoir for everybody, you can see the full show notes at some place for everybody.com. Now let’s change some self perspectives

Happy New Year, y’all. It’s Carly someplace and I am coming at you with just a little bit of realness. This time of year is really hard for a lot of people. And the biggest thing that you’re seeing in advertising right now I’m sure is New Year New you or take the steps to transform yourself this year. 2022 is the best year for you. And all of this really toxic diet culture and like, you know, complete transformation culture is, it’s so toxic, it’s so absolutely ridiculous that we need to reinvent ourselves every single year. And we need to be a new, better person. And we need to be, you know, thinner, to be happier and to be all of these things. And I think that it’s a really hard thing to battle. So today, I just want to give you five quick tips of battling diet culture, within your own life within this new year. So the first thing that I’m going to advise that you do that is really huge.
And I honestly advise that you do this every month of the year, not just January, is to check who you follow on social media, specifically on Instagram is what I’m talking about. If you’re following accounts that are like, Oh, it’s you know, the beginning of the year, let’s start getting our bikini bodies ready. If people are using mentalities and wording like that, generally, it’s not a safe space for body acceptance in any way. Or even body neutrality, and being able to follow accounts that show diversity in your feed of different body types. And show you just all different body types in in every form in every gender. And I think that that’s so incredibly important. So truly like going through clicking onto your Instagram going up to the the who you follow tab, and being able to look through that and see if those accounts are still serving you in the best way possible. If they’re not, then unfollow them, if it’s somebody who’s incredibly close to you, and it would be, you know, hurt feelings and different things like this, you can push the mute button, you can control that you don’t see their things. And if they ask you about it, oh, hey, you haven’t seen any of my stuff on Instagram lately, just say sorry, I’m spending a little bit more time offline this year, there’s so many ways to take this and be able to put a spin on it. But you don’t need to be seeing things in your Instagram feed. When we get into these scrolling modes of just everything coming in and overwhelming you you don’t need that. You don’t need that I promise. So go ahead and edit through your entire Instagram account. That’s step one. Number two, is pertaining particularly to Facebook. So while what you interact with in general, both on Instagram anywhere on the internet, and on Facebook is going to show you ads, there are a lot of things that happen with that.

But one of the important things to know is that you can actually go into any ad you like, and you can ask it to not show you that ad. And specifically, you can say I do not want to see ads like this. So if you go in, there’s the three little dots on the corner of any ad or anything like that, or and it’ll say why am I seeing this, you can go in and edit the information and edit the information that companies see about you. What you’ve looked at different things like this. And if you want them to show you ads or similar ads, so if these are all diet and weight loss ads, or if these are all toxic, whatever, the one that I got an ad for for forever, and it drove me crazy was one of the like, belly shapers like look at this person who has I don’t know, a stomach and oh my goodness. And then if you just pull this thing up, and it’s accident, so tight it look, you’ll look so much better in this body con slimming dress, I don’t care. And I saw that ad every single day, every single day in Facebook. And it was so frustrating to me to see it that I finally went in and changed all of my ad preferences. So I wasn’t seeing things like that at all. And I don’t mind interacting with other places that I’m going to get ads from that are clothing brands or whatever that show body inclusivity. That’s one of my biggest things. But if there’s these companies that are only showing stick thin models that’s not inclusivity in any way and if it’s something that It is being targeted directly at you because you’ve purchased something or you’ve talked about something or any of the way that adds track. And it’s something that’s triggering for you, you can go in and you can make that ad disappear. And I highly encourage it.

So, you’ve heard me tease you about that big sleepover that we’re planning for the women of the someplace for everybody conference, right? It’s Hobbit someplace for everybody conferences happening in Miami, Florida, October 6 through ninth in 2020. To grab your ticket today at some place for everybody.com. To connect with a supportive community focused on personal healing and self love, and hear from astonishing lineup of speakers. We can’t wait to see you at this women only conference. So don’t forget to grab your ticket and learn more about the conference at some place for everybody calm. So the third thing is a little bit more personal. So I highly recommend at the same year, though, I recommend it again, also all year round, I recommend taking time to journal or to write or to however you want to do it. So this time of quote unquote, transformation. And I really want you to take this time of transformation. And see where you can transform things within yourself that have absolutely nothing to do with your body and everything to do with your heart. And what you want to do and what you feel like your purpose is. So being able to take a hard look at inner things instead of outer things. But here’s why I’m suggesting that you journal by using a journal or one of my other favorite things is sticky notes. But using sticky notes and being able to write down something every single day, you are kind you are beautiful in inside and out you I love my eyes I love write yourself compliments, write yourself things that you want to accomplish, that don’t have to do is wait and put them in a place where you’re going to see them.

If you’re using a journal. It’s something that when you go to write in it the next day, you’re going to see the previous days, and things like that, it doesn’t have to be a lot. This can just be one line, one line of self encouragement, or self love as as neutral as you wanted to make it. I think my body today for moving I think my body today for doing these things. However simple, you want to make it those things when you’re reading them over and over again, as you open these pages to move on to the next day. Seeing that repetition is extremely powerful in our own mind. And not all and not any of that really needs to focus on our body, we can focus on that quote unquote, transformation, and seeing how we can better transform for ourselves to love ourselves better. Number four, this is another it’s a lot of it’s digital, we live in a really digital world. Go into your inbox and unsubscribe from emails that are sending you New Year New you that are sending you try these top five diet tips, or you know, this is the best weight loss plan this is whatever. For me, all of those pretty much landed in junk mail already. But if you have things that are coming into your inbox like that, I highly suggest going through and just taking them out, just go in and unsubscribe, take a couple hours one afternoon, turn on Netflix in the background and go ahead and and subscribe from things that aren’t serving you in your inbox. This is a great exercise to do anyways in clearing and decluttering and taking out things that aren’t serving you in any way. But specifically if they’re making you feel shame about your body in your inbox, where you are pretty much every day along with Facebook and Instagram. And so then this number five is going to be the hardest. And I really think that this is a really big battle against diet culture is speaking about it. But I really want number five to say, take a look at your friendships. Take a look at what the people around you are saying about bodies, how they’re speaking about bodies, both their own, and others. And this is really important because it can be really hard to outwardly love ourselves. It comes across specifically as being very,

I don’t even know say calm, confident yet it is it does come off across as confidence. But it also really comes across as arrogance. I really love myself. That’s something that like when somebody says that it takes you aback because we’re not used to hearing people say it and let that sink in. We are not used to hearing people say that they like themselves, or that they love themselves. And it’s like revolutionary when we do. And so while it may be hard to find a group of people who automatically just says those things. The people that you surround yourself with, really have an impact on the way that you think because you’re seeing what they’re saying you’re in taking that and then reflecting it on yourself. And if they’re speaking negatively about bodies or different body types, it may be time and you’re you’re sitting there and you have thoughts That’s about it and you have guilt about it and you have different things and you don’t think those ways, it may be time to really reevaluate those things. And here’s the really hard part, this is a 5.5, step up and say something and make them realize that speaking about bodies, that aren’t their own speaking, even even crassly, and rudely about their own bodies, is so negative, and it doesn’t help anybody.

It’s really hard to speak up on that subject. And it’s really hard to take a look at those friendships and see if they’re still serving you and if they’re still worth it. But I honestly can say that the mental well being that comes from being surrounded by people who only encourage and uplift others period, not dependent on their body, their body size, the number in their genes, the color of their skin, the gender that they are, if you’re around people who uplift others because they want to uplift others. It is so earth shattering. So earth shattering and that is how we make this world a better place. So until next time, be kind to yourself. Thanks so much for listening to someplace for everybody. If you love this episode, would you mind leaving me a review in your favorite podcast app and subscribe to the show. If you’re looking for a community to love on you and support you in your self love Journey, come join our all gender Facebook group someplace for everybody which can be found in the show notes at someplace for everybody.com Until we meet again, be kind to yourself.