Jenna Hollenstein dropped this massive truth bomb when we caught up earlier this week and I've been stewing on it ever since.
When living in a disordered culture, people adapt to that disorder.
Here are just a few ways our culture is disordered around food and body weight.
You go to Crossfit and the owners are promoting a diet where you don't eat food until 11am. They also sell supplements to help you "not be hungry". That's disordered.
The company you work for brings in Weight Watchers to encourage their employees to lose weight. Weight Watchers is a diet, diets have a 5% efficacy rate. By joining Weight Watchers you are increasing your likelihood of long term weight GAIN. That's disordered.
You watch your favorite show on TV and notice the constant thread of diet commercials. Each commercial lies and tells you this isn't a "diet", it's a lifestyle and everyone can do it. That's disordered.
When you were in elementary school, the school nurse weighed you and spoke your weight out loud for everyone to hear. That's disordered.
Family members comment on your weight and tell you they just want to motivate you to be healthy. That's disordered.
While eating out, calories are listed on each menu item. There is no research available to suggest listing calories changes people's behavior. Regardless. That’s disordered.
You join a large group of friends and acquaintances out to eat and a few of them talk openly about their latest diet. While they are at it, they comment in a demeaning way on the size of a stranger's body. This all seems normal and familiar. That's disordered.
You talk to a health coach and they tell you that a certain food group is causing your chronic illness. They unload massive amounts of reasons why, but don't have any valid research to back up their claim. It's hard to un hear this. That's disordered.
It's all disordered. And we are all trying to just survive in this disorder. You may even try to do “disordered” better, like move from diet to diet, eliminate more food groups from your diet, and stay fixated on your body weight.
Without seeing the disorder, it's understandable why we are trying to fit ourselves into the disordered culture. But instead of trying to fit into the disorder, we need to see, name and disconnect with the disorder around us.